So the rumours about the Black Xbox (Zephyr) seemed to have been confirmed.
Kotaku.com is reporting this morning that Matt Helgeson who is the senior editor for Game Informer magazine has confirmed that this Xbox Elite is going to be hitting the stores towards the end of April.
The black is only a limited edition colour and after that has been sold out the Elite will change back to the white colour.
The rumours are that the Core model will now be dropped towards the end of the year (November) and that would also be the time that Microsoft announce a price drop for the Premium and this new Elite model.
The Elite does not come with a HD DVD drive and Microsoft have decided that the format hasn’t proven itself. Is that them saying they are giving up on HD DVD?
It also does not come with built in WiFi which is a bad decision in my opinion…
However it does have a HDMI port and Cable :), it also comes with a 120Gb HDD (which can be purchased for your premium), it is black and it is going to cost about R5000.
So do you think it is worth it? Personally I am going to go and pick myself up a Xbox premium instead. I don’t see the value for all that extra cost.
Soource: Kotaku.com
Last Updated: March 21, 2007
Fuzzyman
March 21, 2007 at 10:16
I was planning on purchasing an XBOX 360 this month, but after reading all the speculation about a possible upgraded model, I thought I’d hold off until May.
I’ve spent the last two days reading through at least 50 articles claiming the pending arrival of a new XBOX 360. The common thread through all of them is the 120GB HDD, HDMI output and a 65nm processor (to replace the current 90nm unit) which should result in a cooler running system.
The suggested price is $480, which works out to R3600 (at R7.50 / $), far less than the R5000 you have indicated. The most expensive forecasted price I saw was $550, quoted by a UK website, which equates to R4125 (still less than R5000). R3600 and R4125 are both pretty close to the current Premium unit price.
I think Microsoft is taking the safe route, regarding the High Definition player, by making it an external unit. If HD-DVD loses the format war to Blu-Ray, then it only involves changing the drive unit of the add-on hi-def player, and not removing a (possible) internal HD-DVD drive, if you want to switch to Blu-Ray.
With only five weeks to go before May, I can wait to see what the official news is. If it turns out to be nothing more than speculation, then I’ll just buy the current Premium system in May.
LazySAGamer
March 21, 2007 at 11:16
Doh I forgot that Microsoft bucked the trend with their import pricing. The rule is generally $x10 which is how I got to my R5000….
I revise my guess down to about R4500.. Thanks for pointing that out.
Whether or not the Elite is going to have a 65nm chip is still not confirmed but currently it seems like it won’t which I find suprising.
I have also been holding off on buying a new Xbox until this Zephyr was announced but since it really doesn’t have anything I am personally overly interested in I am just going to get the Premium.
I wonder what the point of the 120Gb HDD is though? Possibly IPTV to be launched at the same time? Then I am going to kick myself 😉