Yesterday Microsoft confirmed what had been widely reported: an Xbox 360 “Elite” console would be released at a price tag $80 more expensive than the “Premium” console, making it nearly as pricey as the $500 PlayStation 3. Starting April 29, the Elite model will include a 120GB hard drive, a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) port, a high-definition cable, and a premium black finish for the console, wireless controller and Xbox LIVE headset.
The new 120GB hard drive also will be sold as a stand-alone accessory to give current Xbox 360 owners greater choice and flexibility in their games and entertainment experience. This has raised issues of its own, as “partial transfer looks to be impossible, since the entire contents of your 20 GB drive will automatically be transferred to the larger 120 GB drive. Once that transfer takes place, everything on your original drive will be permanently deleted. Furthermore, the transfer process has been made into a one-way street as it is impossible to move any transferred data back to an original 20 GB drive. It is also impossible to transfer the data on two or more 20 GB drives to one single 120 GB drive.”
