The PS3 Slim 'could have been made even smaller'


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We think the redesigned PS3 is small enough. However, Sony's Japanese designers, in their continuing desire to shrink things, noted that the PS3 Slim "could have been made even smaller."

Sony's executive VP of technology Masayuki Chatani spoke with Japanese newspaper Nikkei about the challenges of designing a slimmer PS3. The goal was not only to cut costs, but to expand its attractiveness to "an even wider range of users." Considering the Japanese penchant for small electronics, the original PS3's girth was certainly a limiting factor.

However, certain sacrifices would have been necessary for Sony to pursue an even smaller box. One option was to place "the power supply on the outside," much like Microsoft's Xbox 360 power brick. Taking yet another page from Microsoft, an even more drastic option considered was to remove the hard drive altogether. The alternatives -- Flash memory or virtual network storage -- proved to be too expensive, and too unreliable. Ultimately, the Sony team chose function over form. "One of the best features of the PS3 is that people can download games to the internal local storage unit and play comfortably." That reminds us -- we need a bigger couch.

[Via IGN]

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/12/15/the-ps3-...e-even-smaller/

Power brick or fixed flash memory? Thank goodness neither happened.

Just goes to show you it's not really going to be possible to make current consoles all that smaller, at least not to PS2 Slim sizes.

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Looks like this is the PMS topic of the day :rofl:

I find it interesting to know how the choices for it came about, we could've had a powerbrick to save a few inches, and thankfully we didn't. I can bet if crazy Ken was still in charge we would've had one.

The idea of cloud networking was also hinted at, something I want to see in the future - Eg game saves/data stored server side for me to download any time I want. No one else in the console realm has really talked about that.

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I wish they had used an external psu. That way it's not generating heat inside the console, and if it dies you just replace the brick, not the whole console.

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I wish they had used an external psu. That way it's not generating heat inside the console, and if it dies you just replace the brick, not the whole console.

There's not much that can go wrong with a power brick unless it melts. Chances are even if it were outside the PS3, the console would be the part that malfunctions :p

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That's true, but internal psus have a higher chance of failure and the heat they generate can contribute to other parts of the console failing. Of course, it's still not much of an issue since we're talking about PS3s and not 360s.

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actually, internal power supplies have a smaller chance of failing because they are getting direct air cooling, they are not dumping their heat into plastic, which does not have good cooling properties.

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Don't really care, and I have no idea why the Japanese love their electronics as tiny as possible. Quit screwing around Sony, if it ain't broken don't fix it :p

When you live in a tiny house/apartment you'd want things tiny as possible too! It's no real surprise they like thing small when you see how they live in the big cities.

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At the rate Sony is removing features and shrinking the PS3, pretty soon they'll just be selling an empty box.

"The PS3 is now smaller than ever! So small is practically doesn't exist!"

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At the rate Sony is removing features and shrinking the PS3, pretty soon they'll just be selling an empty box.

"The PS3 is now smaller than ever! So small is practically doesn't exist!"

"It only does nothing."

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At the rate Sony is removing features and shrinking the PS3, pretty soon they'll just be selling an empty box.

"The PS3 is now smaller than ever! So small is practically doesn't exist!"

Actually selling you an 'empty box' then charging you for all the addons to it seems to be the MS way :rofl:

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Actually selling you an 'empty box' then charging you for all the addons to it seems to be the MS way :rofl:

I'm so usually on the MS side to console arguments, not to the extent some people are but I gotta give you that one, well executed.

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every PS generation shouldve had a external power supply, the first revisions of every sony console, PS1, PS2, and PS3 have has some sort of issue with the internal power and heat.

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every PS generation shouldve had a external power supply, the first revisions of every sony console, PS1, PS2, and PS3 have has some sort of issue with the internal power and heat.

...? I only heard about the PSX and PS2 having issues with the laser's motor.

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