Xbox 360 Slim vs. Xbox 360: A Quick Hands-On Comparison

June 18, 2010 By Digital Trends Staff

Check out our quick hands-on video comparing the new Xbox 360 Slim vs. the original 360 console.

We took a minute to outline the differences between the two Xbox 360 models. A few of the new features the 360 Slim adds are built-in Wi-Fi, a larger 250 GB hard drive, and 2 additional USB ports.

Also check out our Xbox 360 Slim Review and Comparison Photos.

Showing 87 comments

Mohamed El-Rouby at 1:33am 8th February 2011 If you want to buy a 360 - compare the old (post 10-2008 aka Jasper/12.1 amp) look and the new slim: Positives for the slim: Looks like a PS3 Two extra USB ports (woopty do) Low failure rate to E74 error (e.g. previously known as RROD) Smaller Quieter Comes built in with Wifi-N (Wifi-N can be added with the old one too) Works more reliable with the Kinetic (although all Xboxs do work with Kinetic) Better air circulation due to design (Valhalla)
1. Mohamed El-Rouby at 1:33am 8th February 2011 Positives of the older (post 10-2008 models e.g. Jasper): Low failure rate to Error 74 (e.g. RROD) ** ABILITY TO MOD/CHIP to use backups ** (not something you can do with the new Slim) Can use older memory cards/drives from older Xboxes Supports HDMI (although many pre-Jasper did too) like the Slim I don't recommend anyone to buy any Xboxes older than Jasper.
Steve at 4:52pm 14th January 2011 Poor Mike in Australia. He thinks he's funny but he's not. But I do believe he has no g/f and never will! LOL!!! If you use your Xbox 360 to stream video, watch Netflix or DVD's, just the fact that the new slim is 10 times quieter than the old 360 might be a good enough reason to get the slim.
nick a at 11:26am 4th January 2011 I just bought the slim. Im impressed. I now can do hdmi.im shocked nobody in here has mentioned this capability in which the old launch models of 360 do not have. With the hd components some tvs will tell you your putting out 1080p. Its bulls***. You need hdmi and slim has this. And all the kinks are gone. Let microsoft do the magic. Their at the top for a reason.
1. Mike at 9:02pm 4th January 2011 I am quite empty and my xbox & Facebook make up my whole life so it's mandatory I change to a new machine even if my existing one works perfectly. Spending hard-earned money on something that I already have is very important to me. My pro 20gb has 3 USB ports already and although I don't even use one of them, I need an extra two. I have no girlfriend and will never will. Nothing is more important to me than a console with a new look and Facebook. Mike, Sydney Australia.
Taha at 4:46am 22nd November 2010 Hey,,,will this new Xbox 360 slim:s Original drive play pirated games???..plz reply!!
Paul at 9:25am 12th November 2010 The old and new XBox 360 work with Kinect. Difference is that with the old 360, the Kinect needs a separate power supply.
jules at 7:13pm 11th October 2010 can some one please explain to me what the red ring of death means am new at this ????
1. Noah at 6:45pm 16th November 2010 I think.... I dont have one but i am hoping to get the new slim. Anyways... Lots of people have been getting red rings on the xbox on the power button and then after the rings it does not work anymore.... :P i dont know how or why but.... Thats what ive heard..
2. When Bricks go BAD! at 7:49am 4th December 2010 The red ring of death was the end of your gaming experience with the first Xbox 360s, the 4 green LEDs surrounding the power button would light up Red. There were at least two sources of this that I know of. The first was the overheating of the console, which pretty much cooked the internals. The second that I experiences after three console switch outs, was the power supply being damaged by overheating. That took six months to get corrected. Microsoft replaced the console within a couple of weeks of each other, but the power brick took six months. They lost the brick and it took that long to get ahold of someone that spoke English that could understand the term "TRACKING NUMBER" and "Signed for", but I'm not bitter, no, not at all. In this lesson... RROD is all Baaaaaaaaaaad!!
