Not bad, not bad at all (Microsoft Xbox 360 Arcade)

Member Name: csao62

Product:	Microsoft Xbox 360 Arcade
Date:	18/04/09 (157 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great games, HD, light and compact.

Disadvantages: Looks cheap, No hdmi cable, No HDD

This console is a great choice for your High definition gaming alone. Boasting an impresive line up of bleeding edge games, and an impressive back catalogue from the two years it had been out so far. With an inbuilt high definition multimedia interface, or HDMI for shot, the 360 arcade is fully compatible with HD televisions, which is more than can be said for its older brothers and sisters, the Premium. Unfortunately to experience this great feature fully you need to fork out for the extra money to buy hdmi cables. Once you've set this machine up, its a breeze to start playing games, simple plug and play as it is with all consoles. The 360 pumps out its games usualy in HD ready resolutions unless you descide otherwise, and this looks fantastic, delivering vibrant colours and great graphics (a few dodgy games not withstanding).
The lack of a hard drive means that downloading demos, ripping music cds and saving masses of video or game data is unfortunately out of the question on this basic unit, without perchasing expensive upgrades. The memory card that the unit comes with is more than enough for just playing games however. Online play is also made much more difficult for many due to the lack of inbuilt wireless on the console, although this is easily overcome through a nice long ethernet cable from your router or from a bridged laptop.
Speaking of online play, microsoft offers a great online experience with various methods of contacting others through the xbox, from voice and video chat to ingame messages. The playing of games online with people from around the world in mostly lag free environments, or indeed just your friends is a major plus, but the subscription required for actualy playing online is a downside to it.
The unit comes with a wireless controler, powered by AA bateries, which is great, if a bit bulky, but very responsive for even the most accurate thumbs in CoD4. The build quality of the actual unit is nice, if not great. The white plastic looks slightly cheap, and the lightness of the unit makes it feel inexpensive and alround budget and feels easily breakable. Unfortunately in older models this outside feel was only matched by its failure record with the 3 red rings, or a catastrophic failure of the hardware. Luckily most of these kniks have been ironed out for the arcaed version, leaving you with a reliable unit.
In conclusion, the arcade version is perfect for cheaply playing the best games in HD, but if you want HD films and a harddrive you should probably look for one of the more expensive models.

Summary: Fantastic for games alone, not the best allrounder though.