At the E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) press conference Microsoft finally revealed the much rumored Xbox Slim, which has been simply dubbed The New Xbox 360.
The most striking difference that startles the viewer is the look of the machine. Microsoft seems to have jumped a huge heap of sand and finally reached the design with a glossy black finish. The new console sports an angular look unlike the curvy design of the previous model. The new Xbox 360 is slimmer and sleeker.
As the name suggests, the new console features a 250GB internal. The hard drive is just perfect for downloading and storing HD movies, games, game add-ons, music and more. But there are already 360s available with that capacity, so it’s hardly a game changer.
As for the hard drive, it’s easily removable and is quite small–much smaller than the current external lump hard drive. You can’t use this with older Xbox 360s, and you can’t use older Xbox 360s’ hard drives with this. To transfer your hard drive from your old console, you can either use a standard old 16GB USB drive or do it chunk by chunk, or you can use the old hard drive transfer cable (it works with the new internal hard drive).
According to Microsoft, the new Xbox 360 is `whisper quiet’; letting users play games and watch movies without interference. But this is just at boot up, with no DVD spinning and nothing really happening. It’ll definitely get louder when you play it more, and the DVD will be noisy when that’s spinning, but just compared to the boot up on the current Xboxes, it’s very quiet. To bring down the noise levels, the company is said to have replaced the two small fans with a single larger fan.
Xbox 360 Wireless Controller matches the console in all black with color-matched thumb sticks and directional pad with a touch of gloss and chrome to complete the look. The console offers a library with wide array of games for every skill and style, plus HD movies and TV.
The controller is slightly changed, with chrome Xbox button, the Xbox logo on the back, and squared off shoulder buttons, which don’t change game play but give it a more angular aesthetic feel. The angularity is also evident in the Xbox 360 itself, which Microsoft said that they updated to match the look of modern AV equipment, which are usually black and glossy and chrome.
With built-in Wi-Fi 802.11n, users can easily connect to Xbox LIVE and play with friends across the world.
There is a Kinect-specific connector in the back, in addition to the 3 standard USB2 ports already there. The Kinect connector is just a USB port with more power, so you don’t need a separate power supply like you would if you used Kinect with an older Xbox 360. There is also a `custom Kinect port’ on the back. Custom Kinect port directly hooks up to the Kinect sensor for controller-free fun.
It will cost the same as the current elite.
News has also come that Microsoft has also announced a deal with ESPN to broadcast live sporting events in the US through the Xbox 360.
The specifications can be briefed as:-
– Touch sensitive on/off and eject buttons (like the PS3)
– “Much quieter”
– 250GB internal hard drive.
– A custom Kinect port (not a standard USB port–it’s a USB port that can feed more power)
– There are five USB ports now, with three in the back and two in the front
– AV cable included, an HDMI and optical audio
– It’s still big but nearly weightless
– External Xbox 360 hard drives and memory units are NOT compatible with the new Xbox
– Internal components that are changed: two small fans changed into one large fan for quieter operation, 45nm integrated CPU and GPU
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The writer is a Tech-Columnist with Youth Ki Awaaz.