The long-awaited PlayStation 5 Slim has arrived and whilst it’s not the ground-breaking change that people seemed to expect, it is a better PS5 console for a number of reasons.
Talking about the sheer size of the console, looking at photos doesn’t do it justice and this is for a few reasons. Firstly it’s because of the fact that Sony has shaved some size off the height, depth and width, so whilst it doesn’t seem like a drastic change in any given measurement, they all come together to provide a decently smaller console, but the big differences come in height and depth.
It wasn’t until I pulled it out of the box, which I was able to do with one hand that I realised just how much smaller this console is in terms of total volume. When it comes to the disc version, it’s been reduced by 30% in size and 24% in weight, which is really noticeable.
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The depth in particular is a lot smaller, which makes reaching behind the console in your cabinet a bunch easier, because you can actually reach behind it, and if you can’t, well it’s 24% lighter so it’s easier to just spin it and drag it around. It’s not going to be earth shattering for a lot of people, but if you’re buying a PS5 for the first time tomorrow, it’s an improvement.
I’m actually in the camp where the original PS5 didn’t fit into my entertainment unit standing up unless I took the wings off, and thankfully, the PS5 Slim does with absolute flying colours, and leaves more room for other tech in my cabinet.
The other major design change comes in the way of the faceplates. They’re now split into four, and I actually prefer this change as I feel like it breaks up the faceplates and gives it a visual design element that it didn’t have before.
The top two plates are glossy, and the bottom two matte, which has been a regular design feature when it comes to PlayStation consoles. I’d probably rather the whole thing be matte (and lucky enough faceplates exist to be swapped out), but it’s pretty inoffensive.
One of the faceplate quadrants houses the new removable disc drive, which most people will probably never see if they’re buying the disc version, but obviously I had to take a look. It’s really impressive how it simply lifts away from the console without even needing to push on anything. It’s good to know that you can technically turn your PS5 console into a digital version, or if you’re buying the digital version, add a disc drive later.
The other major physical change is the new stand. Instead of the chunky plastic stand that was able to stand the PS5 in both vertical and horizontal, you now get two little plastic legs that actually physically slot into the console to lay it on its side and I much prefer this solution.
Whilst it does look a little bit cheap when you hold them in your hands initially, the fact that it actually slots into the console means that they don’t move around with your PS5 sliding all over the place like it did with the original stand.
If you’re wanting to stand your PS5 Slim up, it will stand without a stand, which is a good thing as you’ll need to buy a vertical stand for $50, which is a big improvement on the other one, but obviously it’s an additional cost now.
In terms of other improvements, the console now comes with a 1TB SSD which is an improvement on the 825GB SSD that the original included and the unit now has two USB-C ports on the front and all of the USB-A ports on the back, I’m not too sure how I feel about this, given a lot of dongles still use USB-A, but I’m sure this will continue to change with time.
When it comes to performance, obviously, it’s hard to measure this type of thing without the correct tools, but even with my PS5 Slim in a semi enclosed space, I still experienced that same fantastic quiet console that never seems to miss a beat.
In terms of other improvements, I’d have maybe liked to see Wi-Fi 6E inclusion and also think it’s really odd that there’s no PlayStation Link functionality built in given they’ve just launched that with the Portal, but I’m sure we’ll see another iteration with both of these in the future.
All-in-all, if you’re already a PS5 owner, you probably don’t need to run out and buy a PS5 Slim, unless you’ve been waiting for a second one for another room or need a smaller version, but if you’re buying one for the first time, you’re absolutely getting a better console and more bang for your buck.
