When we first saw the face in a Italian ad, more than a single Engadget editor called the steep: “The top half doesn’t line up with a bottom,” a little pronounced, “that’s got to be Photoshopped.” While that early image was indeed CG, the form cause was positively not — the brand-new Xbox 360 sports enough neat angles and disappearing curves we’ve taken to job it the Stealthbox. As mom always told you, yet, it’s what’s inside that counts; does which silken exterior house any improvements, or is it stealing only an additional Xbox? Find out after the break.

Hardware

  Xbox 360 250GB  Xbox 360 Elite 

Xbox 360 Arcade 

Price $299.99 $249.99 (while reserve last) $149.99 (while reserve last) 

Color Glossy black Matte black Matte white 

HDD Proprietary 250GB SATA Proprietary 120GB SATA None (256-512MB flash) 

Dimensions 10.6 x 2.95 x 10.39 in. 12 x 3 x 10 in. 11.5 x 3 x 10 in. 

Weight 6.3 lb. 7.7 lb. 7 lb. (approx) 

Power 135W 175W (Falcon), 150W (Jasper) 175W (Falcon), 150W (Jasper) 

Wireless 802.11n Optional adapter Optional adapter 

Ports HDMI, combo A/V, S/PDIF, LAN, Kinect, USB x5 HDMI, combo A/V, LAN, USB x3, HDD x1, MU x2 HDMI, combo A/V, LAN, USB x3, HDD x1, MU x2 

Bundle Wireless controller, composite A/V cable, headset Wireless controller, combination A/V cable, ethernet wire, headset Wireless controller, combination A/V cable 

Though the brand-new section as well as and all the accessories have been technically labeled “Xbox 360 S,” you’ll never hear Microsoft marketers call it a Slim, as well as it turns out there’s a flattering good reason for that. While the new Xbox 360 is 18 percent lighter, it’s only the quarter-inch slimmer than the prototype during a waist, as well as is most the same breadth as the old unit totalled during the widest indicate. Even as its stature has decreased 12 percent, a new Xbox 360 is deeper than a Elite. See a art studio below for comparison shots, though you can fundamentally consider about it this approach — Microsoft’s taken its rectangular console and molded it into the square. New Xbox 360 vs Xbox 360 Original… quarrel!

Perusing the outside of a section, however, there have been a series of pleasing surprises in store, together with a dedicated visual audio jack (though the one embedded in comparison A/V cables works just as well), capacitive touch buttons and the snazzy brand-new tough drive pier. Since Microsoft’s April firmware refurbish brought USB mass storage to a console, we knew the holdup of Microsoft’s exclusive Memory Unit was running out, as well as sure sufficient a new Xbox 360 loses the MU sockets in preference of dual one more USB ports. Sadly, a extra USB have been in the rear, right subsequent to the Kinect port, so they’ll be little use for plugging in Rock Band instruments if you house the system in the cabinet. Not which you’d necessarily wish to leave it in a cupboard… but more upon that later.

On a bottom of the system you’ll find the removable row housing the unit’s hard drive. As before, the embedded 2.5-inch SATA section isn’t user replaceable, though this time we rather admire the plastic bombard — it’s a handsome cartridge which slots neatly inside a system, surrounded by a fully cushioned enclosure that both silences as well as protects the tough drive. Capacitive hold buttons aren’t everyone’s crater of tea, and it seems odd to see them here after Sony finally phased them out, though Microsoft’s implementation removes a doubt customarily associated with touch by immediately responding to submit. Both power as well as jump out buttons play the carillon as shortly as your finger connects, as well as the DVD tray slides out distant quicker than in Sony’s slot-loading complement. Just in case you’re wondering, the new front drive does not protect discs from nasty scratches this go around — dropping the Savage Garden album in a tray as well as vouchsafing a console flop to a single side (on the carpeted aspect, no reduction the album was truly, madly as well as deeply cut. Xbox 360 250GB first unboxing!

The console itself may be an attractive package, but Microsoft really skimped on the extras this time turn. While you didn’t design the new wireless controller to supplement anything some-more than the cloak of shimmer black (sorry, fighting fans, it’s the same ol’ D-pad), we’re surprised you don’t get HD playback out of a box. Where the Xbox 360 Elite came with not usually the switchable member / composite HD A/V wire though an HDMI connective tissue to foot, a brand-new Xbox 360 has usually the set of combination wires that don’t await even 480p fortitude.

