Xbox One vs Xbox 360
Microsoft’s new edition of gaming console was long anticipated surface, but it was great seeing it close at the E3 show in LA. It is to be released later this year, and Microsoft expects it to pick up sales soon afterwards. A popular question people keep asking me is whether producing gaming consoles is really a necessity. I have two opinions on that, but let me continue with the perspective of a manufacturer. The target of a manufacturer is to make profits and as such, will only produce what can be sold at a profitable margin. They tend to carry out numerous market surveys before even starting the design of a new product let alone putting that to the market. As such, we can ascertain the fact that there is enough demand for gaming consoles. As peculiar as it might sound to some of the conservative geeks, gaming experience is better and more immersive in a gaming console than another computing platform. It’s not that you can’t make any other computing platform more immersive and better, but that takes some work and not everybody is interested in do-it-yourself solution compared to a bespoke one. So let us dive right in to the comparison today by providing a side by side comparison of Microsoft Xbox One and Microsoft Xbox 360.
Xbox One Review
Xbox one was long rumored and the exact specifications are still not revealed. However we know significantly more about Xbox One after the E3 show, and we are expecting to give an overview about the gaming console. Xbox One has 8 core Microsoft custom CPU with 8GB DDR3 memory and a dedicated GPU which is to be announced. The built in hard drive is 500GB which would provide plenty of storage to stack up your favorite games and movies and music. It provides fast USB 3.0 ports along with HDMI in and out ports. Microsoft has updated the optical drive to a Blue-Ray / DVD hybrid which is a timely move. The Ethernet and Wi-Fi ensure the Xbox One can be connected at all times which is highly advantageous to consume Xbox Live services and the cloud storage provided. That covers the Xbox One spec sheet in a nutshell.
Talking about the availability of games, Microsoft has announced that Xbox One will have 15 exclusive titles within its first year although some of them will only be released in late 2014s. The lack of backward compatibility means you can’t use your Xbox 360 gaming stack and have to rework the stack with the Xbox One compatible games. Fortunately, Microsoft has decided to lift off the ban on used games so now consumers can buy and sell used games as much as they want. The controller of the Xbox One looks a lot like the one in the Xbox 360, but it is slightly lighter and more comfortable. Regular gamers would like the fact that the battery pack is now built in to the controller without bulge on the back. With the available USB port on the controller, one can easily make the controller wired or wireless. Even for Xbox 360, Microsoft had a version of Kinect sensor, now with Xbox One, there is a new Kinect sensor in town and Microsoft promises that it is faster, diverse and more responsive than the previous edition. It is also designed in such way that the outlook visually resembles that of the Xbox One. The 1080p camera in the Kinect is used to chat with Skype and it also enables users to utilize voice commands to do things with their Xbox One.
Xbox 360 Review
Xbox 360 was released sometime back and is still in business according to Microsoft. However, the one in business is a modified version which we don’t have details about right now. We will be talking about the Xbox 360 250GB edition that was there before the new one. Xbox 360 is powered by 3.2GHz PowerPC tri core Xenon processor with 500MHz ATI Xenos GPU. It has 512MB GDDR3 RAM with a built in memory of 250GB that was well enough for the requirements of games released at that time. It has HDMI in and out as well as Analog AV out, composite video, S-Video and VGA output which provides the user with a range of options. Xbox 360 stays connected using either Ethernet or Wi-Fi where the user gets to consume the services of Xbox Live. It features a DVD Drive as it was the convention for an optical drive at the time.
The controller of the Xbox 360 is wireless and quite sensitive to your gestures. Microsoft introduced the Kinect sensor for Xbox 360 although it is not mandatory to use the gaming console. There were relatively few games that featured Kinect control to make it extremely popular, but ones that were offered were extremely immersive. Xbox 360 currently has a huge library of gaming titles that can be played and Microsoft promises that 360 won’t go off the production immediately. There won’t be as much exclusive games as it used to be for Xbox 360, but few titles are expected to be released nonetheless. Xbox 360 enables users to access services like Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, Xbox Music, Xbox Video etc.
A Brief Comparison Between Xbox One and Xbox 360
• Xbox One is powered by 8 core Microsoft custom CPU with 8GB DDR3 RAM with a dedicated GPU while Xbox 360 is powered by 3.2GHz PowerPC tri-core Xenon with 500MHz ATI Xenos GPU.
• Xbox One has 500GB internal storage while Xbox 360 has 250GB internal storage.
• Xbox One has a redesigned controller that provides wired and wireless communication while Xbox 360 has a wireless controller.
• Xbox One has USB 3.0 ports while Xbox 360 has USB 2.0 ports.
• Xbox One has BlueRay drive while Xbox 360 has DVD drive.
• Xbox One comes bundled with a mandatory Kinect device while the Kinect is optional for Xbox 360.
• Xbox One is priced at $499 while Xbox 360 is priced at $300.
Conclusion
It is actually a pleasure to upgrade from an old version to a new version at times when the old version has served its purpose and becomes frustrating. However, we need to determine whether Xbox 360 has run out of its lifespan. According to Microsoft, it’s still alive and kicking, so we are guessing that’s a good sign. With the vast gaming library available for Xbox 360, it certainly is a great choice as a gaming console for a beginner. However, if you want to get in the big league with all the super titles that come out in late 2013s and throughout 2014, you have no choice but to stick with Xbox One. Another incentive might be the mandatory Kinect which will provide an amazingly immersive gaming experience if the producers are willing to release more titles to be controlled by the Kinect.