Gadgetory

hey everyone I'm Jeff Bakalar for cnet.com this is a first look at the Xbox 360 II so here it is the Xbox 360 II which Microsoft announced at e3 2013 first things first this is exactly the same as the Xbox 360s there's literally no difference in terms of the functionality when you turn on this it's going to look just like the old one it is exactly the same it's not quicker it's not slower it's exactly the same you're not going to notice any difference there's a few things aesthetically on the boxes that you will notice are different we're talking like millimeters in difference the e is maybe designed a little bit to resemble what the Xbox one is going to look like aesthetically other than that you're not going to find any difference they've taken out a usb on this one so you get four ports instead of five compared to this guy on the bottom there's a little port for the for the hard drive and you can access fairly easily you pop this in and out no problem just like this guy over here and you're all set and done microsoft says the Xbox 360 II runs quieter and cooler yes it definitely is a little quieter cooler I couldn't really tell when I had these two running side-by-side but it's nowhere near the dramatic jump you got from the original white 360 down to this slim 360s so on the Xbox 360 II which is the brand-new version it's actually taking out an optical audio output now if you're like me and you have an older receiver that only uses audio through a separate source outside of HDMI you're come out of luck because there's no way to get separate audio out of this system for surround sound which is kind of a bummer so what you're going to need to do is you're going to need to either have a receiver that uses audio over HDMI which most current ones do or you're going to use this new interface that they put on the back which is a breakout eighth inch AV cable it's 2013 to the day you can still not play xbox in HD out of the box it's been eight years and this is this is what we're dealing with still go give yourself an HDMI cable for five dollars it's fine so another thing people want to know about the new one if it has an IR port in the front so you can hook it up to like your universal remote control yes it has that don't worry also on the front you'll notice compared to the s there's physical buttons this was all touch on the s these are actual physical buttons that you have to push not a big deal I just spit on it a little bit that's gross let's say you have an xbox 360's and you're like oh well there's a new Xbox out should I buy it I don't know why anyone would want to buy this because there's literally no difference in fact you get less for the same amount of money and plus I've been on like Amazon and you have these deals right now where you can get this bundled with Arkham City with Darksiders 2 and it's the same price as this brand-new one that's arguably an inferior box it turns out this is a lot cheaper to make than the 360s so that's what's happening you're getting a console for the same price as what you paid last time but it costs Microsoft a little less to make it so that's what's going on here I guess eventually the S will go away and we'll only be left with the e but for the time being if you're looking for an Xbox 360 for your first time you've never had one before get this one the S is the way to go the e not so sure who it's for it's not for you it's not for me it's really just here to I don't know make more money for Microsoft so that's what I got to say about that that's going to do it for me I'm Jeff Bakalar checking out the Xbox 360 II for cnet.com thank you for watching