I've owned one for two years now since they released. Did you buy it used or new? I'm only asking because a new machine should have been up to date with everything but the very newest updates. A used machine may have sat for a while with no updates. Regardless there is always a "day one patch" and, they did roll out a really big patch recently (last couple of days) with a whole new interface and it was about 6 GB in size, which is nothing to sneeze at, but some games if you choose as digital downloads, are 50 gigs in size, so having a strong internet connection for it or the PS4 for that matter makes a huge difference. Either you have mediocre internet (which I know a lot of people have no control over depending whats offered in the area) or you could possibly have an issue with the wireless card in the machine. Do you connect directly to your router, or over wifi? It's also possible that your machine was taking all the first time updates along with trying to take that massive new update at the same time as everyone else was downloading it. It only makes me curious as it really doesn't have updates that often at all, especially the big ones like this week's.
My X1 connects to the internet through wifi, and that router is two floors below the machine, and I've never had downloads take that long. I bought Elder Scrolls and that 60 GB download took about 40 mins tops while I was playing something else. Granted taking a community update the day it rolls out does take longer when everyone else is doing the same right after school and bogging the network. A couple best practices is when you first hook up the machine, setup can take about 30 mins to get everything humming, and if there are any big patches, put it updating/downloading and walk away. Same if you know a big community update is dropping on a certain day, if you are home and the update hits at 11 am (as they usually do), turn on the machine to start the update and again, just walk away and let it go at it. Even if it takes a few hours, it will be ready to play when you are done with stuff later.
Overall I've had a blast with the machine. I own a PS4 also, but play the Xbox more because most of friends/family have the Xbox, so we play together on there. I use my PS4 mostly for PS exclusive stuff which are great as well. Both machines are like having computers in the living room. They are worlds beyond the stuff we grew up with. My Xbox has my TV cable antenna hooked into to as well so I can have a tv program/football game playing in a 70/30 split screen while playing a game with my nephew across the country and chatting with him live on the headset. Another friend/family comes online and it notifies us and we can toss and invite to just the chat to have them come in to visit with us or send a game invite as well if they own the same multiplayer game and it drops them right into the game with us.
There are apps for all the major streaming services you may have accounts for like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Sling TV, Plex, NFL Network and after signing in you can stream their content straight to the box as well. If you have cable, you can hook your cable box in to it, or if you cut the cord like I did you can still run your antenna to it through a third party adapter like
this tuner and it will use the machine's built in tv guide just like a cable box. It is also a Blu-ray player. So while is most definitely is a big machine (think 80's vcr big) it can be a centerpiece device in the living room, meaning you don't need as much room for all the other streaming devices or dvd players.
In the end I love it, as I do the PS4. I don't think you can go wrong with either. If people are debating one as a gift and they aren't sure which, I'd go with whichever most of their friends are using if playing together is a big deal. If they aren't worried so much about playing with others than base it on which exclusive games they play more. If they are Halo and Gears of Wars fans, than Xbox One is the choice. If Uncharted, The Last of Us, Final Fantasy fans, then PS4 is the choice. Most of the rest of the common games come out for both. It's hard to go wrong.
