Review: Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite games console

Aside from the obvious switch to matt black, you'd be hard pushed to spot the difference between the new Xbox 360 Elite and the previous Xbox 360 Premium.

Flip the unit round, however, and you'll find the addition of an HDMI 1.2 port. Whether you can spot any improvement when playing games using this all-digital method compared to a component connection is debateable, but its ability to carry audio and video in one small cable makes it a much neater connection.

The console now also features a 120GB hard drive. The 20GB drive found in the Xbox 360 Premium was perfectly adequate for game saves, but this bigger disk boosts the appeal of the Xbox 360 as a media player, especially with movie and TV downloads promised for the end of the year.

Although it apparently has a quieter fan and improved heatsink, the Xbox 360 Elite seems as loud as the original. Access the Dashboard and it whirrs away, but load a game and it gets extra loud.

Rumours of cooler-running 65nm and even 45nm processors for future Xbox 360s continue to do the rounds, but for now you're stuck with a pretty noisy beast.

Indeed, it's hard not to feel just a little let down by the Xbox 360 Elite. Aside from the bigger hard disk, HDMI and new paint job, it's basically the same as its predecessor. Simple and cheap additions, such as built-in Wifi, have been ignored.

If you already have an Xbox 360, you're best off sticking with it and buying a bigger external hard disk. But for Xbox 360 newcomers, this Elite edition is an extremely tempting option.

Sony's £399 Playstation 3 might be quieter and come with a Blu-ray drive, but Microsoft's alternative boasts a far wider range of games and is much cheaper to boot.