Call it drab, call it boring, call it frugal and conservative, but releasing the PS3 Slim is easily the most sensible move Sony has made in its donkey years. Where it limits the functionality of the original PS3, it does so in ways that don’t really matter, and where it improves on the original console, it does so in ways that offer real, tangible benefits. It’s not a major upgrade for existing PS3 owners, but neither should it ever be. Instead, this is a machine aimed squarely at those trying to decide between the Microsoft and Sony consoles. Sony knows this is the only big chance to get back into the current-gen console wars. Under these conditions, I would call the PS3 Slim a success.
Let’s start with the biggest change: the physical design. The PS3 Slim, which sits alongside the old PlayStation 3, is actually around 15mm lower than the original, but a good 40mm narrower and – most importantly – just over 20mm thinner, giving it a nice low profile under your TV gives. It’s not a bold statement like the original PS3, but rather a more understated box that goes well with the rest of your AV kit. Gone is the beautiful glossy finish. Gone is the Spider-Man font, replaced with a plain PS3 logo.
Those smooth, touch-sensitive power and eject buttons have also been replaced with a pair of flat, circular buttons with little travel, although these still glow nicely when pressed. I know some (Hugo) have called the Slim “simple” while others (Gordon) have even called it “naff,” but in the flesh it’s just a little quiet and understated. Importantly, while the new PS3 may look cheaper than the old one, it doesn’t necessarily feel cheap. In fact, I’d say it feels more solid and sturdy than my Xbox 360 Elite, although it’s actually a bit lighter. The only downside to the new look? Without the overpriced tripod accessories, it’s not quite as stable when it’s on its side.
HDMI 1.3a, S/PDIF and standard PlayStation A/V ports on the back still handle the output to your TV and sound system, while we’ve got Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11g Wi-Fi to connect to your router and the get internet. On the front we’re limited to two USB ports – although that was also the case on the 40GB and later 80GB PS3 – and the multi-card reader seems to be going into the dustbin of history, but I can’t do that either say is a real disaster for gamers. You can still connect a camera or MP3 player via USB, and how many of us have really taken the memory card off our camera and plugged it straight into the PS3? As with removing the old option to install a Linux distro, the point is to remove features that the majority of users won’t miss and focus on those that they will. I know some of us are still mourning the end of backwards compatibility, but I guess we’ll just have to get used to it as it hasn’t returned with the PS3 Slim.
Two other factors make a big difference in the average living room. First, the combination of the new 45nm Cell processor, a smaller nVidia RSX GPU, and a host of efficiency improvements mean the PS3 Slim uses around 50 percent of the power of the old model in every situation (under 100W when gaming and less than 1W in standby, as opposed to over 200W and almost 2W on the old PS3). This actually makes it a less juice-hungry console than the Xbox 360 Elite (around 120W in gameplay, under 2W in standby). Over the console’s lifecycle, this will significantly reduce your electricity bills, and that’s presumably one reason why the new console uses a smaller, tape-deck-style power cord instead of the larger kettles used by its predecessor and (in modified form) the Xbox 360
The other benefit of the new Cell and RSX processors is that the PS3 Slim runs cooler than the old PS3. That inevitably makes it quieter. If you thought the existing PS3 was quiet, prepare for a shock: the new model is eerily lacking in noise. It’s not quiet, but I’d put it on par with, say, a basic idle laptop or a quiet PVR. Even when accessing a game or a Blu-ray disc, the volume remains low, meaning the PS3 Slim doesn’t have the irritating disc hiss of the Wii. Whether I was playing Flower, Killzone 2, Resident Evil 5, or the Uncharted 2 multiplayer beta, I couldn’t get the volume up to the level of my old PS3, let alone the windy young hooligan Falcon-powered Xbox 360 Elite. Well, I might only have one super-quiet model, but if you’re looking to buy a console that doubles as a media player then that’s a real benefit of the PS3.
The other, of course, is Blu-ray playback. There are many cheaper Blu-ray players on the market today and a range of connected media players you can have for well under £100. Nevertheless, the PS3 performs well in both respects. While I can’t say I’ve seen a huge range of Blu-ray players to compare the PS3 to, it’s fairly quick when loading discs and the playback quality is at least as good as other budget decks, that I’ve looked at. Additionally, the Slim now streams Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio bitstreams to a receiver via HDMI, which is good news if you have the appropriate home theater kit – although the old PS3 still supports both standards, but instead the decoding takes place in the console and outputs multi-channel PCM.
