Microsoft’s Xbox Reveal event was held today at Microsoft’s Redmond campus. If you missed it we have all of the information on the next generation Xbox console. After months of speculation the official name of the console will be Xbox One. The Xbox One is made to be an “all-in-one” box that interacts with all the devices in your home theater. Microsoft’s Don Mattrick said the core strategy is “simple, instant and complete.” The Xbox One will be available “later this year” and will ship with a new Kinect motion camera and controller. Read on as we go over some of the new features.
Xbox One Specifications
The system itself has a new subtle, yet sleek design compared to the Xbox 360. The console looks more or less like a set-top box. It has a two-tone black finish with both matte and gloss. On the top of the device is a silver Xbox logo. Below it on the front left of the device is a slot-loading Blu-ray optical drive. On the far right front is an Xbox simple, which we are guessing is the power button and will light up.
Under the hood you have an 8 Core processor, 8GB of DDR3 system memory, a 500GB hard drive and 802.11n wireless networking with WiFi Direct. As far as connectivity is concerned on the back you have HDMI out as well as HDMI in, two USB 3.0 ports and an Ethernet port. For those wondering the CPU is based on the Jaguar design from AMD, which has 8 cores and a 4MB L2 cache.
The new Xbox One will ship with a new Kinect motion sensing camera. This new camera features an updated look, which I really do like. Inside is a new 1080p camera, which is a huge upgrade over the VGA camera that was in the original Kinect. This new Kinect camera can track more reference points and even read your heartbeat. It also works in conjunction with the new controller for some real-life functionality. Say you lift the controller it lifts your shield up in game. Kinect is what brings the whole Xbox One experience together from the hand gestures to the voice commands.
Xbox One will come with a new wireless controller. Not much has changed from the Xbox 360 controller. It does look to be more rounded and has redesigned shoulder buttons. The D-Pad has been revised and the thumbsticks have more texture on them.
Next on to the software!
