Both consoles completely match their respective companies profile.
Microsoft is an exceptional software developer, hence the 360 has a smooth interface, excellent online functionality, even the little things like in game dashboard and streaming music via WMP 11 linkage (or zune software, vista, or whatever) and its downsides also show Microsoft's weak points, physical product defects leading to RRoD issues, their fear of piracy also gimps the system a bit with numerous DRM issues.



Similarly the PS3 shows that Sony is a fucking amazing hardware manufacturer, the ps3 isn't known for any RRoD issues, and is solid piece of hardware all around, however on the software functionality it feels gimped compared to a 360, no movie download service, no music download service, but I'll be damned to find a better all in one media box(besides a pc).



As someone that owns both I love both of them. also I think both companies could learn a lot from the other. Sony, copy live exactly, its amazing, and you know it, so stop dicking around, plus if its like live I wont mind paying 50 dollars a year for it, just like I don't mind paying 50 dollars a year for live currently...
Microsoft, fix your shit, your DRM and your RRoD make me cry.



I should disclose that I buy the majority of my cross platform games on my 360, due mostly to their online services, and frequent game updates, however when my console craps out this seriously limits my playable game library.

one fairly important difference between the consoles is the disc drive each console uses the PS3 has a 2x bd rom drive and the 360 has a 12x dvd rom drive, however this may seem a bit misleading at first, bd rom transfer speeds are significantly greater per 1x than dvd rom, here are some numbers.


1x transfer speed of a bd rom is 36 mbit/s
1x transfer speed of a dvd rom is 10.5 mbit/s

so the ps3 has s 2x bd rom drive which comes out to a transfer speed of 72 mbit/s
while the 360 sports a12x dvd rom that reads at 126 mbit/s

Clearly the 360's is faster, almost twice as fast, but thats not as drastic as comparing a 2x dvd rom drive and a 12x dvd rom drive... which would be a six fold difference.

One thing I think that Sony does benefit from is the hard drive in every console, and that they can be replaced with any standard 2.5 inch notebook hard drive, which makes turning your 20gb launch ps3 into a 250gb beast. required hard drive means you don't have to fuck around with a memory card if you got the lowest end SKU and if a game company wanted to they could throw some frequently used things on the hard drive like wall textures or something along those lines. Microsoft saves a few pennies not including an hdd with their lowest end sku but I think we can all agree they cut a few too many corners as is.



Some things that I am looking forward to on both consoles

a better movie subscription service on the 360
my current 360 to die so I can use my third party warranty and grab a falcon chip set console.
DRM fix for RRoD 360's
in game XMB on the ps3
some kind of movie/music download service on the ps3
GAMES


Feel free to add me on both PSN and Live
I go by CJPkiller on both services.

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CJP spent way too much money on his PS3, has had his 360 replaced five times, and is always accepting challenges in PC RTS games