surimax77 at 1:21am 11th October 2010 well
Aldwill at 2:48pm 14th September 2010 The g/n wifi, kinectic ready and combined graphic/cpu are pluses. But I am more interested in performance.. Does the 4G ram and combined gpu/cpu give you an improvement over an elite with 120G HD. Also does the new slim version support the external HD drive? My original elite hit the RROD and Microsoft replaced it with a brand new one. I have not had any problems with it..
xmc X at 11:26pm 5th September 2010 ive been looking at alot of reviews for this console, i preordered the halo reach limited edition version, im still running on the old school PRO (20gb HD) so i figured its time for an upgrade. and i agree with the people above, get your faces straight before dissing something.
lsd at 5:11pm 31st August 2010 this is the botom line if your box works keap it if it dies like mine did get the newest thang i did and its well worth it
Marc at 7:12pm 9th August 2010 everyone should keep there xbox.if you want memory just get a HD on ebay.i got a 250 gb HD for 60.00.And for the the wifi just buy a wireless adapter and again everything is cheaper on ebay.one more thing if you like the new desgin just go on ebay and buy skin or go to http://www.skinit.com/index.php.thats so easy and you save alot of money. ps.you can still get the red ring on the slim
Nicholas at 5:11pm 8th August 2010 The new xbox 360 has a 'Program' or what ever you want to call it any ways it has a warning when the system detects it is to hot it will display a warning before any damage will occur. You are saving 100 for wifi. The new wifi is like the ethernet cable speed. So you will have around the same price range with wifi with the new 360 and the elite. It may not come with games until reach 360 but it doesnt over heat as much. So my conclusion buy a new 360 over the old one. That is my opinion.
Bond,James Bond at 4:34am 6th August 2010 i Just sold my ps3 and i'm getting this..girlfriend has a ps3 anyways,but i'm getting this because all the issues have been sorted out..i've went through 7 xbox 360s because of all their problems.Now its finally been fixed!!!...wifi!..250gb!..quiet!!...doesn't overheat!..sexy!..smaller!..wooohhhhooooo...and Microsoft are going to manually let me put my games i've downloaded onto my previous 2 consoles onto the new xbox360 slim for all gamertags to play because my other consoles have busted on me...awww they have good hearts.
ollie at 1:00am 1st August 2010 I have a xbox 360 (the original white ones that came out in launch, though this is my 3rd xbox as i got the red ring of death 2 times), 20GB hard drive, works fine everything ok, is it worth upgrading to the XBOX 360 Slim?
mra at 5:46pm 27th July 2010 is the new one good or older elite
-Grieldo Lulaj at 7:28pm 15th July 2010 i would of goten it but there is no point.... unless it does not get the red ring of death
1. RX-8 at 1:24am 28th July 2010 This would appear to be physically impossible. From my understanding, they omitted the red LEDs.
chewy90 at 7:00pm 13th July 2010 oh and of course three extra usb ports =]
chewy90 at 6:55pm 13th July 2010 no your totally wrong, they've changed the CPU and GPU with a new hybrid chip and put one big A$$ fan in there oh and there may be similar rrod problems but it wont be rrod as they have taken out the red leds so hah =] also they have a new mother board, and the power block is small AND has a fan in it, im presuming Microsoft took the over heating issues to hart. I wouldn't be getting this if my current xbox hadn't just suffered the video card issue( E74?) and that model was one of the original release models, obviously it will over heat if you put it in a cupboard your asking it to happen!
