As opposed to the more typical tray loader, the PS3 has a slot-loading, Blu-ray optical-disc drive on the front, which contributes to the unit’s slick appearance. Discs slide in and eject smoothly enough, but how the mechanism wears over time, we can’t say — but the odds of snapping off or damaging the Xbox 360’s disc tray aren’t exactly negligible.

With the original PlayStation and the PlayStation 2, Sony strode the gaming world like a colossus, knocking the mighty Nintendo from its throne and swatting away attempts by Microsoft to muscle in on its territory with the Xbox. It looked like Sony could do no wrong, until the PlayStation 3 arrived.

Many gamers found the PS3’s initial £300 high price tag hard to stomach and, as a result, the console quickly trailed behind the Wii and Xbox 360 in terms of popularity. Now, with the cheaper PlayStation 3 Slim, which costs around £250, Sony is hoping to make up some of that lost ground. But can this rejigged console really help the company reclaim the console crown?

Design

The new model isn’t referred to as the PS3 Slim without reason — it’s significantly thinner and narrower than the original PS3. In fact, it’s a completely different-looking machine. Sony has ditched the glossy black finish and sleek touch buttons of the original in favour of a duller-looking matte texture and more conventional push buttons. The whole device looks rather bargain-basement for our tastes, but we have to admit that, when you pick it up, it feels surprisingly well-built and much sturdier than the Xbox 360, for example.

The Slim looks fairly cheap, but you can tell it’s a well-built machine when you pick it up

Press the power button and you’ll notice that Sony has also managed to make the Slim slightly quieter than the original PS3. This is quite an achievement, as the PS3’s fan has always been whisper-quiet in comparison to the cyclone-like Xbox 360, and it’s never really suffered from the noisy disc-loading mechanism that blights the Wii.

Sony has been able to reduce the console’s noise level because the internal components have been completely re-engineered. Both the main Cell CPU and Nvidia graphics processor have been switched to a smaller manufacturing process, which means they run cooler and so don’t need such aggressive fans. This also helps the console to be greener, drawing slightly less power both when in standby mode and when running games or playing movies.

Given the price drop, Sony has had to make a few cuts here and there. This version no longer supports Linux, and backwards compatibility with old PS2 games is absent, although that’s also been missing from recent versions of the larger PS3. Similarly, this model only has two USB ports, and the multi-card reader has been given the push. But all of these are fairly minor losses that most buyers won’t mind.

Connectivity

On the media front, the console remains highly impressive. When it comes to Blu-ray playback — one of the console’s key features — picture quality is still on a par with that of most budget players. But the audio-handling has been changed slightly, so the console is no longer limited to decoding high-definition audio streams to the Linear PCM format. Instead, it can pass them to an external receiver via HDMI — something which audio purists will be happy about.

As well as Blu-ray support, the Slim can happily play video in the H.264, MPEG-2, AVCHD, DivX and WMV formats, as well as MP3 and WMA audio files across a network from a PC. The latest version of the firmware, 3.0, also adds native BBC iPlayer support to allow you to stream shows from the Net at near standard-definition quality. There’s still no infrared port, though, so you can’t control playback of Blu-ray discs or streamed video via a standard universal remote control, which is rather annoying.

Gaming chops

As a gaming device, little has changed, but the console now comes with the Sony DualShock 3 controller, rather than the older Sixaxis version that lacked rumble feedback. The Slim is still a seriously good gaming machine with many excellent exclusive titles, although, graphically, it’s still not the leap on from the Xbox 360 that Sony had originally promised. In fact, there’s usually little difference between PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the same titles.

The online PlayStation Network still isn’t as slick or easy to use as the Xbox Live service, although it does have the advantage of being free, whereas Xbox users have to pay about £40 a year for the ‘gold’ membership needed for online play.

This Slim has been timed to arrive just before the Christmas shopping season, but, despite its lower price, the Xbox 360 Elite (with its new £200 price tag) and Wii are still the cheaper options. As a result, we’re not sure that the Slim will help the PS3 overtake the 360 or Wii in terms of sales, but we can see it tempting those Wii and Xbox owners who are thinking of buying a second console in the run-up to Christmas

Conclusion

Sony’s PS3 Slim is just what the doctor ordered. Not only is it smaller, quieter and cheaper than previous versions, but the features Sony has done away with are those that most gamers simply won’t miss. We wish, however, that Sony had retained the more luxurious feel of the original — the Slim looks like it’s the PS3 brought to you courtesy of Lidl.

Edited by Charles Kloet

If you’d told us ten years ago that Microsoft would one day be arguably the biggest player in the videogame universe, we’d have kicked you in the shins, and called you a darned liar. But that’s the situation we’re faced with today.

Following on from the gobsmackingly popular Xbox 360 and Xbox 360 Elite consoles, we have the Xbox 360 Slim model, also known as the Xbox 360 250GB and the Xbox 360 S. It’s rocking a slimmed-down chassis and a host of new features, but, priced at around £200, does it solve the problems of previous versions?

