GizmoCafe’s own Hip Culture correspondent Al Augustin explains why the new Xbox 360 Elite had to be black. Analysts have thoerized that Microsoft wanted to imitate the look of Sony's PS3. But, Al dispenses with theories and gets to the hard hitting truth.
The primary differences between Elite and Vanilla Xbox 360, besides the striking look, is the Elite’s upgraded hard drive and an HDMI output. This is a boon to audio/video users who plan on taking advantage of Xbox Live’s upcoming HD TV show and movie download features.
Omission from the new Xbox 360 Elite include a built in HD DVD player. It would seem to make the Elite the choice for audio/vide enthusiasts. Is it possible Microsoft is views HD DVD as being on the losing end of the HD format war? The new Xbox360 dark won’t have built in Wi-Fi either.
A few myths were recently dispelled in a recent Microsoft press release about the new Xbox 360. Elite won’t be a limited edition, Microsoft says there will be plenty available when the April 29th release date arrives. There won’t be any hardware upgrades either besides the expanded HDD. The rumor was that the Elite would have 65nm processors to make the machine run cooler thus taking care of some of original Xbox 360’s overheating issues. None of this was known when we first created the video so Al can’t be blamed for the cooler running process we all heard would result in more efficient chips.
With the $479.99 asking price the Xbox 360 Elite will include an HDMI cable, a sure hit to misers everywhere and an annoyance to Monster cable salesmen at your local big box retailer.
