New Xbox 360 S lands in the UK

The Xbox 360 Slim comes to UK shores today and brings a larger 250GB hard drive, built in Wi-Fi and a new, smaller form factor.

Revealed at this year's E3 back in June, the 360 S will retail for £199.99 and comes 'Kinect ready' with a dedicated port for the motion control device aimed at changing the way we game.

The 360 S offers 802.11n Wi-Fi for wireless networking, five USB ports and, crucially, a quieter fan. This will come as a welcome relief to gamers of older consoles, known for being annoyingly loud.

The original 360 gained a bad reputation among early-adopters for displaying an error message in the form of three red lights, commonly known as the Red Ring Of Death.

Those interested in the new, slim 360 will note that the console doesn't have the ring of lights at all but, crucially, the console will automatically shut itself down before overheating, saving itself from damage.

Sleek design

Smaller and slimmer than the out-going 360, the S also packs a "sleek, new design" and a glossy black exterior.

As we say in the TechRadar Xbox 360 review, "this is by far the best Xbox ever made". Oh, and it's a whole lot quieter.

Microsoft will be hoping that the 360 Slim encourages gamers to upgrade, in preparation for its revolutionary motion control system, Kinect, due to launch in time for Christmas.

Taking the fight to Sony and its PlayStation's Move controller, Kinect offers interactive gaming without the use of any controllers, instead letting users control the games with just their body movements.

The 360 S comes bundled with a wireless controller, A/V cable and headset, but expect to see packages offer games, more controllers and Kinnect in the near future.