Performance

If you expected a brand-new Xbox 360 to be any faster, you’re mostly out of fitness — a silicon’s clocked during a same speed, for starts, as well as a 250GB tough drive was neck as well as neck with a Elite’s 120GB during the battery of tests, like this 4.6GB Street Fighter IV install. The new Xbox 360 sadly doesn’t have gigabit ethernet to speed networking up, but you did get favorable formula out of a 802.11n WiFi label. Compared to the 100 megabit wired tie upon the adjacent Elite, a wireless posted slightly some-more erratic send rates and was spasmodic receptive to loiter, though still averaged 1.7MB / sec downloads (compared to 1.9MB / sec) upon a quick AT&T U-Verse tie — we’d positively be happy with many games (save fighters) over wireless. The one place the brand-new Xbox 360 did uncover substantial alleviation was a visual front drive — a Stealthbox consistently loaded DVDs as well as diversion levels dual seconds faster — though we’d hesitate to recommend a complement on which basement alone, as historically Microsoft has shipped consoles with a variety of different drives.

Heat, Noise, Power

 Current
(ampere) Power
(watt) Temperature
(farenheit) Noise
(decibel) 

 Elite
 250GB
 Elite 250GB Elite 250GB Elite 250GB
 

Plugged in / power off 0.06 0.03 2.7 0.5 Room temperature Reference 

Idling during Dashboard 1.34 0.9 93 73 113 108 +5.5 +1 

Playing Bayonetta (DVD) 1.75 1.15 135 94 116 140 +18.5 +10 

Installing Bayonetta 1.4 1 111 82 114 126 +15.5 +9 

Playing Bayonetta (HDD) 1.54 1.1 121 88 116 140 +14.5 +2.5 

Watching a DVD movie 1.09 0.77 88 62 112 119 +7.5 +2 

We’d already heard the new Valhalla was pretty dang power-friendly, though which didn’t keep us from performing the few tests of our own — and certain sufficient, it’s the many energy fit section we’ve seen. While it still draws a tad some-more stream than the PS3 Slim, personification games and DVDs need fewer watts, as well as as you can plainly see in the chart above, it wipes the building with the Elite. The Stealthbox is just as “whisper still” as Microsoft promised, as well — though it’s really audible when personification games from DVD, a system’s blissfully wordless as prolonged as you first implement them to a tough drive. The usually thing amiss was a electromagnetic signature you detected when banishment the infrared heat gun — you’d consider which using reduction appetite, a console would generate reduction feverishness, but the unit was mostly blazing hot to a touch. Given Microsoft’s storiedhistory of hardware disaster, we’d never consider of leaving an Xbox in the cupboard or stacked with other A/V components as well as which hasn’t changed one bit with this indication.

Migration

If you’re shopping an Xbox for a really initial time, interpretation emigration won’t concern you in the least, but upon a off-chance you’re meditative of springing for the new system you should know which things have changedfor a improved, as well as you suspicion we’d embody this brief beam. There have been right away 3 ways to move your interpretation over, assuming you don’t wish to download it all again: USB, the send wire, or by simply sticking in your old hard drive.

USB is a cheapest approach to move content by distant — just insert an USB thumbdrive or outmost HDD, as well as the Xbox can partition up to 16GB worth of storage. Thing is, you can’t move savegames as well as DLC the la carte, as your form regularly has to come along for the ride. If you’ve usually got a tiny USB pass, it could take ages to ferry everything over.

The Xbox 360 Hard Drive Data Migration Transfer Kit (yes, that’s seriously a full name creates things simpler, as you can move an entire drive’s worth of calm in one fell swoop, though it costs $20 during retail. Thankfully, Microsoft done these most disposable a couple of years back in what used to be single-use send kits, and you can find a now-bidrectional cables for pennies on eBay.

Last but not least, as we just detected, you can simply slice open your old Xbox 360 hard drive and container it into a box, at which point it will be immediately famous. Needless to contend, you don’t suggest this route for a variety of reasons… we listen to Microsoft’s warranty await use doesn’t take pleasantly to openly bouncing tough drives.

Wrap-up

The brand-new Xbox 360 is the sleek, stylish appliance, glossy black from conduct to cords, but it doesn’t offer quite sufficient to have it an viewable upgrade for those who’ve paid for a single before. If a screeching cries of your existent unit have been pushing you up a wall, or if you need a more appetite fit complement with integrated wireless, certain, though if you’ve already invested in a Xbox ecosystem, purchased add-on tough drives as well as more, you’ll find small to clear the $300 cost — until your existent console throws the dreaded RRoD, or perhaps an E74. That said, this is a most appropriate Xbox 360 ever done, bar none, and if you’ve nonetheless to join the Xbox party — as well as don’t mind springing for an HDMI wire — this is really the a single.

Update: While the Xbox 360 Elite came with HDMI as well as member A/V cables we’ve been sensitive which Microsoft has since stopped shipping HD-capable cables with brand-new Elite models. We have updated a comparison chart to simulate which.