New Xbox One bundle includes 1TB Hybrid Drive and Elite Controller

Without doing much of anything, minus the addition of a 1TB hard drive, Sony have released their PS4 “Ultimate Player Edition”.

The 1TB hard drive is nice, a vast improvement over 500GB certainly, but it hardly qualifies it to be called “Ultimate”; the bundle doesn’t even include their new and improved CUH-1200 model.

Microsoft has taken a decidedly different route with their ultimate bundle, entitled the “Elite Bundle”.

Like the PS4’s Ultimate Player Edition, the Xbox One Elite Bundle includes a 1TB hard drive, but in the case of the Xbox One, it’s a solid-state hybrid drive (SSHD).

The SSHD, like its name suggests, has a smaller solid-state partition and a larger mechanical drive. The solid-state partition is around 8GB in size, so only the most frequently used files will be stored there by the Xbox One, ultimately culminating in quicker boot-up times – Microsoft suggests a 20% improvement.

Unfortunately, games are too large to fit on the partition, so you won’t likely see an improvement to loading times once within a game.

The Elite Bundle console will also support the matte, rather than the glossy, finish, but is for the most part the same console model available in any other bundle.

The best thing about the Elite Bundle, giving credence to its name, is the addition of an Elite Controller.

We love the Xbox One’s Elite Controller, perhaps even more so than SCUF’s own, immensely capable third-party Infinity1 controller.

A $150 (R1, 900 odd) controller and 1TB SSHD is a pretty sweet bundle which, for the moment, is only available to American retailer Gamestop as well as MicrosoftStore.com.

Whether it will made available locally is up in the air at the moment, but we’d love to get our hands on that controller – the entire bundle is pretty nice too.