wraggster
July 10th, 2006, 20:05
A few days ago at GameDaily, the latest in a series of articles about the PS3's price was posted. This one centers around the 2 different SKU models and how the $500 and $600 models are indeed warranted, if not a bargain. To summarize their points:
$500 SKU
No HDMI support outta the box -- Sony will offer some AV device to get you your HD fix or you won't need HDMI to view Blu-Ray's 720p or 1080i resolutions.
No wireless internet connectivity -- move your router closer to the TV to give your game machine a wired connection. Recall for XBox360 owners who bought the $400 machine, the wireless adaptor was $100, so arguing price is a moot point if we can simply move a router around.
No card reader support -- if you're using it as a game machine, there's not much point to moving pictures from a camera or saving games onto cards with the 20GB hard drive.
Conclusion: $500 PS3 is for those of us who just want to game. We don't care so much for HD, heck, a lot of us don't have an HD TV to play it on. Even if so, there's probably some component cables to boost the resolution.
$600 SKU
This is a Blu-Ray multimedia machine. Gaming is optional (but recommended). Standalone Blu-Ray players come in around $1000. So you're winning on $400 already, plus a 60GB hard drive, plus complete PSX and PS2 backwards compatibility. If that doesn't sound like a pretty good deal, what else do you need? The $600 PS3 is pretty much half the price of its separate pieces (Blu-Ray Player, 60GB drive, PSX and PS2).
$500 SKU
No HDMI support outta the box -- Sony will offer some AV device to get you your HD fix or you won't need HDMI to view Blu-Ray's 720p or 1080i resolutions.
No wireless internet connectivity -- move your router closer to the TV to give your game machine a wired connection. Recall for XBox360 owners who bought the $400 machine, the wireless adaptor was $100, so arguing price is a moot point if we can simply move a router around.
No card reader support -- if you're using it as a game machine, there's not much point to moving pictures from a camera or saving games onto cards with the 20GB hard drive.
Conclusion: $500 PS3 is for those of us who just want to game. We don't care so much for HD, heck, a lot of us don't have an HD TV to play it on. Even if so, there's probably some component cables to boost the resolution.
$600 SKU
This is a Blu-Ray multimedia machine. Gaming is optional (but recommended). Standalone Blu-Ray players come in around $1000. So you're winning on $400 already, plus a 60GB hard drive, plus complete PSX and PS2 backwards compatibility. If that doesn't sound like a pretty good deal, what else do you need? The $600 PS3 is pretty much half the price of its separate pieces (Blu-Ray Player, 60GB drive, PSX and PS2).