The PS3 Slim has been at the eye of a massive rumor storm for months, but now that Sony has finally made it official it’s time to bring the facts. By now you probably know the general specs – it includes a 120GB HDD, it’s $300/€300, it’s out September 1st, and it’s, well, slimmer – but no self-respecting, hardware-obsessing, early-adopting gamer would stop there. Read on to snag twelve of the PS3 Slim’s most overlooked details and you’ll know more than the next guy when it’s released next month.

1. It’s not actually called the “PS3 Slim” – it’s just the PS3 or the PlayStation 3. It is a new PS3 for sure, but nowhere on the box or in the documentation will you see the words “PS3” and “Slim” next to each other. Nevertheless, we’ll keep calling it the “PS3 Slim” for the sake of convenience.

2. The logo is beautifully etched into the machine (above), and not only that, the old branding is gone for good - no more tacky Spider-Man font! No more PLAYSTATION 3, either – Sony decided to stop yelling at us with every press release and just call it the “PlayStation 3.” Much better.

3. It has buttons! Those weird, touch-sensitive non-buttons are gone, and they’ve been replaced with that wonderful, tactile CLICK that only real buttons can deliver.

4. This is what the new ad campaign looks like:

5. It’s smaller, but not in every way. It’s thinner and lighter, but as you can see in the comparison below, it's a bit longer from the rear to the front. They had to fit all those graphics in there somehow.

6. It’s quieter! With power consumption two-thirds what it was, there’s a lot less fan-blowing and a lot more sweet serenity.

7. It only comes with composite cables. Yes, composite. Not even component, and definitely no HDMI.

8. If you have a Bravia TV and you hook up your new PS3 with an HDMI cable (…not included), you can operate the PS3’s media bar with your TV’s remote – you can even set it to turn the system off when you turn the TV off.

9. The hard drive IS removable - though it doesn’t initially appear to be. There’s a little hole by the drive bay which contains a screw that holds the HDD in place. Pop that open, unscrew it, and you’re in business.

10. It’s not backwards compatible with the PS2, but it might work with some PSX games. That’s right, the PS3 Slim cannot play PlayStation 2 games, but some PlayStation games will work. The only appropriate response to this statement is “lol wut?”

11. It has a tiny stand-by light. Look how cute it is:

12. The games advertised on the back of the box are: inFAMOUS, Madden NFL 10, Tekken 6, MAG, and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Does that tell us anything? Not really, but it is something you probably didn’t know.

C-c-c-combo breaker: Bonus facts!

We couldn't possibly stop at just twelve things when there's so much to say. What, you thought we could only make numbered lists of things? Well numbers can suck it - here are a few more things we noticed about Sony's new product.

If you want to stand it vertically, you can buy a stand separately.

The big power switch on the back is gone - but that's about the only thing different about the layout of the system's rear. 

Aug 19, 2009

For more coverage of the announcement of the PS3 Slim, see our unboxing video and comparison shots, and read more about the specs in our Sony gamescom conference coverage!