Console design

Microsoft has given its console’s design a pretty radical overhaul, significantly slimming down the tower, which now measures 70 by 270 by 260mm. That’s not radically slimmer that the original 360, which was 83mm wide, but shaving off a few centimetres all over really makes a difference. This console will slot into the Tetris-like array of home-entertainment gadgets under your telly with considerably more ease than previous versions.

The matte plastic we’ve come to associate with the Xbox 360 is gone, replaced by some of the glossiest black plastic we’ve ever seen. It looks absolutely fantastic, and will certainly catch your eye, but we found that it picks up fingerprints like an obsessive forensic scientist. Handling this console for a minute or two will leave its mirror-like surface looking decidedly less pristine.

This console is also much lighter than before, weighing in at around 2.9kg, compared to the 3.5kg of the original Xbox 360. Its light weight, combined with its new plastic casing, means the 360 Slim feels slightly cheap when you hold it in your hands. But this device belongs under your telly, and is designed to be ogled, not manhandled, so it’s more important that it looks the business — which it does.

One of the Slim’s most arresting visual features is the angular ‘dent’ that runs diagonally across its body. The console’s styling reminds us of KITT from Knight Rider, and we like how the fan vents have been incorporated into the design — uniform gaps in the casing spread out across the machine’s body. Chrome trim on the bottom and top of the machine completes the ’80s look. While we can see the console’s styling dividing opinion among gamers, we admire Microsoft for giving the new Xbox 360 a distinctive and unique appearance.

The included black wireless controller has us drooling too. We were never huge fans of the white controller and its nasty habit of picking up endless quantities of grime and dirt. While we’re sure this black version will pick up just as much filth, we won’t be able to see it — and that’s a crucial difference.

There’s one more cosmetic touch that we really appreciate — the power button and eject key are now touch-sensitive, rather than mechanical, and each one issues a satisfying chime to let you know you’ve pressed it. This console is also incapable of falling victim to the ‘red ring of death’ that plagued so many Xboxes in the past, because Microsoft has removed the red LEDs from the front of the machine. As to whether failure rates will remain as high as they have with previous versions, only time will tell.

Storage

We’re pleased with the high storage capacity of the new 360. Previously, 250GB was a storage capacity reserved for a certain configuration of the 360 Elite, retailing at £250, and for the Sony PlayStation 3 Slim, which sells for closer to £300. In this respect, the new Xbox offers reasonably good value for money. You’d have to be a really hardcore download addict to burn through all that storage space.

Kinect

The Xbox 360 Slim boasts that it’s ‘Kinect ready’ on the box. Microsoft’s upcoming Kinect motion-sensor peripheral will work with any Xbox 360, but, due to a power discrepancy, if you want to use Kinect with older models, you’ll need to plug it into both the 360 itself and a wall socket. If you’re using the new 250GB model, you need only plug Kinect into the console, and it’ll happily sip its power directly from the Xbox itself.

Fan noise

It’s no secret that previous versions of the Xbox 360 have suffered from aggravating fan noise, sounding more like a jet engine prepping for take-off than a games console. Any 360 owners who’ve had their gaming enjoyment ruined by an over-loud fan will be glad to hear that this console is, as Microsoft claims, quiet.

Running the new 360 still generates a certain level of noise, however, because Microsoft has whacked a fan-cooling system inside the console’s power brick. That’s right — the transformer has its own fan. We’re keen to stress, however, that we didn’t find this fan becoming overly noisy during testing, and, even with both the console’s large, near-silent fan and the transformer fan spinning, the whole set-up is still significantly less noisy than previous 360 consoles.

The power brick itself is smaller than those of previous models and we suspect that the inclusion of the extra fan was made necessary by whittling down the console’s dimensions. Still, it’s annoying to see a console that runs almost totally silently made noisier by a cheap fan in the power brick. If it really bothers you, we have no doubt you’ll be able to pick up a third-party transformer, potentially without a fan, or at least with a slightly less noisy one.

Although the new console isn’t as quiet as it could have been, reducing the fan noise eliminates one of the major gripes we had with earlier versions, as does reducing the dimensions of the power supply.

Connectivity

We previously bemoaned the need to purchase an extra wireless adaptor to hook the 360 up to your wireless network, and, happily, this issue has also been fixed. The new 360 is equipped with an 802.11n wireless adaptor that handles everything internally. It’s a tidy system, and certainly contributes to the console’s value, as it reduces the need to purchase those pricey extra bits and bobs.

One bob you will still have to pick up, however, is an HDMI cable. Bizarrely, the 360 Slim comes with only a composite video cable, and none of the leads required to hook your system up in high definition. Considering that playing bleeding-edge games in glorious 1080p is one of this system’s key selling points, it seems churlish of Microsoft not to include any high-definition cables in the box.

The port selection on this model has been given an impressive boost. Whereas before you were limited to a measly three USB ports — quickly filled up with a headset, wireless adaptor and keyboard — you now have five USB ports. Two sit on a spring-loaded front panel and three reside on the console’s rear. There’s an S/PDIF output around the back too if you want to hook your speaker system up that way, and Ethernet and HDMI ports are all present and correct. A wired headset is also included, so you can be online and screaming abuse at hapless enemy players within minutes.

