In a little over a month, the old Xbox 360 dashboard disappears, replaced by a completely revamped, rethought dashboard dubbed the “New Xbox Experience.”

I went hands-on with the new dashboard a few weeks ago in a hotel suite in San Francisco. As someone who has become increasingly annoyed at the current dashboard — I’ve completely switched to the less cluttered PlayStation Store for downloading demos and videos — my expectations for the new dashboard were high.

And you know what? Microsoft more or less nailed it. Here’s what I like (and don’t like) about the changes coming down the pipe on November 19:

* Ability to stream Netflix videos (boo to no Silver-level access!)
* The old dashboard is still there, just tap the guide button
* Eight-man party system makes meeting up, coordinating much easier (but why isn’t there a calendar-style alert system yet?)
* No more patches! New dashboard is completely server-based
* Avatars are far slicker than people give Microsoft credit for (unless we start getting nickel and dimed over additional clothes); you really can make “you”
* Searching games, videos, downloadable content, everything has been streamlined to the point where I might actually download from XBL again
* How long do we have to wait until there’s a decent search tool?

You might have noticed my complaints were minimal. I only had an hour to play with the new dashboard in front of several Microsoft employees, so the experience was slightly tainted, but I’m optimistic this will fix most people’s criticisms. It addressed most of mine.

If you have any questions about the new dashboard, ask away!

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