THE XBOX 360 ELITE is the latest incarnation of the Microsoft gaming console. The first model shipped late 2005 and in two skews, the basic Core and System/Premium which includes a 20GB hard drive.
Since then Sony put out the PS3 with an HMDI slot and an internal Blu-ray drive. This new console is really Vole's comeback to this and one we’ve been waiting for in the UK. As it now ships with an HDMI port and a much larger hard drive, it's perhaps an effort to win back the audience and satisfy existing users.
From seeing and briefly using the earlier Xbox 360, things have moved on in terms of design. For starters there's a new paint job, a rather nice matt black finish. It makes for a sleek, professional looking machine.. Microsoft's also brought this colour scheme to the new peripherals – a wireless controller and HDD.
Xbox 360 Elite
We badgered MS for details of the inner workings of the Elite, but as a spokesvole put it “We are constantly updating internal components on our consoles and therefore will not comment on details of specific components.” So we grabbed a torque screwdriver and set about taking the Xbox 360 Elite apart.
It was rumoured from day one of the Elite being announced that MS would be going with the 65nm core, which we tried to confirm several times and in various different ways. All to no avail. We looked for a comment to confirm this but were thwarted.
From our surgical dissection of the machine, it appears that Microsoft has stuck to the same format as the USA shipped version of the Elite. The DVD drive shipped with the unit is the Hitachi-LG GDR-8050L, just the same as stateside. From a few choice websites, it appears this is the easiest and most valuable drive for those keen Xbox hackers as it’s the one with the most readily available options for playing illegally copied and backed-up games on. Way to go Microsoft for ensuring the latest version of your console is hack proof.
The second part in confirming the UK version is the same as the USA shipping one was the hard drive. After some tinkering with torque tools we found that Microsoft has bundled the Fujitsu MHW2120BH 120GB drive here too. It’s a nice 54,00 RPM drive, ideal for this kind of machine.
With the system on and functioning the operational noise level is barely noticeable. Then you add DVD media to the drive and things change. We used and tried out a few titles EA furnished and the DVD drive noise became loud and bothersome which was unexpected. We’ve would have thought MS would have realised this was an issue, or perhaps the company expected any games sound to drown out the issue. What was even more surprising was when we used the Xbox to playback a film-based DVD - the noise was gone. It was almost as if this DVD media type wasn’t even in the drive. The same was found on audio CDs. Why is this an issue then? We found some forum posts relating to the Hitachi drive that MS has shipped in the Elite to being louder than the models included in other skews. This all goes no real way to explain away the problem and could put off potential converts.
We hooked up the Xbox 360 Elite to the LG 32LC2D 37” HD LCD TV that we’re in the midst of reviewing. This was just to see how good the new MS box really was and if HDMI was worthwhile all the buzz surrounding it.
MS has included an HDMI cable in the box, unlike Sony, which was a bone of contention from nearly every buyer. So a point goes to the Xbox. Also, the original HD/SD combo cables have been included along with an audio splitter
Xbox 360 Elite – box and contents
We were suitable impressed at the high definition output of the Xbox Elite. The games were clear and bold; these were both titles addressing the HD arena as well as some that didn't. We have spent some time with the LG screen already, so we could easily distinguish from the regular HDMI content seen and what the Elite was now delivering.
The Xbox Live television content isn’t here in Europe yet, so we couldn’t see how well that would play out. It does appear to be successful stateside though, so perhaps that will be a good selling point for the Xbox and its high definition angle.
As this is the last retail edition of the Xbox we thought there would be more on offer. It’s disappointing that MS could not have addressed High Definition more thoroughly in the final incarnation. The inclusion of an HD DVD drive internally would have done just that - it also would have shown that MS would have been fully aware of the PS3 stronghold in the Blu-ray world, what with the internal drive. It’s not as if the Vole would have lost out with existing media. as HD DVD drives are backward compatible and can address both DVD and HD DVD discs.
We would have also thought that Wi-Fi capability would be on offer by now, but it isn't: the Ethernet port is still the only way to grab an Xbox live connection. A Microsoft spokesperson believes that more homes are Ethernet wired than wireless, though we disagree.
The public relations company involved in the Elite UK launch either set out to be the bane of our existence on The Inq, or are focusing on becoming the butt of all our jokes. It took them well over a week to turn around some simple answers to a few questions, which they actually promised the following day.
In terms of media to be used for the review, rather than it being just a black box in the corner, they struggled on that too. When asked for images to be used in the review, they told us to go and find them ourselves and that we were being awkward for awkward's sake. Good to know MS hires such friendly companies in the care of its valued launches.
In Short The Xbox 260 Elite does shine as a high definition machine in all its graphical aspects. It’s just a shame the Vole left out an HD drive. Clearly this has been aimed at the more serious gamer with the higher capacity hard drive with plenty of space for game saves and content downloads. With the middle range product, the system/premium, to be shipped over the next few month with an HDMI port included, is the extra HDD space and new paint job really worth another £50?
The Good HDMI, 120GB HDD
The Bad Noisy DVD drive, cost
The Ugly No HD DVD drive included
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