New Xbox 360 250GB review

When we first saw its face in a Italian ad, more than one Engadget editor called its bluff: "The top half doesn't line up with the bottom," some said, "that's got to be Photoshopped." While that early image was indeed CG, the form factor was certainly not -- the new Xbox 360 sports enough sleek angles and disappearing curves we've taken to calling it the Stealthbox. As mother always told you, though, it's what's inside that counts; does that glossy exterior house any improvements, or is it hiding just another Xbox? Find out after the break.

Hardware

Xbox 360 250GB

Xbox 360 Elite

Xbox 360 Arcade

Price	$299.99	$249.99 (while supplies last)	$149.99 (while supplies 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, composite A/V cable, ethernet cable, headset	Wireless controller, composite A/V cable

Though the new unit and all its accessories are technically labeled "Xbox 360 S," you'll never hear Microsoft marketers call it a Slim, and it turns out there's a pretty good reason for that. While the new Xbox 360 is 18 percent lighter, it's only a quarter-inch slimmer than its predecessor at the waist, and is practically the same width as the old unit measured at its widest point. Even as its stature has decreased 12 percent, the new Xbox 360 is deeper than the Elite. See the gallery below for comparison shots, but you can basically think about it this way -- Microsoft's taken its rectangular console and molded it into a square.

New Xbox 360 vs Xbox 360 Original... fight!

Perusing the outside of the unit, however, there are a number of pleasant surprises in store, including a dedicated optical audio jack (though the one embedded in older A/V cables works just as well), capacitive touch buttons and a snazzy new hard drive port. Since Microsoft's April firmware update brought USB mass storage to the console, we knew the life of Microsoft's proprietary Memory Unit was running out, and sure enough the new Xbox 360 loses the MU sockets in favor of two additional USB ports. Sadly, the extra USB are in the rear, right next to the Kinect port, so they'll be little use for plugging in Rock Band instruments if you house the system in a cabinet. Not that you'd necessarily want to leave it in a cabinet... but more on that later.

On the bottom of the system you'll find a removable panel housing the unit's hard drive. As before, the embedded 2.5-inch SATA unit isn't user replaceable, but this time we rather admire its plastic shell -- it's a handsome cartridge that slots neatly inside the system, surrounded by a fully cushioned cage that both silences and protects the hard drive. Capacitive touch buttons aren't everyone's cup of tea, and it seems odd to see them here after Sony finally phased them out, but Microsoft's implementation removes the uncertainty usually associated with touch by immediately responding to input. Both power and eject buttons play a chime as soon as your finger connects, and the DVD tray slides out far quicker than in Sony's slot-loading system. Just in case you're wondering, the new disc drive does not protect discs from nasty scratches this go around -- dropping a Savage Garden album in the tray and letting the console flop to one side (on a carpeted surface, no less) our album was truly, madly and deeply cut.

Xbox 360 250GB first unboxing!

The console itself may be an attractive package, but Microsoft really skimped on the extras this time round. While we didn't expect the new wireless controller to add anything more than a coat of gloss black (sorry, fighting fans, it's the same ol' D-pad), we're surprised you don't get HD playback out of the box. Where the Xbox 360 Elite came with not only a switchable component / composite HD A/V cable but an HDMI cord to boot, the new Xbox 360 has only a set of composite wires that don't support even 480p resolution.

Performance

If you expected the new Xbox 360 to be any faster, you're mostly out of luck -- the silicon's clocked at the same speed, for starts, and the 250GB hard drive was neck and neck with the Elite's 120GB during a 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 we did get favorable results out of the 802.11n WiFi card. Compared to a 100 megabit wired connection on a neighboring Elite, the wireless posted slightly more erratic transfer rates and was occasionally susceptible to lag, but still averaged 1.7MB / sec downloads (compared to 1.9MB / sec) on a fast AT&T U-Verse connection -- we'd certainly be happy with most games (save fighters) over wireless. The one place the new Xbox 360 did show considerable improvement was the optical disc drive -- the Stealthbox consistently loaded DVDs and game levels two seconds faster -- but we'd hesitate to recommend the system on that basis 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 at 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, but that didn't keep us from performing a few tests of our own -- and sure enough, it's the most energy efficient unit we've seen. While it still draws a tad more current than a PS3 Slim, playing games and DVDs require fewer watts, and as you can plainly see in the chart above, it wipes the floor with our Elite. The Stealthbox is just as "whisper quiet" as Microsoft promised, too -- though it's definitely audible when playing games from DVD, the system's blissfully silent as long as you first install them to the hard drive. The only thing amiss was the electromagnetic signature we detected when firing our infrared temperature gun -- you'd think that using less energy, the console would generate less heat, but our unit was often burning hot to the touch. Given Microsoft's storied history of hardware failure, we'd never think of leaving an Xbox in a cabinet or stacked with other A/V components and that hasn't changed one bit with this model.

