The New Xbox 360 is More Than Just a Pretty Face

The newest Xbox 360, which many have dubbed the "Slim" because of it's slimmer design, becomes available for retail purchase this month. There's no denying that this Xbox is much more attractive than the last ones. All the controllers and connections are in the matching black color, as well; including the chatpad. The slimmer profile, shiny black finish and bold design make this an attractive gaming system.

It takes more than just an attractive new look to make most of us open up our wallets and make a major purchase like a new gaming system. The answers to the questions that avid gamers want to know have more to do with performance improvements and practical features.

The newest Xbox is lighter than previous models. This isn't a big concern for people who park their console in one place and never move it around. However, in a family with multiple gamers and televisions in multiple rooms, lighter gaming systems are a plus when you find yourself relocating them every few days.

This Xbox has one large fan instead of two and is reported to be "whisper quiet". While my older Xbox isn't extremely loud, the noise from the fans is quite distracting when I am trying to play a game or watch a movie via Netflix.

The newest model has a built in Wi-Fi for easier connection. It also has an internal 250 GB hard drive that can be accessed and replaced if necessary. The large memory will give you plenty of room for saving games, demos, movies, music, achievements and other things. More storage space is a big plus because I just had to delete a lot of demos to make room for newer games I wanted to check out.

One of my biggest concerns when looking to upgrade my system is whether or not the new one is backward compatible. Backwards compatibility, or the lack thereof, has kept me from moving on to certain newer gaming consoles and continues to be a major issue for some gamers or the people buying those gaming systems for them. This one has it; so no worries there.

The new system will be priced for retail sale at just under $300. If you are happy with your current Xbox, you may want to wait it out and see if you can grab it cheaper around the holidays or when the "new" wears off and prices drop; however, that doesn't seem to be happening as often or as quickly as in the past from what we have seen as trends in the gaming industry.

The real question now is: will supply keep up with demand or will we be faced with empty store shelves and promises of shipments to come?

Resources
Xbox.com -Introducing The New Xbox 360

Joystiq - New Xbox 360 Slim: Hardware Details

Network World - New Xbox 360 Ships Today