Xbox 360 documentation which notes HDMI port (Source: Shacknews)Yesterday, Microsoft announced across-the-board price cuts for its Xbox 360 lineup. Prices for the $479 Elite, $399 Premium and $299 Core dropped to $449.99, $349.99 and $279.99 respectively. It turns out that Microsoft’s announcement of price cuts across the board for its Xbox 360 lineup wasn’t the only thing the folks at Redmond had in store for consumers. A Shacknews reader purchased a $349.99 Xbox 360 Premium today from a Target store in Atlanta and was surprised to see an HDMI port on the console.The manufacture date for the console was listed as July 4 and the documentation provided for the console made clear mention of the new HDMI port.HDMI was first introduced on the Xbox 360 Elite in late April. That console came with a black finish and a 120GB HDD instead of the 20GB included on the Premium. Microsoft also announced that the upcoming Xbox 360 Halo 3 Special Edition Console would feature an HDMI port — albeit at a higher $399.99 price tag.
It is unknown whether the inclusion of the HDMI port will also extend to the Xbox 360 Core. It may be more cost effective for Microsoft to just produce a single motherboard for the entire Xbox 360 lineup instead of continuing its current HDMI/non-HDMI production. It is also unclear if this new batch of Xbox 360 consoles feature the new cooler-running 65 nanometer Falcon CPU and GPU.