rdoyle21 at 8:46pm 11th July 2010 people. dont trade in or buy the new xbox's. nobody actually knows if any difference in design will prevent problems such as overheating and or red ring of death witch contrary to popular belief is actually a problem with clamps for the motherboard putting stress on the gpu NOT OVERHEATING. also if we think back, it took the original 360 a year to a year and a half to develop these problems. these new 360's have been out for what, a month now?? and we are all safeley asuming that microsoft fixed all the issues. definitly not true. the new 360's look is simply to lure in customers to buy it. i bet if you opened up the new one, the only diffrence you would see would be a new addition of wireless card onto motherboard. not to mention the need of a transfer cable to get all your stuff off of the old hd. i repair the original 360's. there is only a few flaws in the design that cause issues but the workaround for these is extremely difficult and expensive from a buisness standpoint. you have to think of it from a buisness standpoint. the 360 did great sales-wise until the issues. then it all slowed down. so what better (and cheaper) way to kick things back up but with a new case design and a cheap-o wireless card and tell people it's better? microsoft would be pushin their budget to put together a whole new system with better parts than to use the same ones they already have stocked up from the original 360. i still love the 360 and think it is a great system so stick with the originals people. ps: the xbox elite and xbox arcade are , hardware wise, the exact same minus the hard drive and a new headset, and a new black finish (to lure customers in .... again) microsoft has used this ploy on many occasions xbox windows xp to vista windwos server 2003 to 2008 all this stuff is basicly the same with a new, fresher coat of paint on it sorry about my 20 min rant. all i'm sayin is give it some time. only time will tell
Mario at 12:56pm 9th July 2010 one major reason to get the new one is if you re planning on getting a kinect. The new slims have a port specifically for the camera where you will have to buy an adapter for the older models. Its worth the upgrade because kinect will already cost $150 and the adapter will probably run you another $50.
Chris at 3:14am 3rd July 2010 Should i trade my Xbox 360 elite (120 gb) which i got last year, for this new xbox 360??
1. azzaa at 5:31am 6th July 2010 if you dont mind the wifi or the new design, dont trade it, just buy a biger HD if you want
zimmma at 3:25am 28th June 2010 I'm getting it cuz I have two consols with no hard drive just memory cards and its loud and I don't have the money for a wi fi adapter so run a cord out my window to my downstairs (ghetto). So the new one is well worth it. If u want it get it if not then don't . Keep gaming!!! :)
1. Christopher Temple at 2:31pm 19th February 2012 tHE LAGE hd IS A RIP. Buy the case and a Laptop drive of you size and save a bundle. All it is, is a SATA Laptop drive.
mike at 1:35am 27th June 2010 you guys are dumb if you think it is not going to have problems with the slim just because it doesnt have the red ring of death it still has problems even more than the old xbox look it up on youtube and google im getting the new slim because im getting a 3 year warranty at walmart its only 30 dollars for 3 years so well worth it in total it would be 299.99+28.33+22.98(tax)=351.30
RYan at 10:16pm 26th June 2010 Getting this for one reason, I tore my old 360 apart to get a bucket full of dust and crap out of it, for it to only freeze two seconds later after i fixed it. So, being out of a warrenty, I wanted to try my luck with the new one, hopefully this one wont freeze!
Chris at 9:55pm 25th June 2010 I bought one for the reasons mentioned. It is very quiet compared to the old. A lot cooler(temp wise) I had 60gb hard drive this is 250gb!! Built in WiFi (N the speedy stuff) ...also the biggest point is the elite is selling for the same price...at least right now.
IF U SEEK AMY at 12:42am 23rd June 2010 Looks really good, but my 360 hasn't let me down yet so I think I'll just stick with it. Thanks for the comparison review :)
360 at 7:21pm 22nd June 2010 i just order the slim im pumped it has a bigger hard drive touch sensitive quieter fans and looks awesome.
Juan Macy at 8:16pm 21st June 2010 It seems to me like the only difference in size is the length of the system. The slim's back end sticks farther out. A lot of junk in that trunk.
