Sony PlayStation 3 Slim 160 GB Charcoal Black Console (NTSC)

So far the best console I've owned ever... Now let give you reasons to why I say that.

1. Hardware- The new slim design feels more solid and durable, You have everything you need right out of the box (If your using a SD TV.) The controller is a improved design of the PS2 controller, Which may seem like a negative if the controller wasn't perfected as it is.

2. Features- The PS3 (offline) can play games,audio CD's (in Which you can import and save to your system.)It can play Blu-Ray DVD's (Movies made for a HD TV) and regular DVD's (SD). It can store pictures and gives you your own account that has all your data on it. (Online) You have Playstation home, which I'm still exploring, you can rent and buy movies and watch them right on your PS3, you can surf the web, play games online, and connect with Playstation Network. For at least the first three weeks, you'll be learning things about you didn't even expect. Now it can't do EVERYTHING, lets don't be silly, but it can do ALOT...a whole lot.

3. Games- The games are really the main factor when it comes to actually enjoying the system to the fullest. PS3 has a great number of good games, so you'll have no problem choosing the right game. One's I consider essential are, "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves," "Metal Gear Solid 4," "Little Big Planet," "GTA 4," and "Batman: Arkum Asylum." See I just named 5 games from 5 different genre's right off the top of my head...and each one of them is a brilliant experience from beginning to end.

4. Exclusiveness- The PS3 has some of the best exclusives I've seen in a system. While it has it's fair share of excellent third party games. Examples to buy the system for the exclusive games are, "Metal Gear Solid 4," "Killzone 2," "Both Uncharted Games," "Arkum Asylum," "God of War 3," and the list goes on and on. The Xbox 360 appears to have more exclusive games, but not as consistent in quality in my opinion. Not putting the 360 down, but this is just my opinion

5. Graphics- Well, I won't breakdown and tell you the logistics of the graphics, but I will say they look amazing, even on a SD TV. On HD you won't believe the kind of detail and colors will pop out at you, no I'm not exaggerating. The PS3 would be my main reason to switch to HD TV.

6. Life left- Playstation systems usually run for about ten years normally, so it should still be around for years to come. It's not to late to buy as it'll be quite some time before you see the PS4. Not to mention a lot of good games are still in development.

You just can't loose with PS3, no matter who you are there is a game for you now I'll recap.

Pro's-
1. Abundant features and multi media applications
2. Free online
3. Abundant exclusive and third party games
4. Strongly built
5. Less expensive in the long run
6. free PS3 demos from PStore
7. Always able to play a disc without malfunctioning

Con's
1. The only one I could honestly find was the longish updates and installation times for games and the system, other than that, no complaints


PS3 is one of the best, it would be a mistake to miss out on it.

If the original PlayStation 3 was a big glossy testament to Sony’s arrogance and excess, the new Slim offers a refreshing (if not sexy) act of contrition.

Virtually everything about this machine is scaled back. The price has dropped to $300 (from the original $600), the new textured matte finish is pleasantly understated, while a thinner waistline and lighter heft give the Slim an undeniably fetching figure. Even better: Despite its considerably smaller footprint you’re still getting the same badass hardware used to search for ripples in space-time and, you know, occasionally render a videogame or two..

The two big differences with the Slim are fairly cut and dried: design and price. As far as the former is concerned, the console is unsurprisingly svelte (11 × 2.5 × 11 inches) and will slide into your media phalanx with ease. At 6.8 pounds, it’s also about 36 percent lighter than the old, “fat” PS3. It won’t suck down the energy equivalent of a plasma screen any more, either, due to a new 45nm Cell processor. In idle mode, the new PS3 draws 96.24 watts, compared to 206.90 watts on the original model.

Other non-cosmetic differences? Sony finally decided to nix the annoying touch sensitive power and eject controls and replace them with actual buttons. You’ll also gain the ability to bitstream, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD audio, thanks to an updated HDMI chipset. Compared to the original PS3, the Slim does lose two USB ports from its facade, along with the orgy of card readers. That’s no biggy — we never used those ports anyway.

More irksome, however, is the continued (since 2007) lack of backwards compatibility for PS2 games, as well as the inability to run any other OS, like Linux — not a good thing if astrophysicist Dr. Gaurav Khanna plans on updating his gravity grid.

As for the system’s actual performance, there’s not much to report given we’re dealing with basically the same guts. Despite the new processor and other slight differences, we squeezed out nearly identical boot up times from both the slim and fat versions after updating to the latest 3.0 firmware. Load times for actual games did vary slightly, with the slim generally edging out the fat brother. But we’re talking seconds here, though, not minutes.

