Xbox 360

Xbox 360: Great gaming performance but problematic reliability

Like most video game consoles, a dramatic price drop was the big news in 2009 for Microsoft's top-of-the-line Xbox 360 Elite (*Est. $300), which is now selling for $100 less than it was last year. The stripped-down Xbox 360 Arcade (*Est. $200) maintains the same price as last year. These are the only two versions currently available; the mid-tier Xbox 360 Pro has been discontinued. For a limited time, Microsoft is also offering a Modern Warfare 2 Elite (*Est. $400) console, which comes with a 250 GB hard drive and a copy of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2."

The matte black Xbox 360 Elite has a 120 GB removable hard drive, HDMI output and a wireless controller and headset. The white Xbox 360 Arcade (*Est. $200) comes with a 256 MB memory card, but it lacks a hard drive and the wireless headset. Additionally, while the high-end Xbox 360 Elite is backwards-compatible with the last generation Xbox games, the Arcade can only play Xbox 360 games due to the lack of a hard drive for the required emulators.

Overall, experts recommend skipping the Xbox 360 Arcade in favor of the Elite. "We cannot fully recommend the Xbox 360 Arcade for the fact that it is missing a hard drive -- somewhat of a must-have accessory for the console if you're interested in saving game progress or playing original Xbox games," says Jeff Bakalar at CNET.

On the other hand, reviewers say the Xbox 360 Elite is a good console for serious gamers. With an extensive game collection and fantastic graphics, it earns several expert recommendations. CNET names it one of the best video game consoles on the market, and it scores a Recommended label from Britain's TrustedReviews.com. Most professional reviews date from when the Elite was first launched in 2007, but the recent price drop only serves to increase the value. The Xbox 360 Elite boasts CD/DVD playback, and experts say the DVD player has improved image quality over previous versions, but it does not support Blu-ray Discs like the PlayStation 3. It also doesn't include Wi-Fi, which is supported in both the Wii and PS3.

Overall, the Xbox 360 Elite gets good reviews from owners on review sites like Amazon.com and BestBuy.com. Users love the fantastic game collection and online gaming at Xbox Live (*Est. $50 per year), and the wireless controller gets high marks for comfort and ease of use. Some users complain that the 2009 Elite ships without an HDMI cable -- a stingy omission for a $300 purchase. We also saw a good number of reliability complaints.

In the past, experts and users alike complained that the Xbox 360 was noisy and prone to overheating. However, changes to the processor and cooling fan were said to have eliminated these issues. Overheating was blamed as the prime reason for the dreaded "red ring of death" (RRoD) general system failure that's been the source of lots of user complaints as well as a class-action lawsuit. The Xbox 360 is covered by a one-year warranty, however the company has extended that to three years for RRoD failures. In April 2009, Microsoft also extended its warranty for three years to cover the E74 error, another common complaint that indicates a general hardware failure.

While there are reports that the RRoD may be on the decline, it appears that the Xbox 360 lineup still suffers from some reliability issues. For the first time in 2009, PCMag.com included video game consoles in its annual Reliability and Service Survey, and the results weren't good for Microsoft. The Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3 share the Reader's Choice award -- both get higher ratings from owners than the Xbox 360. In addition, 29 percent of Xbox 360 owners note that their console broke down at some point, compared to 7 percent for the PlayStation 3 and just 2 percent for the Wii.