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Admittedly, the news Xbox 360 of Microsoft presents some light improvements. Black instead of being white, it includes a hard disk of 120 Go (six times vaster than that of the Xbox preceding one, twice larger than that of PlayStation 3) as well as a catch HDMI which facilitates the connection with television sets HD.

Is that worth the additional overcost compared to the preceding model? The answer is probably not, for whoever has already Xbox 360. Connector HDMI is more one convenience that a need and the hard disk of bigger size which is encased on the side face will be available in option for the 360. Moreover, the high price of the Elite could have made hope that a certain number of accessories are directly integrated into the product, like the adapter Wifi or unit HD DVD. However, it is not the case: they still should be bought separately, which is disappointing.

However, Xbox 360 currently profits from a choice of plays impressing and as long as the PS3 in will not offer as much, Xbox 360 will remain the best option.

The console

Except for its black color and presence of a catch HDMI, Xbox 360 Elite is outside identical to Xbox 360 Premium. Weighing 4 kg, it is approximately 30 cm wide, 8 cm in height and 25 cm of depth. Following the example PlayStation 3 and of Nintendo Wii, it can be posed horizontally or vertically and be personalized using interchangeable “frontages”. It does not have the smooth aspect and brilliance of the PS3, nor the pleasing side of tiny Wii, but its completion in black chechmate constitutes certainly a clear improvement compared to the white “with the iPod” of the preceding version.

The back face comprises a catch HDMI, an audio/video connector, only one port USB and an Ethernet catch. We hardly appreciate generally connections owners such as the audio-video catch of Xbox, but Microsoft provides a video cable including/understanding at the same time a connector high definition and a composite, as well as an analogical stereo audio catch and an optical audio for a “pseudo” exit quadraphonic. An audio adapter (stereo RCA or optics) is included if the téléviseur/le system home cinema would not accept the audio via HDMI.

Contrary to the game consoles Nintendo and Sony which profit from integrated a Wifi support, old Xbox offered only one telegraphic connection to the network and… unfortunately, the Elite does not make any improvement in this field!
In option, an adapter of network without wire can be fixed easily at the back of the 360, but it monopolizes the only port USB which is available there.

The front face of the console dissimulates two additional ports USB behind shutters with hinge, like two sites for memory boards. With the difference of Wii and PS3 which accept the formats of memory standard flash, Xbox 360 reads only the format Microsoft owner. Many keyboards USB are compatible, but for the majority, they are used only for the communication and the data capture, not with the plays.

Another weakness of the design: it is impossible to connect certain readers MP3 like the iPod Shuffle of Apple to ports USB. The latter are badly placed and impose the recourse to a cable of lengthening.

The front face of Xbox 360 Elite comprises an infra-red port which allows the use of a large variety of compatible remote controls (dedicated to 360 the, universal ones…).

The hard disk is in a removable module owner who encases himself on the side face of the console. If the 20 Go of “basic” Xbox 360 were very quickly saturated, the 120 Go of the Elite will be appreciated by the users eager to benefit fully from the capacities multi-media of Xbox 360 Elite.

A helmet Xbox Live and a controller without wire are also included in the package. If it is not their black color, they are identical to the preceding models and they do not offer any new functionality of the type sensitivity to the slope or detection of movement. They are both supplied with two piles AA, or in option by refillable battery. Xbox 360 Elite accepts to four controllers without wire. An electroluminescent diode of green color, at the same time on the console and the controllers, precisely indicates those which are connected.

Two other regrettable aspects of Xbox 360 were unfortunately transmitted to the Elite: particularly cumbersome external food and the level of noise obstructing of the console. If the power supply unit can easily hide behind a piece of furniture, the ventilator and especially reader DVD remain noisy at the point to be perturbing.

Superb Dashboard

The Dashboard interface which is posted with the screen is really superb; it is clear that its originators took more as a starting point the as well praised interface of Tivo as by that by Windows. One finds there certain aspects of the interface Windows Media Center, in more elegant and convivial, with in particular of the mitres coloured for the various functions of the system, including the play, the multi-media one, the parameter setting of the system and Xbox Live. Dashboard is personnalisable thanks to a broad variety of topics preloaded on disc.

Games Download

Multi-media numerical and DVD

Much more than one game console, Xbox 360 Elite is also a real multi-media “concentrator”. Numerical apparatus, card reader flash, wandering MP3 can connect himself to it. Insofar as they are compatible with a PC functioning under Windows, you have access directly in “plug-and-play” to your photographs, your music and your vidéos. The contents multi-media available by network domesticates are also accessible: it is enough to install Windows Media Player 11, the Zune software or Windows Media Connect on a PC under Windows XP or Vista.

Xbox 360 reads CD and DVD. Impossible to copy files of music starting from units connected or accessible in network. There remains possible to extract from the pieces of CD towards the hard disk and to use the latter like bands its in the plays.

For the DVD, Xbox 360 Elite offers only disappointing performances as on basic Xbox. The colors are generally rather diluted and the little excavated details. To use only in supplement more especially as connection HDMI does not seem to make any perceptible improvement.

Plays

Xbox 360 Elite comprises the same internal components as the models 360 precedents: a PowerPC processor of IBM in three hearts - each one of them given rhythm to 3,2 GHz and offering two wire of execution - and a graphics processor ATI theoretically which can generate 500 million triangles a second. In addition to a half-gigaoctet of memory shared between the system and the graphics board, the Elite includes 10 Mo of additional memory RAM dedicated to the video. The quality of the graphics of Xbox 360 is thus very good, even excellent. Admittedly, of the PC can offer resolutions and flows of images higher even than those of the TVHD, but with this intention it is necessary to invest in a video chart as expensive as console 360…