tech2 News Staff

Nearly a year after the Xbox One was officially unveiled by Microsoft, the company has finally announced that the gaming console will come to India in September.

Xbox One will launch on September 23 and for a price of Rs 39,990, which will include the Xbox One console, Xbox One wireless controller and a 14 day trial of Xbox Live Gold for new members.

Microsoft's Xbox One comes much after the Sony PS4 was launched in India for a similar price. It should be noted that games from the Xbox 360 won’t work on the new Xbox One and the console won't require a constant Internet connection.

So what is Xbox One offering to users? Here's a quick look.

Tech specs

Xbox one comes with 8GB DDR3 RAM, a Blu-ray drive, and a 500GB onboard hard drive, HDMI in and out. Microsoft will also allow users to add an external drive in and upcoming update. It comes with an 8-core CPU and GPU SoC (system on a chip) and the SoC has been crafted by AMD. The console supports 802.11n Wi-Fi as well as USB 3.0 connectivity. On the hardware side of things, one of the most important new features of the Xbox One is the x86 architecture, which is shared by the PS4, and could lead to a proliferation of console-purposed apps thanks to the wide development community.

Kinect

Microsoft has upgraded the Kinect sensor and it now comes with better camera and voice control, body movement detection etc. Kinect is bundled with console now. The camera resolution is full HD at 1080p and capable of capturing wide angle shots. Video capturing at 60 frames per second is also available. Other cool things that the sensor can do is read heartbeat as users exercise, and tell if the users is smiling or not.

Voice control on Kinect means users can now just talk to it to to carry out tasks on the Xbox One such as setting up profiles and even turning the console on. There’s also gesture recognition for controlling the system with hands.

New Xbox controller

The new Xbox One controller includes Impulse Triggers, which essentially means that Microsoft stuffed vibration motors in the triggers so that players can feel force feedback when playing games. The D-pad of the controller has also been redesigned, and instead of the clunky and criticised design of the 360's controller, Microsoft has opted for a better one that will potentially feel better when playing fighting games. The controller will also have a wireless range of up to 30 feet, seamless profile and controller pairing by using Kinect and expansion port for add-ons like the chat headset. It doesn't have a touchpad like the PS4 controller, but Microsoft recently announced that gamers can use the controller for PC games as well. The drivers for the same are available here.

Xbox Live

Xbox Live now comes with a TV guide which users can navigate using voice commands. The TV guide has a trending section that displays the most popular shows among your friends and the entire Xbox community. Instant Switch feature will you make the switch from gaming to TV using voice.

The console also has deeper Smartglass support, which will let you use your smartphone or tablet on the gaming console to perform secondary functions such as changing channels, etc. There’s also a dedicated game Digital Video recorder to capture and share your winning moments with friends during a game.

Snap Mode and other apps



This will let you run two apps simultaneously. Skype has also been introduced to Xbox universe and users can make Skype calls while running another activity on the Xbox. The Xbox One also has a distinct Windows 8 user interface, along with the Xbox OS and you can switch between the two. Microsoft bulked up the Xbox entertainment portfolio, adding 45 new entertainment apps including the likes of Vine, HBO Go and Twitter.

And then there are the games. Check out the major titles announced by Microsoft for the Xbox One at E3 this week.