bit-tech Shopping: Microsoft Xbox 360 Premium System w/ HDMI

Rating: 10

Time with product: 2 Months

Strengths: Ability to hook up with HDMI cable

Weaknesses: Wireless connection is separate

Summary: We originally purchased the Xbox 360 Elite because it came with an HDMI cable and had more memory. We decided that we could purchase a pretty cheap HDMI cable ourselves and we didn't need that much memory so we returned the Elite and purchased the Premium. So far, it is great! We purchased the wireless network adapter to go with this and it hooked up to XBox live in a snap. It is connected with the HDMI cable to our 1080p plasma TV and looks great! We have wireless controllers as well and have no problems at all. We are very happy with this system.

Rating: 10

Time with product: 2

Strengths: Beautifully designed user interface, seamless integration of online content

Weaknesses: Wireless controller frequently disconnects itself

Summary: This version of the Xbox 360 seems to be in the sweet spot right now. The lower Arcade package is missing some critical features, and the Elite and Halo editions don't seem to be able to justify their price premium.I recently purchased both an Xbox 360 and a Playstation 3, and so far I'm more impressed with the Xbox. The whole experience is more seamless. I love the fact that games just update themselves when patches are released - amazing!Word on the street is that the Xbox 360 has a hardware advantage over the PS3, but it's hard to see this in practice. It depends much more on the specific game. My only gripe is that the "sleep" period on the wireless controller is mcuh too short. I'm constantly having to wake it up. In addition, the controller frequently disconnects right in the middle of game play. So far, all games have handled this well (freezing the action and popping up a "please reconnect the controller" message), but it could be very annoying/fatal for online play.

Rating: 10

Time with product: 6

Strengths: Online play, HD graphics, great games!

Weaknesses: RRoD

Summary: This console, like the previous Xbox 360 consoles, is still vulnerable to the "Red Ring of Death" failure, but with new heatsinks it is at least less likely to fail than previous versions.The built-in HDMI in this version is a great addition and a superior HD connection that makes 1080p possible on more TVs. Along with this difference there is the same thing that makes the 360 great in the first place - awesome games. I look forward to my gaming future.

Rating: 10

Time with product: 3

Strengths: Online play; multiple audio/video connections; great video quality and selection of games

Weaknesses: No built-in wireless internet; potentially high failure rate

Summary: The Xbox 360 premium console is a fantastic video game console, especially if you like first person shooters. Although it has been available for a couple of years, this new version finally added an HDMI port so you can connect to your HDTV with a single cable and get fantastic video and audio quality. It comes with a component cable, which looks great in standard gaming, but if you want to use the DVD upscaling abilities to play a movie, you need either a VGA or HDMI cable. I tried both and think that they are very similar in quality, although HDMI provides a little better color and much better sound. It is definitely the way to connect your TV given the choice. Only minor drawback is that Microsoft does not provide a HDMI cable in the box, so you have to purchase it separately, but they can be found online for under $10 fairly easy.The online gaming community is by far the best currently available of the three major consoles. There are thousands of users online at any given time and you can always find people to play against, especially with modern shooters like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4. Another great feature is the ability to download a playable demo of almost any currently available game and check out the first couple of levels. There is a huge selection of Xbox Arcade games, as well as the typical disc-based games. They also have a small, but expanding selection of movie and TV episodes which can be downloaded and watched for a small fee, many in glorious 1080p hi-def. This is all available for a very reasonable $50 per year if you want online play, or totally free if you simply want to download and play locally.Overall, I would consider this console the top choice for teens and older. It is cheaper than PS3, has better graphics than Wii, and has the best (by far) online community.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 2 Weeks

Strengths: Now has HDMI. Some small design improvements are supposed to reduce possibility RRoD

Weaknesses: 20G fills up suprisingly fast with downloads.

Summary: The Xbox 360 is a great console and the newest version adds an HDMI port which is a real bonus for high-definition televisions. Just as important, there have been some minor design improvements meant to improve reliability in the 360. If you don't have a 360, now is the time to buy.