Microsoft has officially announced the worst-kept secret in the gaming space, the Xbox 360 Elite. The “Elite” is the same unit that’s been on sale since November 2005 with a HDMI port welded on, bigger hard drive thrown in, and a MacBook inspired matte black finish. Retail price: $480.

What really bothers me is the quality of the hardware. The defect rate of the current Xbox hardware is higher than that of any consumer electronics device I can recall. How does Microsoft address the issue? By rolling out a new unit with the same guts at a higher price point.

Microsoft planned to introduce a redesign of the 360’s innards early this year utilizing a 65nm CPU which would reduce the amount of heat produced, theoretically increasing the reliability of the console. A lot of people thought Elite would house the new CPU, now it seems that plan is in limbo.

It’s not just the CPU that’s problematic. The 360 comes with an enormous power brick, nearly 1/3 the size of the console itself, which has been reported to overheat on its own. This has prompted people to devise less than elegant solutions to combat heat-related crashes. Considering that both the Playstation 3 and AppleTV have internal power supplies and no wide-spread reports of heat related crashes makes me wonder if Microsoft’s hardware engineers have a single clue as to how to design consumer electronics.

Here’s a few questions. Would you buy a TV with a lifespan of less than two years? Would you buy a TV that if left on too long overheats and shuts down? Would you buy a TV with internal components louder than the actual content you are viewing?

My first TV cost me $200 and has lasted almost 20 years. Paying nearly $500 for something 1/10th as reliable is not what gets me, as much as the fear that people are just going to ultimately accept that consumer electronics should no be built to last does. With nearly ten million Xbox 360 owners out there, I’d say my fear is justified.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 at 6:54 am and is filed under Gaming, Microsoft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.