Meanwhile, the PS3 itself has become an increasingly capable media player with every firmware upgrade, and of course that follows with the PS3 Slim. As much as I love the Xbox 360’s NXE interface, I have to say that Sony’s XMB remains a better interface for browsing and viewing different types of media, and I was surprised at how quickly, seamlessly and non-intrusively the PS3 Slim picked up this media waiting on my Windows 7 PC (and the same should be true for any DNLA compliant server). Format support is a bit conservative, but H.264, MPEG-2, AVCHD, DivX, and WMV video are all handled with ease, along with MP3 and WMA audio. The PS3 also has no trouble streaming unprotected iTunes Plus files directly from my PC.
Video and audio playback quality is excellent, with the Cell processor upscaling and enhancing low-resolution files. Best of all, the latest version 3.0 of the PS3’s firmware has added native support for BBC iPlayer; You can stream shows straight from the BBC in near SD broadcast quality – and even the Nintendo Wii can’t claim that!
Of course, there’s one area where Sony lags behind Microsoft: movie downloads. While Microsoft has been offering HD and SD rentals on the Xbox Live Marketplace for a number of years, PS3 owners in the UK are still waiting for Sony’s European movie download service to launch. Luckily the wait should be over in November. Whether we then get the 12,000 TV episodes and 2,200 movies to delight our American cousins is undoubtedly a licensing issue, but if we do, it may not be an advantage Microsoft enjoys for long.
In terms of usability and built-in functionality, the PS3 Slim scores highly. There are still some quibbles – I’d still say the Dual Shock 3 lags behind the 360 controller in terms of comfort and accuracy, while its motion-sensitive properties are severely underutilized – but it really is a great piece of hardware. Unfortunately, the hardware was never the PS3’s problem – it was always the cost and the games. On the latter side, the PS3 has yet to deliver on what it promises. When I think of exclusive titles on both machines, only a handful on PS3 – Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted, LittleBigPlanet, Infamous, Killzone 2 – come to mind that rival the best on Microsoft’s platform. I still can’t see any real long-term appeal in the much-hyped PS3 virtual home world, and we still have a situation where most cross-platform games look and run better on the theoretically inferior machine (although most of us now accept that the strengths of the 360’s GPU versus the PS3’s RSX outweigh any difference in CPU performance).
”'(Middle)Uncharted 2 could be reason enough to get a PS3 Slim(/Middle)“’
But this picture could change. This is the first year the two consoles have evened in the run-up to Christmas, with Uncharted 2 and Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time on the PS3 beating out Forza 3 and Left 4 Dead 2 on the 360. Sony has MAG, Gran Turismo 5 and God of War III early next year to take on Mass Effect 2, Crackdown 2 and Alan Wake. After that, things get more interesting with Sony’s motion controller and Microsoft’s more ambitious Project Natal, but there’s a real sense that Sony has finally rediscovered the storyline it lost around E3 2006. I think it’s high time we ditched the idea that the PS3 is going to give us better, more technically advanced games in the long run while Microsoft is abandoning the 360 - both companies are keen to maintain a long lifecycle of this generation – but I definitely think it will give us our share of great ones. That’s enough.
Cost is still an issue. We all cheered when Sony announced a reasonable price of £249 for the PS3 Slim, but Microsoft’s drop of the Elite to £199 was a very effective spoiler. However, as Hugo mentioned, it’s worth remembering the long-term cost of ownership. You get 802.11g Wi-Fi in the box (although media streamers would have preferred Sony to match Microsoft’s forthcoming 802.11n adapter), and you don’t pay for Xbox Live Gold membership either. I don’t think anyone outside of Sony is under the illusion that PSN is an equally good service, but it works well enough and the revamped PSN Store is constantly being improved. It’s also worth noting that many retailers are already bundling the €249 PS3 Slim with a free game, and you can expect more deals in the run up to Christmas.
Overall, the PS3 Slim feels like the console Sony needed to release at the time. I suspect most gamers who just want to play games will still opt for the cheaper, hardcore-focused 360, but with its quiet Blu-ray playback and media-savvy UI, the Slim is a solid choice for the mainstream user. When making car analogies I was talking about the PS3 as a BMW to the Ford Focus of the Xbox 360. The PS3 Slim is more of a VW Golf and at this stage of the game that’s exactly what Sony needs and a more realistic choice for them Majority.
“‘Verdict”‘
A more focused, affordable and surprisingly quiet PS3. This is the hardware Sony needs to win over the hearts and minds of the mainstream. Now only the software is missing.