Migration

If you're buying an Xbox for the very first time, data migration won't concern you in the least, but on the off-chance you're thinking of springing for a new system you should know that things have changed for the better, and we thought we'd include this brief guide. There are now three ways to move your data over, assuming you don't want to download it all again: USB, the transfer cable, or by simply sticking in your old hard drive.

USB is the cheapest way to move content by far -- just insert an USB thumbdrive or external HDD, and the Xbox can partition up to 16GB worth of storage. Thing is, you can't move savegames and DLC a la carte, as your profile always has to come along for the ride. If you've only got a small USB key, it could take ages to ferry everything over.

The Xbox 360 Hard Drive Data Migration Transfer Kit (yes, that's seriously the full name) makes things easier, as you can move an entire drive's worth of content in one fell swoop, but it costs $20 at retail. Thankfully, Microsoft made these practically disposable a few years back in what used to be single-use transfer kits, and you can find the now-bidrectional cables for pennies on eBay.

Last but not least, as we just discovered, you can simply rip open your old Xbox 360 hard drive and slot it into the case, at which point it will be immediately recognized. Needless to say, we don't recommend this route for a variety of reasons... we hear Microsoft's warranty support service doesn't take kindly to freely bouncing hard drives.

Wrap-up

The new Xbox 360 is a sleek, stylish contraption, shiny black from head to cords, but it doesn't offer quite enough to make it an obvious upgrade for those who've bought one before. If the screeching cries of your existing unit are driving you up the wall, or if you need a more energy efficient system with integrated wireless, sure, but if you've already invested in the Xbox ecosystem, purchased add-on hard drives and more, you'll find little to justify the $300 price -- until your existing console throws the dreaded RRoD, or perhaps an E74. That said, this is the best Xbox 360 ever made, bar none, and if you've yet to join the Xbox party -- and don't mind springing for an HDMI cable -- this is definitely the one.

Update: While our Xbox 360 Elite came with HDMI and component A/V cables we've been informed that Microsoft has since stopped shipping HD-capable cables with new Elite models. We have updated the comparison chart to reflect that.

[techee44 Posted Jul 2nd 2010 10:35AM]

Never bought a 360. Will be buying this one though. Can't wait for Halo Reach!

[dgtlber Posted Jul 2nd 2010 10:36AM]

@techee44

i don't have to read the article to know its badass

i want this

[RynoB07 Posted Jul 2nd 2010 10:46AM]

@techee44

What's so special about this "amazing" new xbox?? It basically has what the PS3 has had for a few years now...what's actually new...the kinect crap??

[Barguast Posted Jul 2nd 2010 10:52AM]

@RynoB07
You'll be glad to know there is an entire article dedicated to the new Xbox 360 console just above this comments section that you seem to have skipped ahead to.

[duperstar718 Posted Jul 2nd 2010 10:58AM]

@Barguast

Great comment, I had to chuckle.

[Josh S Posted Jul 2nd 2010 11:04AM]

@techee44
I find it alarming that they actually managed to make the heat issue worse

[Kangal Posted Jul 2nd 2010 11:10AM]

@techee44

I'd go with the original PS3. It has the most powerful system so while modern games are comparable on both mediums, that extra grunt will mean decent speed for 3D games @720p. Also to add, the PSN has matured and is exactly like Xbox Live but for FREE. Oh and did I mention that the PS3 will push even further with the Move. The Move controllers enable Wii-like games/experienced but without the frustration of Wii's inaccuracies. So you could use physical movements for 3D gameplay at an enjoyable pace. While the Xbox360 will aim furth with the Kinect but its a very young technology so laggy and inaccurate experiences is more than guaranteed.

