Xbox One: Unboxed
by Jarred Walton on August 8, 2013 2:35 PM EST
We’ve already discussed the hardware of the Xbox One (or Xbone as Brian likes to call it) and compared it with the PlayStation 4, so all that’s left is the official launch, a bunch of day one unboxing videos from excited early adopters, and then the games (and hopefully no RRoD). Oh, wait—scratch that second one off the list, because Microsoft has beat them all to the punch with their very own unboxing video, three months ahead of the official launch. Xbox’s Major Nelson does the honors, and you get a thorough rundown of the contents. In order of unboxing, we get:
- New and improved Kinect sensor, with a wider field-of-view
- Mono headset with inline audio controls
- Xbox One controller
- 4K rated HDMI cable
- Manual, paperwork, and a sticker (woohoo!)
- Power cord and power brick
- “Liquid black” (aka glossy) Xbox One console
There’s nothing particularly unexpected in there, other than perhaps getting a headset for both the Day One and standard releases. Major Nelson also goes over the I/O ports. On the left side are a single USB 3.0 port and a binding button (for setting up your controllers). On the rear you get HDMI Out, S/PDIF, HDMI In (for cable/satellite pass-through), two more USB 3.0 ports, the Kinect socket (note that Kinect can function as an IR Blaster), an IR Blaster port, Gigabit Ethernet, and even a Kensington security lock—the power connector is at the left of the rear. There are also some changes to the controller, with Day One 2013 printed on the first controllers.
We’ve covered the other features previously, but just to recap, the Xbox One comes with an 8-core AMD Jaguar CPU, 12CU/768 SP AMD GCN GPU, 8GB DDR3 RAM, 500GB HDD, Blu-ray drive, and dual-band 802.11n WiFi. I’m guessing it’s a 2x2:2 MIMO implementation, but there’s no official word on this yet. Sadly, there won’t be any 802.11ac for the initial models it looks like. All this, for a not insignificant $499 MSRP come November 2013.
Source: Xbox YouTube Channel
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c1979h - Monday, August 12, 2013 - link
Its funny people are crying about the Kinect being on, when their mobile phones and facebook accts are watched and recorded by the govt 24/7. I don't see these idiots dropping their facebook accts or stop using their phones. Even xbox live matches and convos are recorded.chadwilson - Thursday, August 8, 2013 - link
The only question that matters: did they use cheap solder or not? The last thing we need is to send out the console to be reballed in under a yearPessimism - Friday, August 9, 2013 - link
Yes.darwinosx - Thursday, August 8, 2013 - link
No 802.11ac? WTF?colonelclaw - Friday, August 9, 2013 - link
Call me old-fashioned, but I'm going to wait a few months until the inevitable version 1 bugs (software and/or hardware) have been ironed out before purchasing a next-gen console. And hopefully, there might even be some half-decent games released by then :)bitstorm - Friday, August 9, 2013 - link
This thing is huge and still has an external power brick? Makes you wonder how shoddy the rest of the hardware design is.JarredWalton - Friday, August 9, 2013 - link
One thing I've learned over the years: making something smaller doesn't always make it better. Desktops run for half a decade and more, often without problems -- and often with a lot of dust buildup. Most laptops fail in half that time, unless the owner is good about periodic cleanings, and even then the regular thermal heat is enough to cause problems. So if they make the Xbox One a bit larger and in so doing it's cooled better, runs quieter, and is less likely to fail, well, put me on the list of people that would rather have a slightly larger but more reliable console!coolhund - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link
Slightly... lolImpulses - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link
I don't know, the SNES was tiny and mine still works after a couple of decades... :P Not sure why it matters either way, unless you're transporting the thing constantly.inighthawki - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link
Things that don't generate heat tend to last a long time :)