Video: Xbox 360 vs Xbox 360 Slim hands on | GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology news at 3:16am 21st June 2010 [...] Digital Trends] Grab our free newsletterReceive our latest articles in your email inbox completely free. [...]
reneeswifts at 7:49pm 20th June 2010 The real improvement that I can see with this is its connectivity with KINECT and an expandable storage capacity. Although, I do welcome its new features like (zune connectivity and ESPN 3) Somehow, there has been no increase with its procs, graphics card or even memory but MW2 loads a bit faster on the new Slim 360.
360S at 7:21pm 20th June 2010 I have the pro (20gb), i will probably trade this in for the new one as: 1. BIG hard drive 2. Built in Wi-Fi 3. It looks cool I dont think the next gen consoles will be out for some time as what will they offer with this gen we have seen HD and Motion Sensing - what will the next gen offer (3-D) i personally think 3-d ruins things but thats just me Def upgrade.
zlajs at 6:50pm 20th June 2010 i think that slim has 90 Nm's
sayim at 1:49pm 20th June 2010 OMD,man the old xbox 360 is exactly the same, the performence is the same, nd i dont need a 250GB hard drive, but you can buy and 250gb hard drive for the old xbox 360, and buy an nwi-fi adapter, no point, and the old xbox 360 will last longer if you just take good care of it, i just love xbox 360s,
Xbox 360 Fancast E3 2010 Special 1 (Of 1) at 6:09pm 19th June 2010 [...] out our quick hands-on video comparing the new Xbox 360 Slim vs. the original 360 [...]
Kev H. at 7:55pm 19th June 2010 i traded in 2 xbox 360's with no hard drive on either at gamestop and somehow got a ton of credit because i walked out paying 56 bucks for the $300 360 and the $20 transfer cable plus tax!
1. JAG at 9:50pm 20th June 2010 theres a deal going on if you put it towards a new console you get 75 bucks for the old 360
ReVeLaTeD at 12:40pm 19th June 2010 Warranty is the ONLY reason to consider trading. For me, it doesn't matter. I'll use my Elite until it dies - IF it dies - which at that point I'll just get the 720 or whatever the next one is, provided it has backwards compatibility.
phil at 10:33am 19th June 2010 i have new 360 ultra elite with wireless adaptor nd der both prety much de same
1. ioman at 4:27pm 19th June 2010 Yeah, the Elite and the Slim both have 250GB drives right?
  1. Starbug1S1 at 12:30pm 20th June 2010 The first Elite had 120GB. The newer Elites come with 250GB, a second controller, and some games.
    azzaaa at 5:28am 6th July 2010 the elites have gone down heaps, so i think its better to get elites...if you dont care about design and wif, but if you a gamer its better to have a wired connection because of laggg :)
anon at 10:05am 19th June 2010 trade it in! The old design was flawed. Think about it, Red Ring of Death, prone to scratching CDs, freakin loud a$$ fans, tiny amounts of hard drive space (20GB?), you had to pay extra for a wireless adapter! The new one is Red Ring of Death FREE, quieter, "less prone to scatch CDs", huge amounts of storage, wireless and its SEXAY ! SO YES I WOULD TRADE IT IN! ITS GONNA BE WORTH THE UPGRADE !
1. Mike at 2:34pm 19th June 2010 well said aaron,hehe
2. cksdgsdg at 6:14pm 19th June 2010 ehem RROD free because it DOESNT HAVE ANY RED LED LIGHTS!! errors are now displayes when the middle power icon turns from green to red
  1. Monte46N2 at 10:06pm 15th July 2010 Good point! "RROD free because it DOESNT HAVE ANY RED LED LIGHTS!!" That's a funny way of putting it! All kidding aside, I really hope the Slim360 lives up to its expectations. I've been putting off getting an Xbox for a while, and this new sleek model may have been just what I was waiting for! : )
3. Keaggan at 11:32pm 20th June 2010 Sounds like the PS3 I got when I traded my 360 in...of course I have blue and an awesome media center. And this was 2 years ago!! Nice to see xbox finally catching (sort of) up with modern times.
trigger the horse at 9:58am 19th June 2010 mmmm does look better but what realy are you getting a black box i would have liked to see blueray and windows media center that realy does work with windows 7 i think after all the things that dont work and over heating red ring of death dvd roms crapping out ect on the old xbox 360 im going to wate and see what happends to this one i do have a box360 the better one with hdmi ect with only one problem thats the media player center crashing the box everytime i goto use it small problem but i think if somethings there it should be 100% working
1. anon at 3:21pm 24th June 2010 What are you talking about? Media Center works fine with Windows 7.
