THE NEW PS5 SLIM: IS IT WORTH IT?

Sony’s PS5 is an amazing machine, with some people liking the design, and others finding it to be a big and that's now happening in the form of a new slimmer PS5, even though Sony isn't directly calling it the PS5 Slim.

Sony explains it will now be known simply as the ‘new PS5’even if it’s 18% lighter for the Digital console and 24% lighter for the Disc drive model. Its internals remain mostly the same, though the console will now have a 1TB SSD instead of the 825GB SSD that was released with the PS5.

One of the main rumors that are actually true though is that this new PS5 redesign will come with an external disc drive. Which means you’ll no longer have to choose between a standard PS5 with an optical drive or the PS5 Digital Edition. Instead, you can buy the cheaper digital edition and then add an Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Drive to it later on if you decide you want to play physical games.

PRICE AND ACCESSORIES

The PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive will cost $499 in the U.S. and the PS5 Digital Edition will cost $449 in the U.S.

The PS5 Slim doesn't come with a vertical stand, only a horizontal one. But for those who prefer to have their console positioned vertically instead of horizontally, you will also need to purchase a separate stand. While the new PS5 will come with a horizontal stand in the box, a new Vertical Stand compatible with all of Sony’s PS5 consoles will be available for $30 on PlayStation direct and with third party sellers too eventually.

PS5 Console Covers are making a comeback and Sony says that ones for this new model will be available early next year. when those covers arrive, there will be an all-matte Black colorway for sale along with the Deep Earth Collection colors in Volcanic Red, Cobalt Blue, and Sterling Silver.

DESIGN AND SPECS

The new PS5 has been reduced in volume by more than 30% and the Digital console is now 18% lighter while the Disc drive model is 24% lighter. However, the biggest change in terms of the design of both versions of this new console is that there are now four cover panels with two on each side as opposed to just two on the launch PS5.

With the Digital Edition of the new PS5, the cover panel on the bottom right side of the console can be removed and the new Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Drive can be added in its place. The rest of the internal specs for the new PS5 remain the same except for a larger 1TB SSD.

The console will still ship with 16GB of GDDR6 memory and a Ryzen Zen 2 CPU from AMD. Additionally, the new PS5 isn’t getting a Wi-Fi upgrade either and you’re still stuck with Wi-Fi 6 instead of the newer Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 standards.

The new, slimmer PS5 will completely replace the launch versions of the console once the current stock has sold out. If you own the Standard PS5 or the Digital Edition, now would be a good time to stock up on any accessories because Sony will most likely stop Console Covers for these consoles once they’re discontinued.

In conclusion, if you already have a PS5 the slim is not really necessary purchase and if you have the PS4 and are finally looking to upgrade then you can definitely look at the “new” PS5/PS5 slim because of the larger internal storage and the now external disc drive.

Here are the full specs of both the Digital Edition as well as the Disc edition of the new PS5:

	New PS5 New	New PS5 Digital Edition
Price	$499,	$449
Processor	Custom AMD Zen 2, 8-core / 16 threads, 3.5GHz	Custom AMD Zen 2, 8-core / 16 threads, 3.5GHz
GPU	AMD RDNA 2, 10.3 teraflops, 2.23 GHz	AMD RDNA 2, 10.3 teraflops, 2.23 GHz
Ram	GDDR6 16GB	GDDR6 16GB
Storage	1TB SSD	1TB SSD
Disc drive	Ultra HD Blu-ray up to 100GB/disc	Optional add-on
Video out	4K, 120Hz	4K, 120Hz
Ports	1 x USB Type C (front), 2 x USB Type A, 1 x gigabit Ethernet, 1 x HDMI (rear)	1 x USB Type C (front), 2 x USB Type A, 1 x gigabit Ethernet, 1 x HDMI (rear)
Networking	Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6	Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6