We received an interesting tip that we thought we'd share with the group. Windows expert and all-around bon vivant Paul Thurrott recently previewed Microsoft's new Arc mouse on his personal blog, detailing the device with a handful of photos. In the final shot of the series, what appear to be two Xboxes side-by-side can be seen in the lower right-hand corner... but one of those consoles looks thinner than the other. The appearance of what might be a
slimmer Xbox 360 has (needless to say) sparked a debate amongst our editors here. Some say it's nothing -- a matter of angle -- while others argue that this could be just the scenario in which you'd see a leak of a new form factor. Either way, you can't simply brush off the differences here, and a little Photoshop matching on our end proved that these edges are decidedly different in angle. So we put it to the Engadget reader: is this a sign of things to come, or just our imaginations running wild?
Update: And we have our answer! Paul Thurrott has gone to the trouble of
detailing just exactly what's going on here, and it
is an angle issue. Needless to say, we've got a lot of deflated dreams and lightened pockets in the office today.
[Thanks, Brian]
posted Sep 25th 2008 9:37AM
HD-DVD addon.
It doesn't really look like it though..... it seems to have an infrared and controller ports on it like a normal Xbox 360; the HD-DVD drive doesn't have anything else on its front besides the drive-bay door: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360hddvdplayer/
I think it was meant to be a joke...
I really wouldn't mine having a HD-DVD player, since its so cheap i'm sure they could do it at very little cost.
Hopefully this is Jasper, along with a price drop
It probably is a Jasper box given the all around 45nm drop. However, I would not expect a price drop again any time soon. $199.99 is a pretty cheap cost of admission for a next gen console.
Oh man I wish it was named CHROME!
He's made a post on his blog on the website showing it isn't a slimmer xbox.
http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2008/09/25/slimmer-xbox-360-spied-in-the-wild-sorry-but-no.aspx
Ulucky people
http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2008/09/25/slimmer-xbox-360-spied-in-the-wild-sorry-but-no.aspx
Get your facts straight Engadget. Paul has posted additional photos on his blog to prove this isn't a thinner XBox 360.
http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2008/09/25/slimmer-xbox-360-spied-in-the-wild-sorry-but-no.aspx
I don't know, it's weird... The shot on this site, they really do look different. The one on the left looks a LOT smaller, a good 30% or so. But the shots he posted to rebuke it obviously show they are the same.
Perhaps it is barrel distortion (or whatever it's called)? Don't most non-Pro digicams severely stretch the far corners of pictures?
The cupboard's just blocking a bit of the 360 off, yes?
Can we stop calling it a ' next-gen' console yet?? I think its been out long enough to be called current.
Hairy arms.
Same ol' 360.
How long before it catches fire?
that looks more like an old dell desktop next to the xbox.
I don't know how they could make a new form factor because of the removable hard drive.
But what's up with the green LED?
Yeah but thats why they did the data transfer kit for the elite.
I agree. Unless MS is gonna mass produce two Hard drive sizes (slim and non slim)for new and old 360s i call FAKE. but if this is a fake then what the hell is it. it looks real to me. Something that im sure hes pissed got leaked. or maybe it VIRAL.
Could be a new slim xbox core. Theres no hard drive attached so maybe it hasnt been produced yet.
I think its the reflection of a hologram sticker, not a LED
I agree, its got to be a hologram sticker or something. Most leds on the 360 are red anyway.
No chance, look at his set up, it is obviously under his desk and is a CPU.
...You think that looks like a processor?
whaaa?
obviously someone doesn't know what a CPU is lol.
Way back in the day the tower was commonly called the 'CPU' because computers weren't as monolithic as they are today and the tower is the part where all the processing goes on. Today a 'CPU' is usually a single chip so its not as common to call the whole box the CPU but it is still acceptable.
Sorry for using the old vernacular, doesn't change the fact that it isn't a new Xbox 360.
i wouldn't consider a Engadget reader calling a tower a CPU acceptable.
Someone went to ITT tech.
@Matt
The tower has never been called a CPU. People just have no idea. I have also heard people refer to their Monitor as the computer. In fact I was working as a tech once and asked someone to bring in their computer and they brought in their monitor. They claimed I should have asked them to bring in their CPU. I handed them a CPU and explained that they should probably not try to remove theirs.
