For those who are members of the Xbox Insider program, they can from Today see with the latest test version that the boot time on a full boot has been reduced by about 5 seconds for Xbox Series X/S consoles. Microsoft has managed to speed up the boot time by creating a shorter boot animation.
Microsoft confirmed the changes last Friday. Josh Munsee, Xbox marketing manager, says the company created "a shorter animation (~4 seconds) compared to the original animation we see at startup (~9 seconds), helping to reduce the overall time it takes for users to access their console." Surprisingly, the improvements in boot time are not limited to Microsoft's latest consoles but also to the previous generation, the Xbox One where in this case the boot time is also significantly faster than before.
Xbox owners will only benefit from faster boot times if they have their consoles set to Energy Saver Mode instead of Standby mode. Energy Saver Mode means that the console turns off completely instead of entering standby mode. This means you can't start the game as soon as you turn on the console, but Energy Saver Mode is kinder to your power bills and the planet.
Microsoft's changes will make it faster to boot into Energy Saver mode, reducing the startup process for Xbox Series X/S from about 20 seconds to about 15 seconds (including the time between pressing the power button and the animation appearing). This makes the Energy Saver feature even more appealing, especially since for a few months now Microsoft has declared it the default option for every new console. This feature was added alongside it for the ability to download updates in the background.
