A friend wrote in requesting a comparison between the PS3 and Xbox 360. This is a very interesting topics as these two products are in very fierce competition. Both are fairly expensive, come in multiple versions, and are extremely powerful gaming systems.

I will start off first with information about the Playstation 3 from Sony. The playstation 3 has the most advanced hardware of any gaming system yet. It also has a Blu-ray disc drive for watching the latest Blu-ray movies. Sony went all out in the high quality components it included in this system. They actually were losing money on every system sold at release. I am not aware if this has changed yet but in the future it surely will. If they are losing money, why would they release it? The answer is; they intend on making it all back with the sales of games.

The current availability of games is the biggest con I have about this system. Right now there are not too many good games to play on this system. However, there is hope because Sony announced last month 180+ new titles to be released. So I would imagine in the next year we will see quite a selection of new games. Other disadvantages of this system include the price. It is quite an expensive unit but what you get for the money is actually pretty good. Most Blu-ray players alone cost more than the Playstation 3 and they do nothing other than play a Blu-ray movie. So with that comparison the Playstation 3 is a good deal.

The pro’s for the Playstation 3 is all of its hardware performance. Games look absolutely awesome. Very fine detail and graphics are pumped out and displayed in HDTV format. The Playstation 3 also has a wireless network adapter built in, so you can connect too your home wireless network with ease. It also has a built in web browser, that is not the greatest but it still is a cool feature to have. Not everyone can surf the internet on their big screen tv. The playstation 3 gives the best graphic quality out of any current gaming system even a bit more quality than the Xbox 360.

The Xbox 360 from Microsoft has several versions available currently. These are Core system, Premium system, and Elite. Very few differences between them as I see. The advantages of the Premium over the Core are: wireless controllers, 20gb hard drive, and component video cable are all included. The Elite steps over the Premium with features such as: HDMI output, 120gb hard drive, and it just looks cooler in black. I personally have owned a Premium system and currently own an Elite.

The Premium system is the best bang for buck out of the trio. For the 100 dollars more you spend over the Core, you get about 200 dollars worth of features. The hard drive and component cables are a must for total enjoyment of an Xbox 360. While most can not notice a difference between component and HDMI, the component cables are god like when compared to the composite RCA cables on a HDTV. The extra cost of the Elite system however, is not worth it unless you just have to have an HDMI system or you have found a way to use up more than 20gb of hard drive space on your Xbox 360.

All of the systems include an Ethernet port to connect up to your home network, however if you want wireless capability on your Xbox 360 you must purchase an additional adapter which is 100 dollars. The Xbox 360 also has the ability of playing HD DVD’s if you buy the additional drive for the system, which will set you back another 200 dollars. So even though the Xbox 360 is quite a bit cheaper than the Playstation 3 to make them pretty comparable in features you will be spending the difference on system add ons. When you are all said and done feature for feature the two systems are very comparable in price.

Now that you know a little about both systems, what system should you buy? That depends on your wants and needs. If I had to choose only one system right now, it would be the Xbox 360. That opinion is based purely on the fact that there are many more games to play on Xbox 360 than the Playstation 3. Also, if you do not care about wireless networking or HD DVD, you will save some money buying the Xbox 360 over the Playstation 3. However, personally I own both systems and am glad that I do not have to choose only one.

The Playstation 3 has a Blu-ray player to watch new Blu-ray movies and has some amazing games that are Exclusive to it, such as the Gran Turismo series. I really enjoy racing games and the Gran Turismo series of racing games is by far the best of racing games. Over time there will be more games for the Playstation 3 and make it more competitive with the Xbox 360.

The Xbox 360 right now has many more game titles and this helps it suit a very wide variety of gamers for all genres. This review will probably have to be updated as the Playstation 3’s number of available titles increases; but for now if you have to buy one of the two systems, you will probably be happier with the Xbox 360. Make sure to play with both systems before you buy to see what fits you best personally.

P.S. if you do not care about having the greatest graphics and want to have quite exciting game play, you may also want to check out the Wii from Nintendo.

Pictures thanks to Xbox.com and Playstation.com, also more information about each system there.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 30th, 2007 at 5:21 pm by Dustin and is filed under Dustin's View, Products. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.