@adam.plante
and that is why people think tech guys are asses.
@ Junk Carter
Whether or not it is an old vernacular, it doesn't matter these days. Go around saying you're gay and I promise you people will not be thinking you're just happy.
Hopefully a slim Xbox refresh. TBH it isn't slim enough if you compare it to the PSOne or PStwo.
Blu-Ray Please :D
Microsoft is still pushing for HD - DVD, me thinks they'll never go for blue ray... sorry :S And i agree, I doubt it's just an addon, its pretty big!!
MS is definitely not still pushing for HD-DVD. The format is dead and the factories have stopped production. NOBODY is backing it now.
The fact that they've stopped production of the HD-DVD drive AND slashed the price to $50 just isn't enough for you, is it?
As much as I hate to say it, HD-DVD is and has been dead for several months now.
i agree with liam its not really that much slimer unless its got blu-ray or something nice under the hud
It's not a cooling unit? ;-)
It almost looks like the one one the left is a normal xbox, and the one on the right is a thicker xbox.
And I wonder what tha white thing is on top of the left one, maybe kind of asset tag so they can track who they gave it to. No wait, I looked again, it's a memory card (never seen one in person).
Can someone measure their memory card and compare it to the picture for a reference?
It is a memory unit. And despite my other comment, the one on the left IS the current form factor. I laid my memory unit on my 360 in the same position as in the picture, and it appears the 360 it's on is the same as mine.
Let me get this straight, you think the one on the right is possibly a new (thicker) xBox?
I have to agree, the one on the right looks like a fatter than normal xbox, rather than the one on the left being thinner.
Also the mem unit looks about the right size compared to the xbox on the left
The left is a normal 360.. I didn't measure my memory card but if I place it on top with a little bit of grey on the right it passes the middle line of the 360, just like the picture.
The one on the right is also missing the button to remove the hard drive..
I see a couple of possibilities here.
1. The 360 on the right could be a debug kit. But, those are typically black, and I don't know why he would have one of those since he's not a developer.
2. The one on the left could be a slimmer 360, which would explain why he has the memory unit sitting on top of it - to allow him to easily play on either console.
My $0.02 worth
Use the memory unit to figure the dimensions. The system on the left looks roughly 2 widths (78mm), and the width of the current 360 is 83mm. A system that's 5mm thinner? Hardly practical.
anyone noted this guys using macbook?
If you check his site you'll see that he sometimes reviews OS X.
i dont see anything?
duuuuud what is this microsoftgadget! all you steve ballmer worshippers need to get off his jock already.
engadget, stop posting microsoft news every 22 seconds
i'm cool because i hate and use the word "douche" like it's going out of style
well.... at least your picture is cool....
compared to.....mine.....:(
seriously though... i hardly ever say anything about mac, or even spend much time defending apple from the hater hobbyists whose whole lifeblood is coming on here every fucking day making quasi-literate arguments about why apple is teh suxx0r and MS teh roxx0r, supported by dozens of frothy lemmings mashing each other's uprank in the latest "we love windows because it's the most common" circle jerk
but i've had enough of your hypocrisy windows fanboys. i tried to play nice, thinking the flame wars would die down if Zak et al stopped taking the bait, but nooooooooo. well fuck it the pendulum's swinging back, bitches.
Windows Doesnt have fan boys..because it doesnt need fan boys because 88 percent of the world uses it.
Mac needs fan boys to stay afloat.
Thats how the world turns.
windows doesn't have fanboys? there's a dude whose AVATAR is the fucking vista logo, another dude whose avatar is the fucking plastic vista software box it comes in, yet another whose avatar is the fucking WGA logo!
that bullshit meme has GOT to die. keep patting yourselves on the back, fanboys
Please don't feed the troll.