What is the Xbox 360 | Rainy Technology at 1:20am 19th June 2010 [...] Xbox 360 Slim vs. Xbox 360: A Quick Hands-On Comparison [...]
Ebanks at 8:05am 19th June 2010 I thought that my warranty was up over a year ago, but when I got the red eye of death recently I went to xbox.com and registered my 360 so I could check to see if I might be covered. Turns out the warranty was up, but there is a section that asks you what is wrong with your system. I chose the "3 red lights" option and it said that my warranty would be extended to repair or replace my system. Since I bought it in 2006, I think that's a pretty good deal. They're even sending a prepaid shipping label.
1. Starbug1S1 at 12:26pm 20th June 2010 I've always liked the way Microsoft has treated me with there warranties, even though there phone services are speaking in a different dialect isn't very well planned. I've had my 360 since launch in 2005 and the warranty finally went out last holiday (2009). Even my XBox Original warranty just ran out in 2008! And I've had that since launch of 2001!! Will do business with them again.
seymour at 7:42am 19th June 2010 It's also been stated that there will be a transfer kit available for about $20.
1. Brandon at 3:39pm 20th June 2010 I got it for 10 actually.
Nome at 6:09am 19th June 2010 Im gettin it for one reason, its sexy as hell.
Starbug1S1 at 5:32am 19th June 2010 I'm getting the upgrade, for 3 reasons. a) the 250 GB HD, b) WIFI connection, and c) warranty. My old 360 has no warranty anymore. I want a warranty. After the trade-ins through GameStop, it's only gonna cost me about $50 for the upgrade.
1. ioman at 6:43am 19th June 2010 Good luck transferring your games etc over. From what I understand the new slim is not compatible with the older memory units or hard drives.
  1. dawgnjax at 7:13am 19th June 2010 all you have to do is use a thumb drive to transfer any saved game files you want...everything else is tied to your profile on live and can just be downloaded again
    ioman at 4:26pm 19th June 2010 Good call, I didn't think about that.
    Starbug1S1 at 12:16pm 20th June 2010 I already own the transfer cable for the Hard Drive. I use to own a 20GB, and when I upgraded to a 120GB it came with a transfer cable. So, I'm using it once again. When it's done, I can trade in my 120GB hard drive separately. GameStop is doing a decent trade-in right now. A week ago, it was a much lower trade-in. http://www.gamestop.com/gs/landing/xb360250trade/...
ioman at 4:36am 19th June 2010 The graphics are still the same. The hard drive is the same size as the latest 360 anyways. Why would anyone want to trade their old 360 in for this if they didn't need to? Doesn't make sense to me.
1. John H. Poisel at 5:13am 19th June 2010 trading in doesnt make sense to me either. however since i am buying a whole new xbox i might consider it
  1. John H. Poisel at 5:19am 19th June 2010 also the new hard drive design sort of sucks if there isn't a way to hook up an old one to the new xbox or the new hard drive into an old xbox, stillsounds worth it if ur looking for a new xbox though
    ioman at 6:42am 19th June 2010 Good point. Supposedly the new slim is not compatible with the old hard drive or memory units. How would you be able to transfer your saved games etc over?
