What Is the Best Game Console?

Both the PS3 and Xbox have their pluses and minuses. Much of the choice between them comes down to personal preferences and what you're going to use it the most for.

Gaming has grown a great deal in the last few years, and many game systems now also become Blu-ray players and as products with which you can actually stream all types of Internet media content. The best gaming consoles as of early 2012 are detailed below.

Sony PS3

The PS3 has come a long way in 3 years. It now starts at a reasonable $299 and has a slimmer case and is significantly quieter. All of the games that you play on the PS3 now are in HD, and the user interface is quite easy to use. It has a Blu-ray and DVD player built into it. Wi-Fi is built-in and it also includes a large hard drive. Additionally, it has output in HDMI and 1080p video.

However, the PS3 doesn't have support for PS2 games and it doesn't have an infrared port. So remotes that are not Bluetooth aren't supported. We also find that the online gaming and media options are not nearly as good as the Xbox, but the PS3 is getting better and better.

This unit is 33% smaller and 36% lighter than the old PS3s. We find it to be a more pleasing gaming console than anything Sony has come out with before.

You may buy a PS3 today with a 160 GB hard drive or a 320 GB hard drive.

Microsoft Xbox 360

The brand new Xbox is slimmer and is much quieter when it's running. Furthermore, it has a better cooling fan and a 250GB hard drive. It's got Wi-Fi built in and a whopping 5 USB ports. One thing we have definitely observed with this updated game console is how quiet it really is. When it is idle, the 360 is just about quiet, and when the hard drive is running, you can hardly hear it. This is significantly better than the old 360s.

The 360 during the past has suffered from what some call ‘red ring of death,’ which has caused many people a lot of problems. The earlier 360s were not great at heat dissipation. This caused the unit burning out after a year or two. Microsoft claims to have fixed this issue with the new, slim devices. We also don’t like that you are not able to swap out the hard drive if you want. Sony permits users to do this with PS3s.

We do find the 360 to be tops in online gaming and streaming of media, however.