What the fuck is this? so its ok if engadget post Apple related stuff every 22secs instead? What a troll! It would be great if you stop posting every 22secs as well.
yeah listen to that guy, it's only trolling if you're negative on MSFT
it's true: apple users are ALL latte sipping metrosexuals
and all BOTNET zombies are cognitively superior gifts from the Mensa gods
keep making sweet babies with your double standards
windows doesn't have fanboys... i love it!
so what about fred, and mark anderson, and kccboy, and windows-logo guys, and about 2 dozen other regular microsoft-can-do-no-wrong fanboys?
for future reference, fanboys: don't talk out of both sides of your mouth. if it's ok to use the OS of your choice, stop bashing mac users and stop being a prostrate servile cheerleader in service of the Monkey Boy CEO.
this has been a public service annoucement
I'm sorry phanbouy, I'd like to read all your comments but my eyes aren't very good with the contrast of your grey posts.
It's the Xbox's gf. leave her out of this.
I'd tap that...but my junk is blu-ray.
Considering that we can't see the right edge of the box on the right (out of frame), and we can't see the left edge of the left box (hidden behind desk drawers) I would say its nothing to get excited about.
However, looking at the curve of the front panels, the one on the left seems to curve in a smaller arc than the one on the right. Seems pretty inconclusive, to me. I'll take a peek at the original (or as near as we can get) photo and see whats up. (photoshop ftw!)
Ran some levels on the image.
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/640/thinecksbawcksic4.jpg
Looks like two boxes of the same form factor, one w/ HD, one w/o.
New X-Box wasn't attacked by mr.BlurryCam yet, so lets call it a fake and wait for official announcement from mr.Microsoft.
Hey! Isn't that the Xbox Pure I heard about last week? :P
not sure if i'm out of line or not, but it looks like a XBOX 360 arcade edition cut off by the desk drawer... not sure though
The one on the left looks current to me, the one on the right looks massive compared to the one on my desk.
It's fake otherwise why would you have to be so shady about the picture, why not a side by side picture? Even if they are trying to be sneaking by taking the picture you can't tell me they couldn't get something better than that and it's like all the other post said why would they need a different model? The whole point of the price drop really in my opinion is to get rid of the current inventory not to produce new units.
It's not impossible that he would have a Dev Kit which that thing looks to be. He may not be a dev, but, he's got friends in the right places.
In regards to the black devkits that you all keep showing, I would HIGHLY beg to differ from what I have been using. email me back at jagoyl@gmail.com, and I would LOVE to send you non-believers pics of my white devkits.
FYI: That 'behemoth' of a 'hard drive' that you see is actually called the Lamprey internally, and it can house a hard drive, but also has debug boards allowing a PC to control the DVD drive, Hard drive, and most other aspects of the box. This works on the SMC headers inside the 360, and cannot be directly put on a 'retail' 360.
Let me know when you want to take a look at the current 360 devkits, which come in 'Elite black/grey' and 'pro white'.
-insider
I'M 98% sure is a special xbox 360 for developers I'V got a friend who's used one of these and he showed me pictures of it. It had hard drive stuck on both sides and all games were installed on the hard drives and the HD-DVD was built in. I don't think anything else was special except the ability to choose from, normal firmware two different types of firmware, including normal and developers firmware which I've never heard of. It was many moons ago but it looks like the same xbox 360 that he showed me of.
Still there's a good 2% chance i could be wrong but i don't think i am.
Looks like I'm wrong looks like an old HD-DVD drive.
Wow dude- you were 100% wrong... twice
With it being so small though, it would render current model HDDs useless if you buy an Arcade model as a replacement and keep your old HDD. Hopefully they'll release some sort of adapter or fitting.
Been waiting for something like this to get a new one, a slim model and the recent price drop is perfect incentive for me to retire my rickety 360.
Yeah, I feel like the left looks angular like the 360 I own and the one on the right is bigger. But that can be just by comparison. They are definitely not the same...but I feel like there's an explaination here, like some behind the scenes "nothing to see here" 360 that is not exciting.
Wide angle lens distortion at the edge?
We have a winner. Move along...
That mouse looks sweet.
It helps to read the story. He wasn't talking about a 360, we see it because it's accidently in the background.
The accidently in the background part answers anything you said.
Impossible, the old xbox isnt that big...
the one on the left looks normal, the one on the right doesn't look right....
Actually, I'd do as far as saying that to the left, is the regular xbox, and to the right... it's NOT an Xbox.
