Xbox 360 Elite

Microsoft, on March 28th 2007, announced the new, long awaited Xbox 360 Elite edition. It contains a 120 GB Hard Drive and a HDMI port for full HD functionality, as well as a better cooling system.. But these will later be incorporated to the Xbox Premium system. The main selling point here is the fully Black colour system cover of the 360 Elite. This is unique, as the entire body, not only the faceplate, is black. The system will be available from April 29th onwards in limited numbers, priced at US$479.99. Bit too expensive. Maybe, maybe not. At least the cooling system is useful, because by 360 is going to fry up one of these days.

But unfortunately the new Elite does not have support for some other features that customer awaited, such as Streaming IPTV and a cooler (temperature-wise), cheaper 65nm processor. These features will probably be made available later this year, or even next year.

Yet, the Xbox 360 Elite is still US$20 cheaper than the basic Playstation 3, and $120 cheaper than the premium PS3 at the moment. Therefore I recommend that customers who want an all-round entertainment experience should buy the Xbox 360 instead of the PS3. I say so because Xbox 360 currently has some features yet to be released by Sony for the PS3, and also has some good features coming up soon. Otherwise people can wait for the PS3 price to go down.

In Sri Lanka - Oh, didn't I mention that Xbox 360 Elite will only be available in USA. Thats bad. But on the bright side, shops like Galaxy and Nastars are likely to get hold of two or three systems from somewhere. Of course they will be twice the price in Sri Lanka. I prefer buying from Singapore or Dubai, but in this case there is no choice.