Is Sony's PS3 getting a redesign?

[Shrygue]

via Engadget




According to T3 magazine and a "particularly well-informed insider," the PS3 is due not just for hard drive updates, but a total design revamp down to a slimmer and smaller package sometime in the Fall. If you believe what you read, the refreshed console will sport all the same specs, but will receive a fresh coat of paint, a trip through the shrinking machine, and probably a lightened load.

Of course, this is all just wild speculation coupled with salacious, magazine-selling 3D renders of the phantom device, as Sony denies the existence of an update and we don't really know who this source is. On the other hand, the company pulls this kind of ditzy "who me?" stuff whenever it's got a new product up its sleeve -- though we're not feeling the timing on this shocker.

[F9zDark]

I don't think a PS3 Slim is coming anytime soon. Sony will soon be earning a profit on the PS3, to go ahead and make something that would HURT profits this early on is stupid...

Case in point, when laptops first came out into the mainstream they were far more expensive than their beefier desktop cousins...

[JKKDARK]

It's too soon

[Eviltaco64]

Yeah, usually a slim model comes about 4 years after release, and it wouldnt look like someone put a Wii inside the top cover of the PS3.

[Shrygue]

True, much too soon. Sony really should wait at least 3-4 more before rolling out a second revision of the Playstation 3, just like they did for the PS2.

[Napalm-Death]

That way current owners can upgrade and actually feel satisfied about upgrading. I wonder if they'll find a way to get the EE back in though...

[DPyro]

Like I said somewhere else, this is actually possible. The PSP came out in 2005, and the Slim came out in 2007 which means it only took them two years to release a slimmer version. Now with the PS3, they've shrunk the Cell and BD-ROM, cut the PS2 chips out, and could shrink the heat pipe used in the PS3. If they can manage to reduce the power consumed they can also do what the PSTwo did and make the power supply external.

[F9zDark]

Like I said somewhere else, this is actually possible. The PSP came out in 2005, and the Slim came out in 2007 which means it only took them two years to release a slimmer version. Now with the PS3, they've shrunk the Cell and BD-ROM, cut the PS2 chips out, and could shrink the heat pipe used in the PS3. If they can manage to reduce the power consumed they can also do what the PSTwo did and make the power supply external.

The PSP however was slimmed down by mere milimeters. This is an overhaul. It could very well be possible, I just feel Sony would rather wait and get the Cell shrunk down to 45nm (which Sony said is possible; whether that means now or a year later, who knows) and the GPU would need to be shrunk down too (which they could do, they have said they shrunk it down 65nm).

[JKKDARK]

Like I said somewhere else, this is actually possible. The PSP came out in 2005, and the Slim came out in 2007 which means it only took them two years to release a slimmer version. Now with the PS3, they've shrunk the Cell and BD-ROM, cut the PS2 chips out, and could shrink the heat pipe used in the PS3. If they can manage to reduce the power consumed they can also do what the PSTwo did and make the power supply external.

The PSP was released in Decmber 2004

.....

[Accordion]

the other news about SCE discussing how to put distance between two models does add some credibility to this claim.

Many people [strangely] do not like the appearance of the system, and a slimmer model which emphasizes the lack of additional ports and media bay would gather some appeal.

It does seem too soon though.