It’s pretty common for hardware companies to redesign their aging systems by making them smaller, sleeker, or cheaper to produce: Nintendo has made millions by constantly updating their handheld hardware, and Microsoft gave the Xbox 360 a much needed face lift about 2 years ago. Sony’s a fan of hardware redesigns too, and all of their systems (sans the recently released Vita,) have eventually received “slim” revisions. I think most people assumed that Sony was done fiddling with the PS3’s hardware once the slim PS3 came out, but some new leaked pics suggest that Sony is about to once again redesign their current-gen workhorse.
If the pics above are real, it would make the PS3 the first home console since the Sega Genesis to get a second hardware redesign. The new PS3 looks like it’s significantly slimmer than the already compact “slim” PS3 model, and it ditches the solid casings of previous PS3’s, instead covering the system with a series of grooves, which aesthetically sort of makes it look like a curvy PS2. In terms of hardware changes, the new PS3 abandons the expensive slot-loading drives that previous models used in favor of a cheaper top-loading drive. The system still looks like it has at least 2 USB ports. Some crafty individuals have managed to estimate the system’s size by comparing common elements (i.e. the size of the USB ports, power port, etc.) and have whipped up this handy size comparison chart, which shows that the new model is slightly shorter than the PS3 slim (though just a hair longer,) and is significantly smaller than the original, Xbox 1 sized PS3. A supposedly leaked memo suggests that the system will be sold in 3 different SKU’s, each of which either contains a 16, 250, or 500 GB harddrive.
Reaction to the new design has been pretty mixed on the internet, but personally, I like it. I’m still using one of the original, gigantic PS3’s, but if that ever craps out, I wouldn’t mind replacing it with one of these.
Source: Tecnoblog (Portugese)
