Last month, at the E3 entertainment show in Los Angeles, CA, Microsoft unveiled a new slimmer, and considerably more silent Xbox 360. The new unit is selling for $299, with notable features such as integrated Wi-Fi and the inclusive 250GB hard drive.
It has been almost 5 years since the original Xbox 360 was released in November of 2005, and over the past years Microsoft has released several different Xbox 360 bundles and in the process upped the storage capacity from the initial 20GB, to 60GB to120GB on the Xbox Elite. Ultimately over the years, the Xbox 360 Arcade replaced the Xbox 360 Core System and the 20GB version is often referred to as the “Xbox 360 Pro” or “Xbox 360 Premium”. Although the Xbox Elite is a black console (it has a matte black finish), until now all of the Xbox 360 revisions were minor and had the same core and overall design.
The new Xbox 360 “Slim” or referred to as Xbox 360 S for the technically inclined is simply marketed as the Xbox 360 by Microsoft. This new Xbox replaces all of the “old” Xbox 360 models: effectively the Xbox 360 Core, Xbox 360 Pro, Xbox 360 Premium, Xbox 360 Elite and Xbox 360 Arcade are now discontinued.
From the outside the new Xbox 360 250GB box looked just like the regular Xbox 360 packaging, just a little bit smaller of course. Usually unboxing can be pretty boring and I am not sure what the fascination is with “unboxing” new products but in this case we've gotta tell you: it felt good.
The complete inventory of all the parts that are included:
Unlike the previous Xbox models there was no included Ethernet cable, this is probably because the new Xbox 360 has a built-in 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi. Another gripe with the new Xbox 360 S is that it does not ship with any HDMI cables or any type of HD cable.
The new Xbox 360 “Slim” could almost be classified as a totally NEW Xbox. The obvious change is its looks. The most notable change from the original is of course the look of the external case itself. The white, matte shell has been swapped out for a black glossy casing. Something else that I noticed right away is that the power button has been redesigned to an indentation that comes to a point. In all the old models you had to actually press and click the power button, the new 360 however, is touch-sensitive and requires no pressure, just swoosh your finger past the power and the console comes to life. Now, there is even a sound to let the user know that the command is understood and accepted. The same is true for the disc tray, as the button has been moved from the side, and placed above.
It is understandable that Microsoft wanted to really emphasize that the new 360 is not just a small upgrade from the original and probably that is the reason they went in the opposite direction with the case color, however, the shiny black casing is prone to gathering, dust, fingerprints, and smudges.
The new 360 features fives USB ports with two on the front and three on the rear. Looking at the rear of the Xbox 360 S console, we find the new auxiliary port for Microsoft's new Kinect hands-free motion control system. This port is a powered port, this means that Kinect will draw power from the console unit. Those using Kinect with the older 360s will need to connect to external power. Then there is the standard HDMI and Ethernet out as well as an upgraded digital audio port that accepts TOSLINK S/PIF optical input standard on all models.
The 360’s AC power supply unit aka power brick has been revised. The new unit, Model # CPA09-010A is smaller and feels a lot less clumsy and not as awkward as the original. The old Xbox 360 and new 360 S power supply are not interchangeable.
In terms of dimensions, the new 360 is smaller than the original by roughly an inch and a half to two-inches. The main reason for this size reduction is due to the fact that the hard drive is no longer the side of the console, the Xbox 360 S keeps the 250 GB hard drive inside of it’s tummy. No worries, it is still removable “no tools required”, just not as easily as before.
The hard drive is now located behind a panel on the side, and to remove it, you need to pull on a fabric tab that in turn releases a button to unlock the hard drive.
Note that the legacy (“gray”) 20 GB, 60 GB, 120 GB and 250 GB from the old Xbox 360 is not compatible with the new Xbox 360 S console. The new Xbox 360 S Hard Drive is presumably still a 2.5” SATA drive and is simply labeled as “Xbox 360 S Hard Drive Model 1451”. In addition, you cannot use original Xbox 360 memory units with this version of the Xbox 360 console.
Internally the new Xbox 360 S uses a 45-nanometer chip by Valhalla designed with integrated CPU (central processing unit) and GPU (graphics processing unit). This chip redesign is said to improve energy consumption (about 30-40%) and is key to making the Xbox 360 S run quieter and allow for the overall smaller size. However, there is no real difference in terms of its processing power.
Unfortunately the old Xbox 360 was subject to a number of technical problems, the most famous were the three flashing red lights which were nicknamed “Red Ring of Death” (RROD) that mostly gave the 360 a bad rep. Arguably the most common cause for this general hardware failure was that the old Xbox 360 heated up during use and over time the temperature inside can reach super high levels causing critical internal components to break. The good news is that Microsoft has learned their lesson, the Xbox 360 S console itself runs much cooler than its predecessor, furthermore Microsoft states that there is no-more “Red Ring of Death” with this console – possibly because the new Xbox only displays green lights?
After running through the initial setup and jumping through some hoops to transfer my existing Xbox profile and game saves (more on this later); I tested it traditional way with a couple of hours’ worth of intense online FPS action (Bad Company 2). Whereas my old Xbox was a loud as a freight train, the Xbox 360 S is indeed as silent as a ninja. There is however a slight disc spinning noise coming from the optical drive, certainly not as loud as before but it might be best to first install a game to the Xbox 360 hard drive to minimize actual disc IO.
Usually I have my Xbox connected to my home network by means of an Ethernet connection to a Netgear HomePlug AV adapter. The reason was that I was never quite able to get a reliable enough wireless connection using the old Xbox 360 802.11g wireless adapter. I am happy to say that I have enabled the new build-in wireless N wireless and that the connection has been sold thus far.
I think Microsoft did a great job with the new Xbox design. At the end of the day the Xbox 360 is not just a gaming console but an entertainment system. The Xbox Live service offers countless games, movies streaming and renting, social media integration (Facebook, Twitter) and even complete game downloads (games on demand). Therefore, the console noise was a major factor and I can see how the quitter sound, 250GB HDD and built-in wireless-N are a great selling point.
The additions don’t stop there; Microsoft also launched the Zune “music experience” on Xbox 360, with a catalogue of 7 million tracks available to stream in the living room courtesy of a Zune Pass subscription. In the future, music and video on the device can be controlled with the new Xbox Kinect motion controller (to be released November 2010), with gestures as well as voice commands. And coming soon are over 3,500 ESPN live events for free with an Xbox Live Gold subscription.
If you already have an Xbox 360 than this is certainly not a “must buy” but if you just happen to RROD (“Red Ring of Death!”) your old Xbox 360, then you won’t be disappointed with the redesigned Xbox 360. For a consumer who does not have an Xbox 360 yet, the new Xbox 360 Slim is a worthy purchase for anyone who wants an entertainment system.
Highs:
Lows:
Next time we will take a look at the initial Xbox setup, how to transfer existing profiles and game saves between consoles and how to stream media to the Xbox from your Windows Home Server.
Nice review. If only it had a gigbit LAN, Blue-Ray and of course a way to backup game saves to my WHS it would be the best console ever.
Alex, great review - i'll take your old xbox of your hands :)
I just bought a Special Edition 360 XBOX with two wireless controllers, headset and two full games three days before they announced their new release. I have opened it but I still have the box, thinking about trading for the new one, what do you think?
Die XBOX 360 Slim asl Windows Media Center Extender zu nutzen ist nichts neues, aber lohnt sich der Umstieg auf die neue XBOX 360? Ich hatte bereits über einen Testbericht dazu berichtet und auch die Stimmen von altgedienten Media Center Extender Fans