Today’s big Microsoft event came and with it arrived the Xbox One, the brand new console made by the American giant. A rival to the PS4, unveiled just a month or two ago, this device brings interesting novelty, as shown below.
As far as design goes, the square-ish black box styling is back with a look that may feel more like a set top box than anything else. The console packs a Blu-ray drive and it appears you can only use it horizontally and not vertically like the PS3. The machine involves a chipset that’s the fruit of Microsoft and AMD working together, on a piece of 40 nm technology with an 8 core CPU and potent GPU.
Specs also include 8 GB of RAM, a 500 GB HDD, USB 3.0 connection, WiFi, HDMI and you can even use the device as an intermediary between your cable and your TV. Voice command is here, including for TV features, like showing a guide or changing channels. Speaking of voice controls, the microphones that are part of the whole Kinect expect are improved and the mic can detect voices even in loud and noisy areas.
Kinect itself was upgraded and gets a wide angle 1080p sensor plus support for improved gesture detection and even heart beat detection, if need be. The new controller gets pictured here and it seems to adopt a new D Pad, vibrating areas and new analog sticks. One of the bummers related to the console is the lack of support for Xbox 360 games, since the architecture is different here.
Sadly we have no price or launch date for the Xbox One, but we do know it’s coming close to the year end. We’ll see a fresh demo next month at E3 2013, as Microsoft itself promised. Excited about the new console?
