The Xbox 360 Elite has been announced, and it’s not a limited edition heralding an enhanced premium system as was rumoured. So now there’s three SKUs and the price has essentially been increased?
I was looking forward to buying a white 360 with HDMI when it was released, especially if it had the new 65nm chips and revised chipset (hopefully with revised reliability). I’ll be able to buy an HDMI-equipped 360, but that’s as good as it gets. Also good on them for including HDMI and component cables in the box, which is much better than composite. *cough*
What we get is a third SKU for $80 more than the retail price. Since people seem to price the 360 at $400 and the PS3 at $600, despite cheaper models being available, this is effectively a price hike that takes a chunk out of their nice $200 price cushion on the competition. And they don’t have the HD movie playback which may be of debatable value but is something you may as well have for $20 more.
No 65nm processors means that unless they’ve done a motherboard revision for the addition of HDMI the motherboards are still going to be warp-prone and unreliable. At least those three red lights will look nice against the black finish, right?
And, of course, it wouldn’t be a 360 without extortionate hard drive prices. $180 for 120GB is insane, as on NewEgg they sell a 160GB 2.5″ SATA hard drive for $120, or a 100GB one for $81. That’s one expensive enclosure that they put them in. A 2.5″ external 120GB drive costs $94.
I’ve almost got my head in my hands here. A limited edition before the standard premium (oxymoron?) got the HDMI port made sense, this just doesn’t. Fingers crossed that they’ll pick up the ball again when the 65nm chips get integrated.
I agree it would be better in white and matt black what is that all about. Mind you I have a competitors black box connected through HDMI so I’m not bothered about this. The larger HDD will be good though but I hate to think how much it’s going to cost.
They needn’t have bothered with the larger HDD outside of the U.S., as there’s bugger all video content that we might store on it what with the VMP only available in the States (can you detect a note of bitterness?); 20GB should be enough for the occasional trailer they throw at us and a handful of demos for good measure.
I’m with you on the HDD not being necessary here. The 20GB drive is more than enough for gaming alone, as I still have about 9GB free even with a couple of demos and a load of videos on there. You don’t need tons of space for other media because it’s so easy to stream it from another source, namely a computer.
Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like HDMI, however, even if I’m not spending more than £279 for a 360 with it. I’m happy to wait for the revised chips to come out at this point.