Strengths: Excellent Graphics, Halo 3, Happy Children

Weaknesses: This unit died after 9 months of use. Crying child.

Summary: What a wonderful way for my family to spend time together in an evening, playing "Guitar Hero 3", or I and my son, playing any one of the "Halo" games. When the machine quit functioning, I dutifully sent it to microsoft and they shipped it back within two weeks.(what they shipped back was a refurbished unit, even though they state that they will replace it if it's less than a year old). No hard drive. I called customer support and they claimed that it never had a hard drive with it. They closed the case and now, I am having to wait for them to call me back after my third call to them. I?ve looked into replacing the hard drive and it may cost me $100 to $140. If you want to find out about Microsoft consumer relations, go to: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/home_electronics/xbox.html.My son cryed after I told him that we would not be buying any more xBox 360 games. We have a sony PS3 that we are very happy with so far that we bought for Blu-Ray. It has built in Wi-Fi and I haven't heard nearly as many nightmare stories about it.

Strengths: fully functional system designed to be the minimum for all the 360 has to offer.

Weaknesses: 20 gig HD fills up fast

Summary: well for all those people who complain about their very young kids having trouble playing without help. you should be watching your kids anyway video games arent babysitters. otherwise this system is capable and able to handle most of your gaming needs, however with the new live update coming out that lets you install games to your hard drive this system is not the one to have if you plan on taking advantage of it as the hard drive could only handle 2-3 games at a time and still have room for save files and downloaded content. i gave mine to my sister and bought my self an elite to match my color scheme and get the larger hard drive plus hdmi cable, i bought her a 120gig drive just to be fair to her for later use. :)

Strengths: Ability to hook up with HDMI cable

Weaknesses: Wireless connection is separate

Summary: We originally purchased the Xbox 360 Elite because it came with an HDMI cable and had more memory. We decided that we could purchase a pretty cheap HDMI cable ourselves and we didn't need that much memory so we returned the Elite and purchased the Premium. So far, it is great! We purchased the wireless network adapter to go with this and it hooked up to XBox live in a snap. It is connected with the HDMI cable to our 1080p plasma TV and looks great! We have wireless controllers as well and have no problems at all. We are very happy with this system.

Strengths: Beautifully designed user interface, seamless integration of online content

Weaknesses: Wireless controller frequently disconnects itself

Summary: This version of the Xbox 360 seems to be in the sweet spot right now. The lower Arcade package is missing some critical features, and the Elite and Halo editions don't seem to be able to justify their price premium.I recently purchased both an Xbox 360 and a Playstation 3, and so far I'm more impressed with the Xbox. The whole experience is more seamless. I love the fact that games just update themselves when patches are released - amazing!Word on the street is that the Xbox 360 has a hardware advantage over the PS3, but it's hard to see this in practice. It depends much more on the specific game. My only gripe is that the "sleep" period on the wireless controller is mcuh too short. I'm constantly having to wake it up. In addition, the controller frequently disconnects right in the middle of game play. So far, all games have handled this well (freezing the action and popping up a "please reconnect the controller" message), but it could be very annoying/fatal for online play.

Strengths: Online play, HD graphics, great games!

Weaknesses: RRoD

Summary: This console, like the previous Xbox 360 consoles, is still vulnerable to the "Red Ring of Death" failure, but with new heatsinks it is at least less likely to fail than previous versions.The built-in HDMI in this version is a great addition and a superior HD connection that makes 1080p possible on more TVs. Along with this difference there is the same thing that makes the 360 great in the first place - awesome games. I look forward to my gaming future.

Strengths: Online play; multiple audio/video connections; great video quality and selection of games

Weaknesses: No built-in wireless internet; potentially high failure rate

Summary: The Xbox 360 premium console is a fantastic video game console, especially if you like first person shooters. Although it has been available for a couple of years, this new version finally added an HDMI port so you can connect to your HDTV with a single cable and get fantastic video and audio quality. It comes with a component cable, which looks great in standard gaming, but if you want to use the DVD upscaling abilities to play a movie, you need either a VGA or HDMI cable. I tried both and think that they are very similar in quality, although HDMI provides a little better color and much better sound. It is definitely the way to connect your TV given the choice. Only minor drawback is that Microsoft does not provide a HDMI cable in the box, so you have to purchase it separately, but they can be found online for under $10 fairly easy.The online gaming community is by far the best currently available of the three major consoles. There are thousands of users online at any given time and you can always find people to play against, especially with modern shooters like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4. Another great feature is the ability to download a playable demo of almost any currently available game and check out the first couple of levels. There is a huge selection of Xbox Arcade games, as well as the typical disc-based games. They also have a small, but expanding selection of movie and TV episodes which can be downloaded and watched for a small fee, many in glorious 1080p hi-def. This is all available for a very reasonable $50 per year if you want online play, or totally free if you simply want to download and play locally.Overall, I would consider this console the top choice for teens and older. It is cheaper than PS3, has better graphics than Wii, and has the best (by far) online community.

Strengths: Now has HDMI. Some small design improvements are supposed to reduce possibility RRoD

Weaknesses: 20G fills up suprisingly fast with downloads.

Summary: The Xbox 360 is a great console and the newest version adds an HDMI port which is a real bonus for high-definition televisions. Just as important, there have been some minor design improvements meant to improve reliability in the 360. If you don't have a 360, now is the time to buy.

Strengths: Harddrive holds up to 20g, HDMI cables really make the gameplay that more addictive with hi-def televisions.

Weaknesses: Memory fills up quickly depending on games.

Summary: I have this new system and it really made me satisfied buying it just because of the HDMI resoltion. It really makes a difference and makes the gameplay all more sastisfying.

Strengths: HDMI connection makes it look even better, runs good with little to no slow down, 20gb HDD stores everything you need the wireless controllers work flawlessly

Weaknesses: I can see the standard 20GB HDD filling up really fast

Summary: The system is great and was really easy to setup and use. I started using the included component cables, but after I stepped up to the HDMI cable, it looked so much better. I am very pleased with this system and haven't had anything but good things to say about it.

Strengths: 20G Hard Drive just enough to store games, but not overkill like the "Elite" system. Hookup to an HDTV yields excellent graphics.

Weaknesses: This is my first gaming system so I have nothing to compare it to and, as such, see no particular weaknesses yet. There have been minor glitches with the screen seeming to get hung up.

Summary: Just received it in from BUY.com. The unit was much smaller than I have anticipated. Pretty easy to hook-up. I was amazed at the graphics (I have a 1080P Flat Screen TV). I have been monitoring how hot the unit will get after reading about possible "heat sink" problems. Regardless, I have left this unit out in the open as advised. The hardest part is getting used to the controller. Remember, first gaming system here! So far, smooth sailing! There have been minor glitches with the screen seeming to get hung up.

Strengths: Excellent Graphics with Great Games and Wireless Controllers

Weaknesses: Menu screens a bit confusing at first. Sign-in and sign-out of players. Console does not come with HDMI cable. Younger kids require help to set up games.

Summary: The graphics from this system are excellent. I like the HDMI output but wish the console came with an HDMI cable instead of the component HD cable.The wireless controllers are great. We use ours from 16 feet away without any problems.The system reqires the players to Sign-in and Sign-out which is difficult for my 6 year old to do by himself for saving games on the hard drive. We are not hooked up on-line so I can't comment on the on-line play.My 4.5 and 6 year old kids enjoy playing Xbox 360 with my help. They can play our Nintendo Wii without any help. I prefer to play the Xbox 360 but prefer the Wii for younger children.