The New Xbox 360 250GB

What do you all think of the new Xbox 360?

I think it is definitely an improvement on the design. Looks higher quality in the design of the case. It is also meant to be quieter and run cooler, which is good as the existing 360 suffered so much from over heating and the RROD issue. We will have to see if that is really fixed on this new one though.

Also built in is Wireless N networking, which is very useful, as no network cables will be needed any longer and you can just stick it under the TV and connect.

Other than that though, is there much else different? It has 5 USB ports, HDMI and AV ports, and now an S/PDIF digital audio out, so you can pipe the sound to a dedicated AV amp. Also new is the Kinect Auxiliary port. I'm assuming the new Kinect Sensor (copying the Wii idea) will require this for its version of the sensor bar, so will this mean only those with the new 360 will be able to use it? Or is an additional addon available for the older model?

Price for this new version is £199 RRP, or £219.99 with one game. Definitely more that the older 360 as that had dropped down to £159 in most stores in the UK, but obviously had a smaller HDD and less other features as standard.

I also like the new design, looks indeed like a high quality product.

The S/PDIF digital audio out was always there, only when you used the component cables, you couldn't fit it anymore into the plug. But there's a 10€ cable available which fixes that. Lately I'm also using an HDMI cable.

There will be an addon for the older model to fit Kinect, but you'll need a seperate power connection for it.

The 360 should have come with wireless from the start. typical Microsoft to screw an extra £50 out of people, and then charge them more still for gaming online.

I don't have a 360. I looked into it about 2 years ago but the red ring of death seems to affect every machine eventually and for me who keeps machines and playes them forever, this would be a hassle in 10 years time. I wont be buying one of the newer ones until they have at least been proven to be more reliable, and even then I wouldn't be paying to play online. However, if it takes 12-18 months to see what the reliability is like, how long after that until we hear details of the next gen systems?

according to Mircosoft the kinnect will work with ALL 360's regardless for age straight out of the box.
hdmi has been there since the elite and the s/pdif has always been there, wireless has always been an option (mine is wireless) but i don't understand why they have gone with 'n' as the standard hasn't been sorted yet, so most people will still connecting via 'g' anyway

n wireless has been around for a long time now and a lot of routers and access points can be bought with it. I can't see it being officially made a standard like b and g were, but it is in enough devices now to be unofficially seen as a standard wireless protocol. It's a lot faster than g and backwardly compatible so there wasn't really any reasons for them not to go with it.