Either way, feature-wise the PS3 is most capable, followed by Xbox360 then Wii which offers you lower price. Only if they didn't remove "Other OS" feature, imagine dualbooting your PS3 to MeeGo??

[derekscott Posted Jul 2nd 2010 11:15AM]

@Josh S i noticed that too, but the new 360 will give you a warning and it shuts itself off when it overheats.

[djt Posted Jul 2nd 2010 11:15AM]

@techee44 Wow Engadget. Your reviews have been much much better as of late. I've seen a great improvement here. Good Job.

[theSixFive Posted Jul 2nd 2010 11:18AM]

@Josh S The heat issue is not worse. That is temperature outside the console, and since it is higher, it means that a lot more heat is being effectively pushed out from the new Xbox 360.

[wicketr Posted Jul 2nd 2010 11:20AM]

@techee44
Hope it lasts long for you because if it runs at 140 degrees for some games, the internals won't last long.

[Mister Warmth Posted Jul 2nd 2010 11:25AM]

why would this thing need a review? Here's your review: "well it's a little smaller than before and still plays the same old xbox360 games, no better or worse"

kthxbai.

[RhymeMaster Posted Jul 2nd 2010 11:32AM]

@techee44
Looking at both devices, if I was asked which one was the new model without knowing before hand I would probably say the matte version.

[1 Infinite Loop Cupertino CA Posted Jul 2nd 2010 11:42AM]

I don't understand how this scores a 8/10 and the PS3 Slim gets 7/10. MSFT is basically being applauded for including features that Sony has had for 3.5 years. PS3 still offers better value for your money and less restrictions. Sony actually removed features with the PS3 Slim and they are still ahead of MSFT. Then again Engadget has always been had a slight bias againts Sony.

[system22 Posted Jul 2nd 2010 11:46AM]

@techee44 dood its wicked. i have a ps3 and the xbox. i like both but the xbox definitely has better online presence and multiplayer. have fun!

[Guardians13jm Posted Jul 2nd 2010 11:50AM]

@Josh S Yeah I was wondering about that. Maybe the new console gets hotter, but is also better a dispersing the heat?

[al74 Posted Jul 2nd 2010 11:54AM]

@SeNiLe911 or you can just use your 15% Dell electronics coupon and you won't have to wait for the Bing cash. You will have to call in Dell or use chat though. The online system didn't accept my coupon but the Dell rep did.

[Bskballa92 Posted Jul 2nd 2010 12:06PM]

Wheres the scorecard engadget?!?!

[Micro1331 Posted Jul 2nd 2010 12:16PM]

@Bskballa92

Right hand column.....

[beesneazy Posted Jul 2nd 2010 12:24PM]

Ish looks ridiculous. Talk about a step back in design.

[MrGoodCat Posted Jul 2nd 2010 12:26PM]

with regards to the heat "issue" everything (ram, cpu, gpu) is all on one chip now, there for the heat is localized. the simple fact that it consumes less energy is a good indication its more effecient. also, the system pushes the heat out much more effectively (especially when laid down) than the previous systems.

all in all i love my new xbox, and would never think of going back to an older model. its a dream come true playing games from the hdd, just so darn quiet!

[HankG Posted Jul 2nd 2010 12:31PM]

@RynoB07 You teenage fanboys live a sad little life.

[Nitesh Posted Jul 2nd 2010 1:02PM]

@techee44
How on earth do they manage to shrink the dies and thus reduce power draw, re-design the cooler and then output MORE heat rather than less?!

Other than that, looks pretty solid, although no real reason to upgrade unless my 360 goes kurplunk.

[lakersin2025 Posted Jul 2nd 2010 1:05PM]

@djt I concur

[beesneazy Posted Jul 2nd 2010 1:09PM]

@1 Infinite Loop Cupertino CA

You think they would have gotten rid of that power brick, no? That's kind of weird ... will see, stability wise, how the new one fares. Build quality should be better than the previous one.

And to the folks that mention Live, that is all a matter of opinion. My experiences, and people I know, haven't been all roses and whatever the fuck they say. Obnoxious kids, glitchy ass games, unreliable servers in some games. MW2, a game I never bought but played at various places, was one of the worst experiences on the 360 I've ever had the pleasure of being a part of.