    Jeremy at 4:23pm 19th June 2010 This is the problem solver - a HD data transfer cable from MS: http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.as...
    ioman at 4:25pm 19th June 2010 Ah good call. Someone said you can use a thumbdrive too and that would work.
    anthony at 1:19am 13th July 2010 just throw a flash drive in your xbox move everything u want to the flash drive then plug it into the slim and move everything from the flash drive to that xbox and bam all ur stuff u want is there
    
    Dan Gaul at 4:06pm 21st June 2010 I don't like the way the hard drive pulls out. They use a piece of fabric that you are supposed to pull on. Seems like that could easily rip.
2. uae at 6:50am 9th December 2010 the way this works is by making production for original xbox add-ons such as hard drive way less so that people switch to the new one.
joshua at 9:23pm 18th June 2010 I work at Gamestop. Today was crazy. We only got 6 of these 360s and about 50 people came in asking about them. A couple people traded in their old 360s to get the new one. I want to warn people not to do this. If you have a old 360 don't trade it in to get the slim because it looks cooler. If you do your wasting your money. The new 360s won't be any more reliable than the ones that are out now. Save your money, keep your old 360, and don't bother with these new ones unless you absolutely want to. I'm not a 360 hater. I own one. I've also been through 4. Personally I prefer the PS3.
1. Ronin at 4:39am 19th June 2010 You did not provide any comparison of the slim vs regular model. Your only reasoning was that you have been through 4, which suggests 4 older models (most likely ones w/o jasper chip). The articles on other respectable website such as Kotaku informed that slim model uses lesser electricity and means there will be lesser chance of overheating. The only downfall about the slim model I can think of is the wifi and the higher chance of lag to occur.
2. jo daddy at 5:17am 19th June 2010 wow you work at gamestop and you dont know what you're talking about. the slim comes with a new integrated gcpu which make room for a larger heat sink. This allows heat to disperse more efficiently which will make it more realible. not to mention the power supply... it only puts out 135w which isn't even enough to power the modern elite(jasper). you're not a 360 hater you're jus bias toward ps3. get you facts straight before you put down a product you sell. oh and quit gamestop, it would do the company a lot of good
  1. dewa7langit at 5:34am 19th June 2010 totally agree..
  2. crow at 1:00pm 19th June 2010 I agree. It's newer cause of the processor and redisign. Touch sensitive controls...new...mega quiet...bonus and new....bigger hard drive...controller is more responsive. Wouldn't you want your company to make money and not discourage away from it. You have been through 4....thankfully I have never had to send mine in....and if gamestop is going to give me 200.00 for my xbox with the trade in special and 272.00 for my wii and some games...buy new 360 slim and still have 170.00 in credit...by all means....but all gamestop employees and I am sure other cretail companies need to go through a retail management or business class....your opionion is appreciated...but if microsoft is going to not produce any other 360s then this one...embrace it.
    ioman at 4:26pm 19th June 2010 Hard drive is the same size.
3. GOLDY at 7:40pm 19th June 2010 you work at gamestop--that says it all--the crappiest, rip off store around-should have known you were a ps3 fan boy
4. Dan at 8:44am 22nd June 2010 Quick question, Does the old Xbox work with Kindle or Natal or is it Xbox Slim only thnx you
  1. Starbug1S1 at 3:27am 23rd June 2010 Only the new "S" version will work with Kinect (formally know as Project Natal). Kindle will never work with XBox.
    azzaaa at 5:22am 6th July 2010 all the xbox's will work with kinect or (project natal) duuhhh
5. connor at 7:33pm 23rd June 2010 the new xbox 360 slim has a better vent system and is 10 times more quiet also it has a more better and sleeker looking design i just bought one yesterday and he touch sensor buttons r just amazing plus it has built in wifi and a 250 gb hard drive... so i would have to say tht this xbox is better than the old one
  1. azzaaa at 5:25am 6th July 2010 its all bout opion coz i just bought one of the old xbox 360's for $300 and its 250gb hard drive and it came 5 games. so if you dont care about a new design or wifi its better to get the old xbox's.