Xbox Elite Officially announced: Anti-climax or what?

Seriously, MS are having a laugh, $179 for a 120Gb drive. No wifi in the elite, and no 65nm processor in the elite!

I was quite enthusiastic initially about the Elite and the larger HD, however there's glaring omissions in there and it means it doesn't really match up to the PS3 (not in my opinion) as a "home entertainment hub" or whatever they're calling overpriced consoles these days. As my friend @ MS said

They should have made this the kitchen sink console. 65nm. Hdmi. 120gb wifi hd
dvd. Charge $500. Accept losses on each sale cos ppl wont be spending 500 on
that AND 500 on the ps3. You effectively steal market share.

Pretty much sums it up. According to Engadget the 65nm processor won't go into production till midway through this year, so hold fire on buying the Elite (especially since we don't really need 120Gb yet, not until we get the Video marketplace or IPTV)

Here's the preview from Engadget. It does look nice, but as an xbox loyalist, this is a disappointment to me

Xbox 360 Elite and 120GB drive now official


Posted Mar 28th 2007 12:00AM by Ryan
Block



Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment



HD nerds and Xbox fanboys, the moment you've been waiting for: the Xbox 360 Elite we alerted you about way back when it was
just called the Zephyr has finally been announced. As we previously
mentioned, it will be black, it will have HDMI, and it will have a 120GB drive
(it'll also come bundled with a one month Xbox Live trial) for $479.
Unfortunately, also as mentioned before, it's not going to have the new 65nm
CPUs, it still doesn't have integrated WiFi (Xbox said it's because a study
showed the majority of their customers use Ethernet to connect -- huh?), and it
won't have an integrated HD DVD drive (not that we expected otherwise).
Microsoft did make some marketing decisions since our sources spilled the beans
on this thing though: it's not going to be limited edition, as we previously
had. Instead, the Elite will be a permanent SKU, the third and top-tier Xbox
device. On the solo 120GB drive side of things, that unit will cost $179, and
will come with a cable and software to migrate from your old 20GB drive.
(MSFT wasn't yet sure if that kit would be sold separately for new Elite users
-- sounds like it will be though, and will be priced very reasonably.)

The console will come with component and composite cables, as
well as an HDMI cable. (Take that, Sony and Apple!)
The console will come with a
black wireless controller and black (wired) headset.

Sorry, the new black controller still doesn't have backlit buttons --
don't let the pic fool you.

The black controller, black rechargeable batteries, black headset, and
black Play & Charge kit will all be available in retail for the same price
as the white gear.

The HD DVD drive will not be released in black.

Xbox didn't know what HDMI version the Elite uses, nor whether it
supports PCM 5.1, TrueHD, etc.; it will obviously support 1080p, though.

Sorry, no price cuts on the Premium or Core packs.

Xbox Live Marketplace will also begin vending content from New
Line, Paramount, and Universal (and their properties). (EUROPE DAMMIT,
WE'RE OVER HERE!!)

It's out April 29th in the US and Canada, people. Ready for your second
Xbox? No? Well, it's still cheaper than that other black game console.Update:

Added more pics; also, Major Nelson has live hands-on pics, too.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/28/xbox-360-elite-now-official/