Notice how the "equipement" to the right seems way to large compare to a real xbox. Plus, it doesn't seem to have the "curve" in the middle like the xbox has. This is either a debug unit or something else.
Putting the equipement in perspective, the left one might actually be of a correct size for a standard xbox 360.
That's what I thought as well :)
Nah. It's just a Ben Heck project in the wild. :)
Didn't some company do an AV switch that looked like a smaller 360? I think it's one of those.
I somehow pity the tipster. What he intended to show and what has been revealed! He owns a Windows fansite and it would not be surprising if MS gave him (and many others) to test it which looks like a real deal to me.
This is just an artifact of a crappy camera lens--all lenses will distort at the edges due to their not entirely parabolic shape. This one just happened to stretch that poor xbox just enough to cause a stir :-P
Could just be a goofy lens problem, especially since the focus of the pic is close up. To me, it looks like the one on the right is bigger.
The one on the left that you guys are calling slimmer looks a lot more like my 360 than the one on the right does. I'm guessing the larger one is a dev kit.
This guy is brilliant. I think this was deliberately done to show people a newer Xbox 360. As someone above me said, there's a memory unit on top of the 360 on the left. Why? Well, it serves two purposes: (1) to transport memory between consoles, and (2) to show the difference in size between the two consoles.
I don't have a 360, so if someone with a memory unit could simulate the placement of the one in the picture, that'd be great.
Also, the angle of the picture (which isn't even about Xbox) is obviously meant to "sneak" the new one in. He could've chosen any angle he wanted, but he chose the angle that snuck the 360s in. At first glance, you see two 360s. But when you analyze it closer, you realize what he's trying to tell you.
I think I'm right, it looks pretty obvious. However, if I'm wrong about this, I'm gonna hole myself up for a while out of extreme humiliation.
I think you're crazy...
OP: Epic FAIL
actually the one on the left looks a normall 360 w/o a hard drive. i dont know what the hell the right one is.
looks like nothing to get worried about to me: http://files.xboxic.com/xbox-360-hardware/xbox-360-dev-kit/xbox-dev.jpg
I really want this to be a new one but I don't think that it is. I think they're two of the same, one has a HD.
The one on the left is farther back and the left side is cut off by the cabinet (follow white casing, it stops). So we can't see the entire xbox, but the cabinet makes it look smaller, possibly because it resembles hardwood floor.
Let's set some items straight:
---> Thi mam(kris120890)
This is NOT a 'development kit', as you have mentioned. Although you are correct that Dev games may be put on the hard drive (illegally, and not 'installed'), there are NO ways to switch 'firmware' on the fly.
Development kits, for the public's knowledge, look EXACTLY like the retail boxes. I switch cases between retail and dev often, and they are the same.
In regards to a new, 'slim' box, yes, it's coming, and no, there are no boxes in production at this moment. Everyone is saying that the box on the LEFT is not slim, but normal, and I am able to dispell that myth. The box on the RIGHT is the normal 'retail' box, and the normal slim box with the normal retail memory card is a prototype.
I know this is going to call me out, but I have worked with X360FanBoy numerous times, and have never given bad information.
I would just say to not hold your breath over this one, as developers have yet to see it. (FYI: Devkits originally came in charcoal, but most XDK units (not a full development kit, what most illegal hackers have out there) are white, and are almost indistinguishable from a 'retail' box from the outside (beyond a debug header or two of wires coming from a GAPING hole just in 'front' of the hard drive release button.
-anonymous
If you say so mr anonymous.
Hahahaha, you fail. You really are so well informed! (please not esarcasm, as I know most of the sad people that post on here can't take sarcasm)
http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2008/09/25/slimmer-xbox-360-spied-in-the-wild-sorry-but-no.aspx
Wrong on several points.
Here's what a dev kit looks like
http://i28.tinypic.com/331m6wh.jpg
http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2008/09/25/slimmer-xbox-360-spied-in-the-wild-sorry-but-no.aspx
It's nothing. 2 Xbox 360's. One RROD'd.
someone should tell him that keeping a 360 under his desk, on the floor, pressed up against his desk and wall = RROD...