The Contraband

Issue date: 4/2/07 Section: Entertainment

Behold its sleek ebony contours, and weep. Okay, so it's the same 360 inside and out--except that it's black and packs a bigger peripheral punch. For a few weeks, word has been swirling that Microsoft would be releasing a new version of the X-Box 360. That rumor became official last week when the company announced the pending arrival of the 360 Elite system.
Let's break out the specs on this bad boy. First, yes, it's black, and comes with black versions of the wireless controller and headset. To answer the PS3, the new console will carry both HDMI ports and HDMI cables, which were lacking in the Premium package. The biggest addition, though (literally), is the 120 gig hard drive.
Microsoft had previously offered a standard 20 gig hard drive with the Premium system and separately in stores. Expect the price on those to drop when the company starts offering the new 120GB separately in stores as well. The spacious drives are expected to sell at $179. The stand-alone 120GB drives will be bundled with a handy data transfer cable so you can copy all of your game saves, music, television shows, and other downloaded goodies from your smaller drive to your new one. The Elite system itself, however, will not come with said cable.
The introduction of the new system will not herald the end for the Core or Premium editions. They will still be offered, and may well see a price cut sooner than later as a result of the Elite's arrival.
The most pressing question to those in the know about the Elite's existence was, will it come with built-in HD-DVD capabilities? The answer is no. Although it would seem to be a logical step to counter Sony's PS3 Blu-ray playback, Microsoft has appeared to pull back from one-upping its competition for a change.
All of this hubbub of course invited yet another Sony exec to open his fat mouth and talk a little smack.
"We think every PlayStation 3 owner should have an 'elite' experience, which is why we include an internal hard drive and HDMI output in every PS3 we sell, along with the 50GB of storage capacity on a high-definition Blu-ray disc," said Sony Computer Entertainment's senior vice president of marketing, Peter Dille.
The Elite currently costs $479, and will be release on April 29.

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