And to the folks that say "blah blah blah and the Blu-Ray I don't need that shit." Well, that's funny. It goes hand in hand with the games...you know why the PS3 has the better games? Games like Uncharted and MGS4? Cause they're on Blu-Ray, it allows games to be "more bad ass" and that's why you get half ass "great" games like Gears and Crackdown (which is horrible, the first one was trash but people were so desperate for games they embraced it. was a very curious thing Crackdown 1 was.) and whatever. Forza is cool, but it won't even compare to the new GT. Which yes, blah blah blah has taken forever. I know, but I guess that's why it's a good thing we got tons of bad ass games to play in the mean time!

If you know what's up, and your investing in a console, the PS3 is the way to go. It's common knowledge ... and don't even mention the abomination that is the Wii. Un-fucking-believable. Eat that dick.

[SpikeSpiegel Posted Jul 2nd 2010 1:28PM]

@techee44 Do not hate on me, but I honestly like the originals look more.
I'm not digging the gloss or the angles
One that looked more like the old one just smaller would have been better

[lamerz Posted Jul 2nd 2010 1:29PM]

@wicketr "Hope it lasts long for you because if it runs at 140 degrees for some games, the internals won't last long."

Oh, get a fucking clue. The idiocy of some posters is astounding. Electronic components run hotter than that all the time. The most recent nVidia GTX 480 passes 100 degrees Celsius (that's over 212 degrees Farhenheit BTW). The ATI Radeon 5870 can run in 180-200 F range. The Pentium 4 routinely passed 160-180 F due to it's high clock speed. Hell, even the most recent i7's can get hot under load. Fuck, recent articles pointed at the newest MacBook Pro for getting scorching hot (near or higher than 100 C).

Here's a clue, dummy ... it's NOT UNIQUE to the Xbox to run hot.

[lamerz Posted Jul 2nd 2010 1:42PM]

@Nitesh Same applies to you. Get a clue on how electronics work, and how hot many components run. We already know it draws less power, thus the chip itself should be running cooler. What matters is the effectiveness of the heatsink and exhaust systems. Hotter exhaust means: HEAT ACTUALLY BEING REMOVED EFFECTIVELY from the case.

[Nitesh Posted Jul 2nd 2010 1:44PM]

@lamerz
Could be the case...We need a reviewer to take it apart and attach thermal probes to different parts of the motherboard to know for sure.

[cruncis Posted Jul 2nd 2010 1:45PM]

@theSixFive are you saying that because you've measured the internal temperature, or because you're blowing it out your ass?

[mackenziepricee Posted Jul 2nd 2010 1:47PM]

@1 Infinite Loop Cupertino CA
Better value for money?
I go to my local games store in Australia, purchase the new Xbox 360 S and 1 year of Xbox Live for $537.

To buy a PS3 with 250GB HDD was $599.

So even after buying a game for 360 I was still better off. I am sure I can afford 88 bucks every year.

inb4 Bluray. Never used it before and not planing to in the future.

Oh, and did I mention how Xbox has Kinect?

[h311r47 Posted Jul 2nd 2010 1:56PM]

@beesneazy

Definitely true. Everyone knows Halo 3, Gears of War 1 & 2, and Mass Effect 1 & 2 were utter crap and no one bought them. Aren't they all like the lowest rated games of all time? I mean, seriously, what idiot would buy any of those games? Probably no one on this blog.

/s

Seriously, though, gaming is a matter of opinion. In my opinion, online gaming is great on the 360. I prefer it to the PS3. I personally like the ease of matchmaking and being able to converse with friends who are in different games.

I think all the systems have some great games right now. I love a number of the 360's exclusives. However, I'd be a liar if I said I didn't pick up a PS3 when the price dropped because I loved their exclusives, as well. MGS4, Killzone 2, Uncharted, God of War 3...how can you go wrong? I think it's a shame when anyone gets so attached to one system that they have to automatically discredit anything available on rival systems. In the end, you're not hurting the competitor, you're hurting yourself as you miss out on some amazing games.

[sphbking Posted Jul 2nd 2010 2:18PM]

@wicketr

It's 140 Fahrenheit (60 celcius), not really all that hot.

[beesneazy Posted Jul 2nd 2010 2:38PM]

@h311r47

Down ranked for speaking the truth huh? Mass effect was cool, have yet to play the second one but yeah, halo - its pretty old news tho, its 2010...c'mon. Not saying all the games are garbage, just the majority. Some good ones, yeah. Live is cool but there is a lot of bullshit to it.

