The sad part is that this might be the shortest review that you'll see from me. Why? Because... I really don't know how useful the XBox memory unit is to most XBox owners.
The Xbox memory unit is priced at MRSP of $34.95 and carries 8 MB of memory. It is much bigger than the Playstation and Playstation 2 memory units and is almost comparable in size to the Sega Dreamcast memory unit. So the unit is rather large. Like the Dreamcast and Nintendo 64, the memory unit is inserted into the controller and not into the base unit. Don't worry, the memory unit is rather light despite its size.
Biggest problem... I really don't know what the memory unit is good for other than an expensive saved game backup unit. Unlike other consoles, the XBox saves games to its hard drive (which other game console don't have... PS2 owner can buy one next year to put into their system but that's an entirely different story) instead of the memory card like most other recent game consoles. It brings up the question of whether you really need to plop down an additional $35 for the memory card.
Unless you need to make backup of your saved games (which I haven't needed to with the current games out there) and unless you share saved game data with friends or other XBox owners, you don't need to buy the memory unit. Maybe it will be useful in the future, but I can't justify it right now. If I do find a use for it, I'll update this review but right now... I cannot recommend this product to the casual game console owner.
The best price I found the memory unit was for $24.95 at my local Wal-Mart. K-Mart sells a third party 8MB memory card for $24.95 (I believe it is made my MadCatz).
I also just wrote a nice review on the XBox DVD remote... why don't you check that out. It's definitely longer than this one. My XBox DVD remote review is here
http://www.epinions.com/content_48622833284
