Microsoft Xbox 360

It’s hard to believe this is only Microsoft’s second stab at a games console. The Xbox 360 screams gaming excellence and multimedia refinement. Surely there’s gotta be a catch? Get the ultimate verdict right here…

Pros
The Xbox 360’s main strengths are its huge games library and the superb online gaming service it has in Xbox Live – two things that should appeal to any hardcore gamer worth his or her salt. It also boasts fantastic HD graphics, 5.1 surround sound and the ability to play digital movies, photos and music.

Cons
Impressive as the 360 is, it has a deserved reputation for unreliability: a significant proportion of consoles have had to be repaired at least once by Microsoft, leading the company to slap a three-year warranty on every Xbox 360 ever sold. It’s also very noisy in operation – particularly irritating when you’re watching a DVD.

Verdict
While the Xbox 360 obviously has some hardware reliability issues, you’d still be very unlucky to have yours die on you – and on the flip side the cheap prices, eye-popping graphics and superb selection of killer games makes it a much more tempting prospect for the old school gaming enthusiast than the PS3. Its media streaming talents shouldn’t be overlooked either, and Xbox Live is the best online gaming service hands down, delivering demos, extra content, high definition movie rentals and a top class multiplayer match-up service.

Style

Performance

Games catalogue

Multimedia

Features

Value

Overall

Go to the Xbox 360 product page >>
Read the full Games Consoles group test >>

Get chatting about game consoles over at the PriceRunner forum

Related Articles:

1. Xbox Live and PSN in decline?Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PS3 owners are not rushing to embrace the digital download revolution, according to a new study by NPD. Instead, gamers still appear to prefer getting a boxed copy of a game. Less than 20 per cent of Microsoft Xbox 360 Xbox Live Gold members regularly download games from Xbox Live Arcade. [...]...
2. Xbox 360 tops 30 million salesMicrosoft has announced that its Xbox 360 console has sold over 30 million units worldwide. And that two thirds of owners are “active” users of Xbox Live. In total, those 20 million Xbox Live users have accessed nearly one billion items of downloadable content. “We expect our growth to continue to accelerate” said Don Mattrick, Senior [...]...
3. How to stream movies from your PC to Xbox 360Once you’ve squirreled your movie collection on your PC you’ll want to reap the benefits. What better way than to exploit the powers of your next-gen Xbox 360 to stream an endless flow of flicks to your telly. Here’s how… Step 1: Get networking To stream movies from your PC to Xbox 360 they’ll both need to be [...]...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Rate this article