A Tale of Two Xboxes

I got my girlfriend hooked on Xbox 360.  It didn’t take much.  She’s a huge Disney nut, so I bought her the UP game, then I showed her Beautiful Katamari, which is kind of like crack.

So regardless, I sold her on the idea of an Xbox.  Namely, I sold her on the idea of my Xbox, which I was in the market to unload so I could justify buying the redesigned one.  Long story short, she bought my old one, I bought a new one, and now I’m going to do a quick write up and let you know what’s what.  Hit the jump!  There be picture comparisons, yo.

First off, let me apologize for the qualities of these photos.  I just don’t have the capability to take good, high quality pictures right now.  Sorrowful lighting in my apartment.  Moving on….

Now, yes, I’m one of the people who immediately said “Oh to hell with this” when I saw a redesigned Xbox 360.  The decision to buy it was less a concern about getting the stylish new system, but more good fiscal sense.  My old Xbox only had a 20 Gb hard drive, and I’d been wanting to take it wireless too.  Buying both of those alone would have been $200, and it would have been a 120 Gb hard drive.  Getting a 250 Gb hard drive was a huge plus.  Of course, once I unboxed it, I realized there were a few more plusses to it.

I mean, Christ, no one told me it was this much smaller!  It’s a bit longer in the back, but this sucker takes up notably less space than the previous one.  Already very happy with that.  Later on in the night, I realized another cool feature: the Power and Open Tray buttons aren’t buttons, but touch sensitive panels on the front of the system.  Yes, this is what PS3 has been doing for a while, but unlike PS3’s weird “Slide finger here” button that seemed to magically do everything, these two buttons have a sole dedicated function, and do them both well.

The sync button is larger and off to the side, next to the redesigned USB port flap, which still houses two USB ports, but are now turned horizontal, in keeping with the new system’s design, which is clearly meant to be laid on it’s side (you can still set this one vertically but, much like it’s predecessor, this will impede a fan on the side).  No memory card slots here, which isn’t terribly surprising.  I don’t think anyone bought the memory cards, especially now that you can use a USB thumb drive to serve the same purpose.  Of course, flipping to the back brought even more surprises.

The previous video cable port remains the same (though, for some reason, the new system’s video cable only has RCA plugs.  Really, Microsoft?).  However, you’ll now notice a built in HDMI port, 3 USB ports (as opposed to the previous models 1), a standard CAT5 Ethernet jack, and the dedicated Kinect port, which appears to be a sightly larger than usual IEEE 1394 Firewire connector.  Also of note, the adapter for the power brick has been modified.  Instead of the large, cube shaped one on the previous model, this one is modified to be two small, round plugs.  Sadly, the rest of the brick remains a literal brick and is still incredibly large.

The system itself comes with one wireless controller, a headset, and the necessary cables.  No free LIVE trials unless you’re a new subscriber.  I’m a bit miffed by the lack of a HDD Transfer Kit, since evidently no one in my area has them.  However, if you’re in my situation and have a external hard drive laying around that you can utilize, you’re in luck, it will serve the same purpose.  Just configure it to use with your 360 (it will wipe everything off your external, so make back ups, unless you’re lucky enough to have a spare laying around like I did), copy everything from your old Xbox onto the external, then copy everything over to the new one.  Microsoft’s DRM website will help you transfer the licenses, and once you recover your GamerTag on the new Xbox you’re good as gold.

In short, I’m loving this.  Set up out of the box was a breeze, it recognized my wireless right away, and it’s a nice, compact model.  Was it a needless update?  Absolutely.  Is it one I’m glad I purchased?  Definitely.  If you’re in the same boat as I am and considering upgrading your current Xbox to a bigger hard drive and giving it wireless (Xbox 360 Arcade bundle owners, I’m looking at you), consider giving the new Xbox a go.