Sony has surprisingly announced the PS5 Slim with a new streamlined design for both disc and digital editions with a major new perk for the latter.
Continuing the traditional mid-cycle hardware refresh for PlayStation consoles, Sony has announced the a pair of new machines that are 30% smaller than the original models.
The version with the built-in Blu-ray drive is down to 3.2kg which is 18% lighter. The Digital edition has dropped to 2.6kg, which is 24% lighter than the original. However, in a new tweak on the format, Sony is making the Ultra HD Blu-ray drive an attachable/detachable feature.
It’ll come as standard as for those purchasing the disc edition, while Sony is now giving buyers of the Digital Edition the opportunity to purchase a standalone drive later. The drive will cost £99.99 / $79.99 / 119.99 Euro.
It’s not clear whether Sony will allow owners of the current Digital Edition to add a disc to their rig if they’re missing the physical media. It would likely need to be attached by USB-C and right now and Sony isn’t advertising it as such.
It also comes with a larger 1TB SSD, compared with the strange 825GB storage Sony offered with the original. Other than that the specs look to be unchanged.
PS5 Slim price
The PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc drive costs £479.99 / £499.99 / 549.99 Euro, while the Digital Edition, minus the drive will be £389.99 / $449.99 / 449.99 Euro. Those are the same prices in the UK as the current PS5 editions.
If you buy the drive after the fact, you’ll end up paying a little bit more, but in the UK that premium is only £10. Sony is also selling a new vertical stand and faceplates.
Sony PS5 Slim release date
Sony isn’t getting specific about the release dates, only committing to a US launch in November and “rolling out globally in the following months.” Sony adds that the new Slim models will be the only PS5 models you can buy once current inventory has been sold.
Sony PS5 Slim specs
The weight gets lower, the size gets smaller and the solid state drive gets bigger. However, other than that, we’re looking at the same internals. We’re looking at the same 8-core / 16-thread AMD Ryzen Zen 2 set-up with Radeon RDNA 2 GPU with up to 10.3 tflops.
“To address the evolving needs of players, our engineering and design teams collaborated on a new form factor that provides greater choice and flexibility,” Sony said in the announcement. “The same technology features that make PS5 the best to play are packed into a smaller form factor, along with an attachable Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Drive and a 1TB SSD for more internal storage.”
