New Xbox 360 ‘Slim’ Announced (E3 2010)
Written by Ender on June 15, 2010 · Filed under Games
With E3 2010 now well under way, Microsoft have come out with another ‘shock’ and announced that there will be a new Xbox 360 hitting the shelves this year (as rumoured). So what’s new with Microsoft’s console model? Everything that they should have included in the first place!!
I love my Xbox 360 console and there are some quality games available for it, but my God it’s loud!! Each time I turn it on it’s like it’s about to take off and fly around my living room. Well with the new Xbox 360 ‘Slim’ model, this is no longer an issue as it’s meant to be a hell of a lot quieter even when it’s accessing/reading the DVD – which will be a nice change.
Of course it will still make a noise, but your house won’t shake like it used to. Instead of using two fans, the new version uses one bigger singular fan to keep the noise down. A couple of new vents have been added with one either side and on top so heating shouldn’t be an issue. The buttons on the front have changed slightly with them changing to touch sensitive ones and the disc tray isn’t as clunky when opening/closing.
There’s also the inclusion of built in 802.11n Wi-Fi card, which I think should have been added in the first place, as paying £60 for a Wi-Fi kit is a tad pricey – even the Playstation 3 had that as a built-in feature. The hard drive has been updated from the Elite’s 120GB to more than double to a 250GB hard drive which you can also upgrade if you so wish.
The new Xbox 360 will also be Kinect motion controller (or Natal as we prefer to call it!) ready which means you will be able to plug Kinect directly into the console without having to use a separate power supply for the motion ‘controller’. However existing Xbox 360 users will have to plug Kinect into a power supply as well as the console which goes against what we were told at our Kinect preview event. This is going to be annoying as I’ve got plugs strewn about everywhere. I hate wires! There are now 5 USB ports instead of 3, but I never use mine anyway and the power supply has been scaled down from the breeze block of the first one.
So is it really much smaller? Well it’s apparently 15% smaller than the original but it still looks on the bulky side, but next to the original, you can see a difference. It’s good to see they’ve changed some of the ‘issues’ from the first console, just a shame that I only bought my 360 a few months ago. Perhaps I should have waited just a bit longer for the new ‘slim’ version.
It does look a lot slicker and glossier than the original and the fact that it’s a lot quieter and has built in Wi-Fi is tempting me to trade my current one in for a new one. The Xbox 360 Slim console will be priced around £200 here in the UK on its release date on the 16th July 2010 with the existing Elites and Arcade versions then dropping in price.
What do you think to the new Xbox 360 ‘Slim’ console? Impressed with the changes that they’ve made or is nothing to write home about? Let us know in the comments below.
Via – Wired
