PS3 Slim + Price Cuts!? (Aug 18)

[Octavious]

If anyone is looking for a good HDD for your future PS3, I use a Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB and it works great. After formatting everything it will only give you access to around 460 GB, but it's still amazing for $95. Compared to $160 for 120 GB Microsoft HDD, heh.

Anyway, I'm hoping many more people pickup a PS3 and experience how much better the hardware is than the 360. Now if only they would release FFXIII and get the long wait over with.

[Ragnus]

Do the PS3 controllers actually have a little weight to them now? I tried playing a shooter in my gaming club a while ago and the controller just felt like a flimsy piece of plastic compared to a PS2 controller.

[Octavious]

Do the PS3 controllers actually have a little weight to them now? I tried playing a shooter in my gaming club a while ago and the controller just felt like a flimsy piece of plastic compared to a PS2 controller.

The Dual Shock 3 feel heavier than the original SixAxis. The removal of the vibrate hardware lightened the controller significantly. Honestly, my favorite thing about the PS3 DS3 and SixAxis Controllers are their battery life. A full charge on those babies lasts a good few days of solid gaming. My XBOX Charge Packs give me ~12hrs at most before they blink like crazy, and 14 hrs before they die. D: I want lithium charge packs for my 360. ;(

[Wintermute]

The Dual Shock 3 feel heavier than the original SixAxis. The removal of the vibrate hardware lightened the controller significantly. Honestly, my favorite thing about the PS3 DS3 and SixAxis Controllers are their battery life. A full charge on those babies lasts a good few days of solid gaming. My XBOX Charge Packs give me ~12hrs at most before they blink like crazy, and 14 hrs before they die. D: I want lithium charge packs for my 360. ;(

The SixAxis was physically lighter since it didn't have the spinning weights used for the vibration feature in Dualshocks.
Totally agree with battery life too, my 360's Play and Charge seems to die out faster and faster every time.

From photos the Slim looks like it's made of cheap plastic which is pretty much my only gripe, could just be the lighting on those shots and getting used to the shine on the fatty though.
Pity any PlayStation model is a dust magnet though, they need to work on that next.

Where's the HDD bay for the new Slim models? I'm either not seeing the expansion bay or I'm being exceptionally thick today.

Also waiting for them to tell the UK it'll cost £300 considering they think everything's 1:1 with the dollar.

[Octavious]

Where's the HDD bay for the new Slim models? I'm either not seeing the expansion bay or I'm being exceptionally thick today.

The HDD bay on the Original PS3 is on the side, I don't know where they put it on the Slim. I do know they include directions on how to swap the HDD out with the Console, so there should be someone with an unboxing video or something that could probably explain it. I haven't tried search on Google yet. As far as the SixAxis weight, thats what I meant about the hardware for the vibration not being there. With the weights gone it felt much lighter, the Dual Shock 3 feels like your average PS2 controller with a little lighter touch.

IIRC, the 360 Charge Packs are NiMH and the PS3 are Li-Ion. Basically, NiMH are 'supposed' to last longer, but have a higher self discharge rate. In a 2-3 week period a NiMH will lose around 30% of its original charge, where as a Li-Ion will lose around 2%. Also, as I mentioned NiMH can last through a hgiher number of charges, however their self discharge rate will increase as you use them and it will do so at a higher rate than the Li-Ion. Which sucks, since you pretty much need to charge a NiMH every night and my Li-Ion in my PS3 Controller gets charged once a week or so.

[Ragnus]

Right now I have a three charge pack rotation on my 360. The third pack is just incase someone comes over and wants to play multiplayer.

[senjo]

Also waiting for them to tell the UK it'll cost £300 considering they think everything's 1:1 with the dollar.

£249.99 --> Sony PlayStation 3 Slim Console (120GB Model): Amazon.co.uk: PC & Video Games

[Kurokikaze]

The HDD bay on the Original PS3 is on the side, I don't know where they put it on the Slim. I do know they include directions on how to swap the HDD out with the Console, so there should be someone with an unboxing video or something that could probably explain it. I haven't tried search on Google yet. As far as the SixAxis weight, thats what I meant about the hardware for the vibration not being there. With the weights gone it felt much lighter, the Dual Shock 3 feels like your average PS2 controller with a little lighter touch.

