Xbox 360 250Gb Slimline Review
Right, where to start with this, ...i can only assume by this point in life the majority of people on this forum will have played, or seen, or have some form of use out of an xbox 360, wether it be the slimline one or the new one.
i myself bought a core, one of only two to come to my small town on the day of initial release.
unfortunately it died a red ring of death related death.
my second run in with a 360 was in the form of an elite, 120gb, which i ended up selling.
and then when a certain retailers website offered the 4gb for £99 at 2am on Xmas day, i snapped it up, only to be told they were out of stock, and they upgraded me to the 250Gb for no additional charge
SCORE!
anyway, enough about how i acquired it, lets get to the device itself
the new slimline model has a re-worked interior and exterior, to make it smaller than its predecessor, it also has a new generation of motherboard and chip, making it more power efficient, less heat producing, and typically less likely to die due to RROD
lets get onto examining what turned up on my doorstep.
i don't normally bore people with every side of a box, however, there is information on every side of the box, so id be a bit negligent in my duty as a reviewer if i missed out information such as this.
as mentioned, there is information galore allover this box, from what the contents of the box are, to xbox live information etc.
the box itself is made out of a nice quality cardboard, as you'd expect for a device that should cost £200
however, its not up to the same quality cardboard i have become accustomed to apple products using (i think i have been spoilt
anyway, moving on, time to open up this box ...
tadah, everything in there is crammed in so tight that it can hardly move, so no doubt this box could take some beatings, if a team of burly rugby players decided to play vollyball with this box, id still purchase it after, feeling quite safe that the contents ...should the box have not ruptured, ....would be in good condition still.
removing the 360, you can see its safely wedged between two nicely formed pieces of polistyrene (or its bio-degradeable equivalent i can only assume)
under it in the box, everything is compartmentalised, where it all remains safe and secure, as i mentioned earlier, i doubt this would suffer damage from being dropped etc.
so lets unwrap it shall we?
now then, here we are, this is a completly different beast to the one i was used to, no more is the rough effect plastic of the elite, or the core/premium/arcade, no more are the buttons for power or eject, and no more is there a big clumpy hard drive sticking out of the top of it.
this is one sexy looking machine
...on an interesting note to the geekier of you reading this, is it me, or is the font they wrote 'xbox 360' on the front of the device, the same font used for the original xbox, and not for the 360 ...shall i say, mk1 ?
as said before, gone away is the button of old, it has been replaced by a sleak and sexy touch sensor, for power and for eject (eject shown a bit above)
this is a rather sensitive button, i can walk upto the console, wearing socks, gently tap the on 'button' and the console will power up all the same...i likes!
sony seem to be going backwards in comparison
i mean microsoft and sony both made their console smaller, but sony, removed their touch sensors, and replaced them with buttons ...why? probably to reduce costs, but its just not as nice looking...in my opinion anyway
sony also made the texture of the slimline ps3 more like the ps2, or like the original xbox 360, also a step back in this reviewers opinion
however, microsoft have made great strides forward, making the console glossy, makes it feel and look like a much better quality good, and the touch sensors, again, in my opinion, make it classy, and give it an air of quality.
two usb ports included on the front of the console, for those of you rocking an original none-wireless controller, or a usb stick
so, lets open up the box:
as mentioned prior, everything packed in lovely and tightly...nothing to worry about.
lets see what else is included with the 250 gb bundle
controler
wired headset
scart lead
new version of the power brick - more about this in a minute
and everything laid out in plain view
now, the new power brick, is no longer quite brick sized, or weighted, which makes a nice change, its smaller, its lighter, its more compact, and it doesn't get nearly as hot
of-course, speaking from experience, i had one of the original power bricks that overheated and indeed when i used the console, i had to place the power brick on the windowsill to ensure adequate air was getting to it
however, i do have a gripe with it
it takes a normal 'kettle lead' power cord, however, it only has two pins on the inside, there is no ground
what kind of bright spark at Microsoft thought it was a good idea to not ground something that consumes this level of power?!
everything else is grounded from lamps, to the ps3 and computer, why did Microsoft intentionally leave out the 360?
surely this is a major hazard? ...
it hasn't stopped me from using it, and so far it has been okay, but it is something i am weary about...
moving on from this blatent omission
the ports on the back consist as above shown
3 USB ports (and 2 on the front remember)
a 'kinnect' port
HDMI
AV
Ethernet
and a optical sound out port.
i should also mention a major new addition to this 360, is the inbuilt wireless, this is a welcome addition, and certainly brings it more in line with the ps3, which had this particular feature from the start.
ill finish it with a couple of quick software snapshots...
if im honest, im not that big of a fan of the new software, i quite liked the simple 4 tab software of yester-year, but as with everything, progress takes it away and replaces it with somthing new...i am growing to the new software however...
So! to sum up
Pro's:
- nice new looks
- inbuilt wireless
- decent packing quality
- plenty of ports now for expansion
- 250 gb HDD gives plenty of space
- touch sensors
The ok's
- new software
- same old controler...no updates there too?
The bad
- the power brick, i mean, what the hell were they thinking not grounding it?!
any comments, sugestions, questions, all welcomed as usual
thanks for reading
