TECH NEWS – Sony has confirmed that the PS5 Slim will arrive this holiday season.

Sony has confirmed the heavily rumoured PlayStation PS5 Slim is coming this holiday season. The smaller PS5 design will offer 1TB of storage – as well as still expandable SDD – for the PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition. As opposed to the 825GB capacity of the original version of the console. The new model offers the option to upgrade the PS5 Digital Edition with an Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc drive.

In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Sid Shuman, senior director of content communications at SIE, said Sony had created this new PS5 “to meet the evolving needs of gamers”.

The new PS5 has reduced volume by more than 30% and weight by 18% and 24%, respectively, compared to previous models, Sony said. It has four separate cover plates. The upper part has a glossy appearance, while the lower part remains matte. Those who buy the PS5 Digital Edition can later add an Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc drive to their PS5. It will be available separately for $79.99 | €119.99 | £99.99 | 11,980 yen.

The newly announced PS5 model will be available in the United States from November this year at selected local retailers and at direct.playstation.com, where it is available, Sony added. The worldwide rollout will continue in the coming months. (No details on the European launch have been released yet.) Once stocks of the current PS5 model run out, the new PS5 Slim will be the only model available.

Here are the recommended retail prices for the new PS5 models at participating retailers starting with the November launch:

• USA:
  PS5 Ultra HD with Blu-ray Disc Drive – $499.99
  PS5 digital edition – $449.99 USD
• Europe:
  PS5 Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Drive – EUR 549.99
  PS5 Digital Edition – EUR 449.99
• UK:
  PS5 Ultra HD with Blu-ray Disc Drive – GBP 479.99
  PS5 Digital Edition – GBP 389.99
• Japan:
  PS5 Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Drive – JPY 66,980 (tax included)
  PS5 Digital Edition – JPY 59,980 (tax incl.)

It is worth noting that the price of the PS5 Digital model has increased with the introduction of the slim version. The original PS5 Digital Edition costs $399.99, while this slimmer PS5 Digital Edition costs $449.99.

This means the slimmer PS5 with a disc drive costs $50 more than the slimmer PS5 Digital Edition.

The new PS5 model also comes with a horizontal stand. A new vertical stand, compatible with all PS5 models, will be available separately for $29.99 | €29.99 | £24.99 | 3980 yen.

Here are the specifications for the new PS5 Slim models

PlayStation 5 specifications:

• External dimensions (excluding projecting parts): Approx. 358 × 96 × 216 mm(width × height × depth)
• Mass: Approx. 3.2 kg
• CPU: x86-64-AMD Ryzen “Zen 2”, 8 Cores / 16 Threads, Variable frequency, up to 3.5 GHz
• GPU: AMD Radeon RDNA 2-based graphics engine, Ray Tracing Acceleration, Variable frequency, up to 2.23 GHz (10.3 TFLOPS)
• System Memory: GDDR6 16GB, 448GB/s Bandwidth
• SSD: 1TB, 5.5GB/s Read Bandwidth (Raw)
• PS5 Game Disc: Ultra HD Blu-ray, up to 100GB/disc
• BD/DVD drive: Disc Drive port equipped with Disc Drive
• Video Out: Support of 4K 120Hz TVs, 8K TVs, VRR (specified by HDMI ver.2.1)
• Audio: “Tempest” 3D AudioTech
• Input/Output Front of Console: USB Type-C port (Super-Speed USB 10Gbps), USB Type-C port (Hi-Speed USB)
• Input/Output Back of Console: USB Type-A port (Super-Speed USB 10Gbps) x2
• Networking: Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T)Wi-fi: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax

PlayStation 5 Digital Edition specifications:

• External dimensions (excluding projecting parts): Approx. 358 × 80 × 216 mm (width × height × depth)
• Mass: Approx. 2.6 kg
• CPU: x86-64-AMD Ryzen “Zen 2”, 8 Cores / 16 Threads, Variable frequency, up to 3.5 GHz
• GPU: AMD Radeon RDNA 2-based graphics engine, Ray Tracing Acceleration, Variable frequency, up to 2.23 GHz (10.3 TFLOPS)
• System Memory: GDDR6 16GB, 448GB/s Bandwidth
• SSD: 1TB, 5.5GB/s Read Bandwidth (Raw)
• PS5 Game Disc: Ultra HD Blu-ray, up to 100GB/disc
• BD/DVD drive: Disc Drive port
• Video Out: Support of 4K 120Hz TVs, 8K TVs, VRR (specified by HDMI ver.2.1)
• Audio“Tempest” 3D AudioTech
• Input/Output Front of Console: USB Type-C port (Super-Speed USB 10Gbps), USB Type-C port (Hi-Speed USB)
• Input/Output Back of Console: USB Type-A port (Super-Speed USB 10Gbps) x2
• Networking: Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T)Wi-fi: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax

So far, the public has received the new console with mixed feelings. Many, as IGN’s collection shows, simply don’t understand what’s ‘slim’ about it. It’s not much smaller than the current version. Others, however, seem to like the new design. The question remains, however, whether it’s worth the significant price increase…

Source: PlayStation Blog, IGN