New Xbox 360 Design Hits Australia July 1 This Year

by dkpatriarch

© 2010 David Hilton

Well the 360 ‘Slim’ rumours were true: there’s a newly designed Xbox 360 on its way and will be released to Aussies on July 1st, while

Shiny New 360

the US will see it out this coming week.

According to our people at E3 ground zero the new sleek and shiny black Wi-Fi enabled 250 gig Kinect-ready SKU will be here by next month for purchase.

Don’t go dreaming of trading in your old systems to EB Games for the new unit though: they currently offer only AU$59 for your old Xbox 360 system and $9 for the 20gig HDD and $19 for the 60 gig HDD (yes, I checked).  If you have a 2006 model don’t even bother coming in- they won’t take it (so my son is out of luck…).

What will it cost?

Apparently it will retail for AU$449, with the older Elite model dropping from $AU449 to $AU349, so if you don’t like the new design and want to upgrade to the Elite, that’s a great $100 savings you can put toward a game or the newly-named Kinect (or controller-less movement machine formerly known as Natal).

What do you think of the new 360?  Will you buy one? Comment below.

Here’s some specs for the new 360:

(info courtesy of Eurogamer.net)

• Super Elite 250G black sleek and shiny design
• In-built Wi-Fi functionality, at the fastest 300mbps “N” standard
• CPU and GPU are combined into one single package
• A die-shrink from 65nm for both components down to the more power-efficient, cooler 45nm.
• Larger fan with Microsoft promising that the new console is “whisper quiet”
• External hard drive changed: the existing 360 HDDs are no longer compatible at all with new hardware
• Memory units, or MUs, are also a thing of the past and won’t work on the new console
• Existing three USB slots on the current 360 have been bumped up to a far more respectable five
• Touch-sensitive buttons
• External power brick has been shrunk once more, featuring a plug connection that makes the PSUs completely incompatible between the old and new machines
• Toslink optical audio output, meaning that you can connect your 360 to the HDTV via HDMI and run out an additional surround sound feed direct to your amp.

© 2010 David Hilton

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Filed under: Console gaming, E3 2010, Game Industry News, Hardware News, Industry News, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 News Tagged: | Australia release date new Xbox, Australia release date Xbox 360 Slim, new xbox 360, Xbox 360 Slim