Early 360 impressions

No unboxing porn here, the boys at Joystiq have exposed that side of the 360 if thats what you're into. I haven't had much time with the machine yet but for those of you who are still waiting for that first glimpse or possibly still on the fence let me give you my experiences so far.

First,
before actually turning it on, as much has been made of the design of the box itself, etc. thats not something I really key on. That said, the "ring of light" around the power button is kind of cool, the box itself is lighter than the original Xbox, but none of that stops  this milky white "inhaling" contraption from looking downright odd next to most home theater equipment.

The much talked about external power supply, yes it's big, but it's not as big as I had thought it would be. At maybe 3/4 the length/width of my foot (size 11), it should tuck neatly behind most cabinets.
Basically you have one regular length power cable, then another shorter power cable that has the power supply brick in the middle of it.

The high definition cables gave me this impression when I first took them out of the package: flimsy. I have no idea if they will present any problem, or if the lighter weight may actually keep them from causing connection problems on some peoples TV's, but the wires themselves aren't nearly as beefy as my other RGB cables, or the original Xbox cables. If shielding is important to you, you may want to pick up the official Monster cable.

The new Xbox Live headset is lighter and more comfortable than the old one,
and it looks like you can use any headset that will fit the jack if you don't feel like buying Microsoft's, nice touch.

More on the initial setup and gameplay in a bit.