[1 Infinite Loop Cupertino CA Posted Jul 2nd 2010 3:05PM]

@mackenziepricee

Let me know how much it costs to upgrade that HDD, and let me know when you can wear any bluetooth headset you want. You don't care for blu-ray? Well many people do thats why the resale value of PS3's are much higher than 360's. Might come in handy if you plan on selling it in the future.

Also you're seriously going to mention kinect? The device that was the laughing stock of E3.

[xelastik2002 Posted Jul 2nd 2010 3:08PM]

@techee44
i had the Modern Warfare Special Edition one and upgraded to this one and i love it

[joquarky Posted Jul 2nd 2010 3:23PM]

@Josh S

It's probably not worse in practice. The higher temperature may be a result of slowing the fan RPM to make the console run more quietly.

It might be a bit misleading to assume the entire package is running that hot, especially if it is designed so that the hottest componet will be the last in the airflow before it is vented out of the device.

Also, as another commenter pointed out, a lot of electronic devices are being designed these days to tolerate higher temperatures.

[rjc34 Posted Jul 2nd 2010 8:04PM]

@Mister Warmth
It's quieter and uses less power.

[Happy Posted Jul 2nd 2010 9:17PM]

@h311r47 Everyone knows? That's just your opinion, which doesn't mean much at all.

[sa56 Posted Jul 3rd 2010 1:26AM]

@Bskballa92 I totally agree! like wtf way to not live up to your expectations

[antistatic12 Posted Jul 3rd 2010 5:59AM]

@derekscott Am i reading this right, the xbox elite is cooler when playing dvd's/games/games on HDD....WHAT, that has to be wrong.

[clay113 Posted Jul 3rd 2010 3:05PM]

@h311r47 Well said man. I own both systems and play them both equally. I use my PS3 for exclusives and playing Blu Ray and the Xbox for most games I play on live and Netflix.

[NzBeagle Posted Jul 3rd 2010 4:50PM]

@RhymeMaster

Interesting that they've moved to gloss where as Sony went the other way. Personally prefer matte, but im not going to get prints on it either way

[MichaelB Posted Jul 13th 2010 11:00PM]

@techee44
just did some maths and the old xbox elite uses 233 kilowatts a year (when off) and the slim uses 43 kilowatts a year, if your at 11 cents a kilowatt / hour its $25 for an elite and $4.75 for a slim (for a year). thats 5 times more power efficient.
the slim also runs on average 73 % of the wattage the elite dose, so in a years time you can save a good bit of money.
20 hours a week of on time
kilowatts used $ spent avrage watts/hour system
1144 125 110 elite
832 91 80 slim

[nanosman Posted Jul 2nd 2010 10:38AM]

PS3 is better

[dgtlber Posted Jul 2nd 2010 10:40AM]

@nanosman

it is

but the 360's redesign is also sexy

and so is the pricing

especially with kinect

all around win for msft

[techee44 Posted Jul 2nd 2010 10:41AM]

@nanosman

Xbox 360 has better games. I have a bluray player. I want a GAMING system, not a bluray player that plays games as well.

[blindguymcsqueezy Posted Jul 2nd 2010 10:42AM]

@nanosman
No it is different, neither is really better. At certain task one is better then the other and so on. I don't think you can go wrong picking either if you only want to have one gaming system.

[Senseito Posted Jul 2nd 2010 10:44AM]

@dgtlber agreed! also a PS3 owner I'm jealous of the Xbox 360s new look... the PS3 Slim was an improvement of sorts from the original but it definitely doesn't look as mean as this... and I want my console looking mean!

[MrFluffyThing Posted Jul 2nd 2010 10:50AM]

@blindguymcsqueezy In my personal opinion, it doesnt compare on the Gaming side. It's excellent at providing both blu ray and a gamping platform in one (great multimedia system) but overall the Xbox 360 has given me a better gaming experience.

My biggest gripe is that Sony still hasn't updated the style of their controllers and the Analog triggers are TERRIBLE. The controller feels so unnatural to hold unfortunately. This is something Xbox 360 had right from day one. this is a HUGE turn off for me on the gaming side.

All of this coming from someone who uses both consoles regularly, I just prefer my Xbox 360 or PC for gaming and my PS3 for movies.