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.

[perrypiper Posted Jul 2nd 2010 3:46PM]

Anyone else have a problem with the transfer cable to the new xbox? Mine shows the old HDD as a usb device and nothing more. I've used this method before to transfer my 20 gb to the 120 gb and it worked perfectly.

[3dpenguin Posted Jul 2nd 2010 3:49PM]

@perrypiper

I had problems with the initial time, but then I unplugged it and plugged it back in then logged on and I noticed I chose the wrong option to transfer the data from the new internal drive to the old one. Until the 16GB mode was introduced you didn't have to select an option.

[Wardy125 Posted Jul 2nd 2010 4:30PM]

No gigabit?!

FFS microsoft what century are you living in?!

[LANjackal Posted Jul 2nd 2010 4:39PM]

@Wardy125 I was disappointed about that too, but given that there's nearly no use case in which files are transferred to/from - as opposed to media streaming - the 360 over LAN and 100+mbps home connections are still rare, it's not a crucial omission.

100mbps is just fine for streaming HD video, and MS' preferred way of loading media onto the 360 is via USB anyway.

[Wardy125 Posted Jul 2nd 2010 5:22PM]

@LANjackal yeah i guess it's not crucial, but it would be nice.
The rest of my network is Gigabit and the PS3 is too, it can't be that difficult to include. :/

[Happy Posted Jul 2nd 2010 9:41PM]

@Wardy125 Gigabit is pointless for internet, but for a lan party it's what you want.

[LANjackal Posted Jul 2nd 2010 4:35PM]

"fast AT&T U-Verse connection"
- oxymoron of the day

Review reaches the same conclusion I did when I heard about the device.

[robbinsmith Posted Jul 2nd 2010 4:43PM]

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[mpeters13 Posted Jul 2nd 2010 6:24PM]

The comparison chart didn't render well in the engadget app for iPhone. Anyone else?

[rambo8 Posted Jul 2nd 2010 6:38PM]

I actually like the old design better. But I got a PS3. In my opinion it has a better variety of games. Uncharted series, Killzone series, LittleBigPlanet, God Of War 3( which i might add has the best graphics ive seen on a console) the upcoming Twisted Metal, Infamous, Grand Turismo and plus all the 3rd part support and bluray. The only thing 360 really is Halo....what?

[BrianTX Posted Jul 2nd 2010 9:05PM]

@rambo8
Gimping InaudibleWhisper's reply
"InaudibleWhisper Posted Jul 2nd 2010
Off the top of my head: Alan Wake, Crackdown 1 and 2, Gears of War 1, 2 and 3, Viva Pintata 1 and 2, Fable II and III, Kameo, Lost Odyssey, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, Dead Rising, Blue Dragon, Mass Effect 1 and 2 (if you don't have a powerful PC), Project Gotham Racing. And of course the 3 Halo titles and Forza. If you want to bring it down to numbers, the 360 has over 200 exclusive titles and the PS3 has just less than 100. "

[bob1258 Posted Jul 2nd 2010 9:22PM]

I feel the need to make a comment. This new console will not get the RRoD, or E74 error. The cause of the error on the older motherboard revisions was due to excessive heat, and the xclamps were of poor quality; they didn't keep the motherboard from flexing. As a result, a solder ball(s) under the GPU or CPU would essentially "fall out of place", thus causing RRoD (there are people that can reflow or reball the chips for about $25). With the new motherboard, the xclamps are much, much better, and there is a fan right above the GPU/CPU.

[drudometkin Posted Jul 2nd 2010 9:36PM]

Im a PC gamer... what games would be worth it for me?

[Happy Posted Jul 2nd 2010 9:54PM]

What was the temperature of the room you were testing the consoles in? Why were you testing both consoles beside each other? Doing so can give you inaccurate temps.

[berty6294 Posted Jul 3rd 2010 1:11AM]

any difference in speed loading the dashboard and xbox guide menu? thats where the speed means the most to me! so i can quickly view my friends/party/messages without missing alot of gameplay due to loading!

[jrolls Posted Jul 3rd 2010 6:56AM]

finally microsofts design team has made something that isnt big and ugly in my eyes but more like sexy :D
i will sure be buying this model now that i can like it and trust it to live a lot longer :DDD

[jrolls Posted Jul 3rd 2010 6:59AM]

@jrolls now if only they could adopt 1080p gaming then i would be sold :D

[DaverJ Posted Jul 3rd 2010 9:11AM]

"the system's blissfully silent as long as you first install them to the hard drive. "

I don't mean to argue semantics, but I wouldn't call the system "silent". In a quiet room, it's very clear when it's on or off - but it's much improved over the previous 360 models.

[Bhima Posted Jul 4th 2010 1:19AM]

I still don't know why people bash the Kinect. I really think they don't see the obvious potential it has at making games even more immersive. Sure, you probably won't be able to play it for longer than 2 hours at a time, but damn... if there are great games it will not only be 2 hours of fun, but you might burn that western bacon cheeseburger you just ate. I for one, can't wait to play that star wars lightsaber game with Kinect, looks like a ton of fun.

[Desireful Posted Jul 10th 2010 12:29PM]

I haven't owned the previous Xbox's but I am considering purchasing this one. It looks pretty awesome. =D

[zac1974 Posted Jul 26th 2010 11:01PM]

This xbox360 is way better than the old, a 250GB hardrive and the look, HOT, check this out.
http://a9206nd9kc02d27knnu508kqdh.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=ZACGAME03

[50 ft queenie Posted Jul 27th 2010 7:14PM]

For anyone who's wondering why MS bothered with this updated 360, there is one simple reason: the environment.
Less power consumed means less coal/oil/gas used to provide electricity, and less damage to the environment in the end, so I'm glad they've made such an effort to design a greener console. I'm considering swapping my old premium for the S for just that reason :).