IIRC, the 360 Charge Packs are NiMH and the PS3 are Li-Ion. Basically, NiMH are 'supposed' to last longer, but have a higher self discharge rate. In a 2-3 week period a NiMH will lose around 30% of its original charge, where as a Li-Ion will lose around 2%. Also, as I mentioned NiMH can last through a hgiher number of charges, however their self discharge rate will increase as you use them and it will do so at a higher rate than the Li-Ion. Which sucks, since you pretty much need to charge a NiMH every night and my Li-Ion in my PS3 Controller gets charged once a week or so.

There was a video posted earlier in this thread that confirms the location of the HDD drive. Its right under the disk drive (lol). Turn the Slim upside down theres a little flap with a blue screw inside. You know the rest.

As for PS3 battery life thats good to know. The only thing that upsets me about the DS3 is that the R2/L2 buttons are curved too much and often my index finger slips off. There was no need to change it from the DS2. Don't fuck with perfection. lol

[Tyrath]

I thought the release date for this was Sept 1? I just saw gamestop/ebgames website and it says it'll be shipping on august 24. I called my gamestop and they also told me they'll have it next week. Anyone know if its supposed to be coming to the US early?

[Kurokikaze]

Wouldn't surprise me that they're getting them a week early. This is good though, means people will be able to post how well it runs: hot/noisy/etc.

Edit: Called my friend who works at EB and he said they will have them next week too. w00tz

[Kaisha]

They stock early so they actually *have* some to sell come the proper release date.

[Tyrath]

Oh I know they stock early, but these guys are telling me they'll actually sell it to me next week <_< Not that I have a problem with that or anything. Was just wondering if Sept 1st just the international date and if certain places might get early ones because I know they said the dates would vary by country.

[Mabubeezareel]

Where's the HDD bay for the new Slim models? I'm either not seeing the expansion bay or I'm being exceptionally thick today.

At the bottom of the unit. There's a screw underneath a tab that allows the HDD bay to slide out from the front.

I don't own a PS3 yet, but am seriously considering doing so now with the price drop + slim. What do you think would be the better option? Shelling out for a fattie now, or wait a couple of weeks for the slim? They're obviously the same price now, but I have some reservations about buying a launch slim. Sure, the slim will come with an extra 40GB of HDD space, but I just wonder if I'll be missing any features on the slim that are in the fat model. Also, always a bit apprehensive about buying any launch-day hardware.

[Kaisha]

Would depend for me Mabub.

If you don't care about the size/watt/aestetics, I don't see a difference in getting a fat or a slim, particularly if they price-dropped the SKUs that got games packed in (Uncharted/Killzone2/LittleBigPlanet/etc, differs from store to store), which would make them a bit better of a deal.

Not really anything that'll be missing given the current crop of fat PS3s are as stripped down as the slim.
(2 USB ports {down from 4}, no media card slots {used to be 4}, no BC {used to be})

The Slim would no doubt give that 'newness' factor which will make it a bit more appealing though.

[Zosi]

Am I late to the party?

Sony unveils slimmer PS3: $300, lands in September (updated!)

Don't worry, you can borrow my avatar, I don't mind.

I'm kinda in the same position about getting a slim, and I think Kaisha is right in that it'll depend on the bundles. There's already a Japanese slim bundle (with a Gundam game ) announced, I'm really hoping that there are more coming. However... my guess would be that the bundles are going to be on the fat side. If the 80gb fat and 120gb slim stay at the same $300 MSRP, there'd be no reason to buy an 80gb unless it was impossible to get a slim due to lack of supply. Given that, I could see them throwing in some games with the 80gb fat PS3s at the $300 price point (and maybe the 160s higher up) to get them moving off the shelves to make room for the Slims that everyone wants.

[Kurokikaze]

So uh PS3s aren't region locked right? Tempted to get that Gundam one. :X

[Kazen]

Not region locked.

[Kiarax]

PS3 games aren't. PS1/PS2 games are, as are DVD's. Pretty sure Blu-Ray's are region free too but don't quote me on that one.

[ArchDizzle]

blu-rays are

[octopus]

PS3 games aren't. PS1/PS2 games are, as are DVD's. Pretty sure Blu-Ray's are region free too but don't quote me on that one.

Blu-ray movies are region locked but US and Japan are in the same region ;o