Conclusion

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Slim fixes the major complaints we had with previous versions, reducing the fan noise and the size of the power brick. We also like the new design and touch-sensitive buttons. But most impressive of all is the fact that the new console offers really good value for money, thanks to its 250GB hard drive, and arguably the greatest offering of games on the market today. Add it all together and you have a machine that, while not perfect, currently offers the best bang for a gamer’s buck.

If you’re new to the world of the Xbox, this console is the best way to get started. There are also plenty of reasons to upgrade if you’re already a devoted fan.

Edited by Charles Kloet

Nintendo’s brand-new games console, unveiled at the E3 gaming conference, is called the Wii U. It’s a souped-up, HD-capable version of the Wii with a peculiar new tablet-style controller you grip with both hands. While we’ve not yet had the benefit of a hands-on with the Wii U system, we’ve collected all the specs and information here for your perusal, so read on for all the facts, and our first thoughts.

There’s no pricing information or a precise release date for the Wii U yet, but it’ll be launching at some point between April and December 2012.

Wii and U always

Here’s how it works. There’s a brand new console that very much resembles the current Wii — a small, white, rounded box that’ll fit snugly under your TV. Unlike the current Wii, it’s capable of outputting video in full HD (1080p) via HDMI, so the Wii U could — judging by some of the demos on show — offer games as visually impressive as those on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The new console stores everything on internal flash memory, which you can boost using an SD card, or a USB stick. It plays proprietary optical discs (so no Blu-ray), and is backward compatible with Wii games, so your collection of Wii titles won’t become obsolete. All existing Wii controllers (including the Wii Balance Board) will play nicely with the Wii U too.

There’s still much that’s still to be announced about the console itself. We suspect Nintendo will make some design revisions before unveiling it fully, and we’ll have to wait for the nitty gritty like processor speeds and graphical grunt.

The real star of the show, however, is the new wireless controller.

The console communicates wirelessly with this all-new gizmo, which looks a little like a white, plastic, chunky iPad. A squat rectangle, it has a 6.2-inch, 16:9 touchscreen in the centre, and is surrounded by a mass of buttons. There’s a front-facing camera stuck on the top for video calls.

Like the 3DS, the controller also comes with a stylus, which you will almost certainly lose. Happily though it doesn’t look like it’s required, and tapping the touchscreen with your fingers will likely do the job just as well.

On the left you’ll find a circle pad analogue stick, which looks just like the one on the 3DS. There’s a classic Nintendo D-pad underneath that, while over on the right there’s a secondary circle pad, four face buttons, two shoulder bumpers and two trigger buttons too. It’s got rumble capability, and inside there’s a gyroscope and accelerometer for motion-controlled gaming.

Playing both sides

In short, while it’s accessible to those who aren’t familiar with complicated gaming controllers (thanks to the touchscreen and motion controls), the Wii U should feel comfortable to gamers who are used to the button-heavy Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers. Indeed, the button layout precisely resembles that of those rival consoles.

Nintendo is clearly hoping to recapture the hardcore market that to some extent jumped ship when the Wii’s rivals outstripped it in terms of processing power and controller complexity. We can’t predict whether this gambit will succeed, but Nintendo is certainly keen to get other games developers on board.

The E3 conference showed heavyweight gaming series such as Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, Ninja Gaiden, Tekken and Battlefield all heading to the Wii U platform, so there’s every chance this console will find traction among the hardcore audience. HD graphics means it should have the same games that are common to Microsoft and Sony’s consoles — at least until they launch new machines.

Two screens are better than one

Because the controller communicates wirelessly with the console, there are some exciting possibilities for gaming across two separate screens. For instance, you can turn off your big telly, and keep playing the game on the 6.2-inch screen while your unforgiving siblings or significant other watches their own programmes. You only have to be in wireless range of the console, so you could use it in bed, for example.

Nintendo showed off some very cool motion-control tricks that are possible with the controller. For instance, holding it up in front of the TV and using the touchscreen to swipe at virtual blades, aiming them carefully at objects on the larger screen, or placing it on the floor with the touchscreen displaying a golf tee, and using a separate controller to swing a virtual club.

We also saw a Web browser that appeared to work on the controller’s touchscreen, both independently of the TV image and in conjunction with the larger picture.

For most games we expect the controller’s touchscreen will be used to display extra information — stats, items and so on. Similarly, this is what the lower screen on the 3DS is most commonly used for. There doesn’t seem to be much actual processing tech in the controller, so you won’t be able to use it out and about as a handheld console — it just displays visuals that are wirelessly transmitted from the console.

Outlook

We’d heard whispers that Nintendo would be aiming to appeal to the hardcore market while still retaining its mass of casual gaming fans, and we were totally flummoxed as to how it could achieve this.

But the Wii U offers HD gaming and a suitably complex controller for the dedicated crowd, while backwards compatibility with older Wii games and motion control will doubtless satisfy casual gamers. And on top of that, it looks completely nuts. We’d expect nothing less from Nintendo, and we’re excited to see more of the Wii U in the coming months. Stay tuned.

Edited by Nick Hide