With the revelation that the black Xbox 360, also known as "Zephyr" is in fact real (the image above is a dev kit, by the way), Engadget has gathered some concrete details from a trusted source. Some of these details were uncovered earlier this morning, but some questions -- particularly the notion of built in WiFi -- are brand new. See the fresh details below.
First of all, the black Xbox 360 will be officially known as the Xbox 360 Elite.
The Elite will be manufactured in limited quantities, possibly a few hundred thousand.
Everything included with the unit will be black, including the case, controller, and Live headset. The packaging will be new as well.
The Elite will cost $479 and will be sold alongside Premium and Core packs.
Eventually, a white version of the Elite will replace Xbox 360 Premium packs. Presumably, this will happen shortly after the Elite is sold out. Once this happens, Premiums will include the 120 GB HDD and HDMI.
There is no solid date for the Elite-to-Premium transition, though it is estimated to happen late summer or early fall.
The Elite runs cooler than the current Premium, but it is unknown if it takes advantage of 65nm chips.
Prices could remain the same when Premiums convert to 120GB/HDMI, but a price cut may still occur once the 65nm chips are implemented.
The HD-DVD player will definitely not be bundled with the Elite and Microsoft stands by its claim that it has no plans to ever integrate an HD-DVD drive into the Xbox 360.
There are no plans to integrate WiFi into the Elite or future Premium packs.
So there you have it, everything we know about the Elite until Microsoft decides to send out an official press release. Now that you know all the details (especially the bit about the Elite running cooler), do you plan on picking up an Xbox 360 Elite?
Linear Mode