So now onto the big question: Does a cosmetic redesign and lower price translate into redemption for the PS3? That short answer is: it depends. If judged strictly as a piece of hardware (not a particularly good way to judge things), the Slim definitely runs circles around its nearest competitor, the Xbox 360 Elite. For the same price, not only do you get extra goodies like built-in Wi-Fi, but it’s also a Blu-ray player — and a damn fine one at that.

Unfortunately, Sony’s biggest hurdles remain the ones its engineers can’t simply design away. Overall, PlayStation Home is still a pointless exercise in online interaction, while the competing Xbox Live network has evolved into a rich platform for first-person shooter mayhem as well as more sedate forms of social gaming. Add to that Sony’s weak game library that continues to lack compelling titles like the Xbox 360’s Halo ODST and Mass Effect 2, and throw in a moribund internet experience, and you have a system that many serious gamers will still be hesitant to embrace.

Reviewed by wired.com

which console is for you:
I own all 3 of the next gen consoles being the nerd that i am lol and i have to say theres more to these consoles than graphics. You buy a wii if you want nintendo franchised games or B if you want this for casual gaming or family gaming. You buy a 360 if you dont want to shell out anywhere up to 3x more money for a console with more design and better graphics but you get a great xbox community.
What games are you trying to play:
Now heres what most reviews dont tell you. If you want to play games that are more fps orientated(shooters) then go with the 360 the often budget and release the bigger hit shooter titles now of course thats not to say ps3 does not have them its just xbox is full of them. If you want to play more immersive games with more story driven gameplay get a ps3 with a mix of graphics and bigger disc space( blue ray) they are able to put more into they're games while to put the same amount on a 360 disc would take 3 discs. The ps3 controller is smaller than the 360 and it feels more compatible and not as heavy and is extremely more durable.

Ps3 slim vs ps3 regular:
the ps3 regular had some things i liked those where for the most part backwards compatibility which allowed you to play ps2 games on the ps3 the slim does not however have this feature. Ironically though the reason it was taken out in the slim version was because of the yellow ring of death or "YRD" which of course was not as frequent as the xbox 360's red ring problems.Knowing sony though and seeing as they are not selling downloadable ps2 games i would assume they will have some new patch for backwards compatibility in the near future.

Why get a console like this now:
unlike in the past 10 or so years consoles have stopped being released yearly and have focused more on improving the current consoles. The estimated next release date for a new gaming console(which will make the previous one obsolite) will be anywhere from 3-5 years. Now of course they wont all change on the spot the first to change will be either the 360 or the wii since the ps3 already has blu-ray and xbox and wee are still in hd-dvd phases. getting a ps3 is a great buy You get some of the coolest features ,free online play, awesome graphics, a blue-ray/dvd player, full usb mouse and keyboard support and also most of the things that are ps3 made are Bluetooth such as the headsets meaning they will also work with youre phone or pc.

Cool things to conisder:
Since this console is made by sony it is a japanese manufacturer which means alot of very popular japanese licensed titles will be exclusively to the ps3 only that is why there are a lot more ps3 exclusives vs xbox ones. As far as the online goes paying 5 bucks a month for 36 online wasnt BAD but the amount of hackers trash talk and kids drives me nuts. the ps3 avoids this by being more expensive ( something parents wont just let theyre kids buy) and the community seems to have a form of decency when it comes to respect amazing for a free online service :) now im not going to say that PlayStation network is better than xbox live because its not but for a free online service its just barely second to xbox and the community is still huge! So if you plan to play online get this console it will be worth the extra price since you get life time free online name changes etc. and its a blue ray player which most of the times cost more to buy by themselves then as a ps3

I had the Wii gaming system for 2 years and just gave it to my daughter. Most of the games were geared towards younger children and although they were fun I wanted something more adult orientated. I was also disappointed with the Wii motion controller when I used it with Tiger Woods Golf because it required an awkward grip to hit a hook. I purchased the PS3 with Move controller and 320GB hard drive and I love it! I also bought John Daly's Prostroke Golf game and it works great with these controllers. Now I can shift my feet and take a natural swing and stance to hook the ball around trees when needed. I also like the big hard drive because I can copy movies from my computer to it and play them on the TV. This system also streams my Netflix movies great and I don't have to pay a yearly subscription like I would have had to with an XBOX system. On the Playstation Network you can also download a ton of trial versions of games to try out before buying. A lot of these trials have a couple levels so there are a couple hours worth of playing for free on each one. The Blue Ray Player is a bonus to but I haven't had a chance to try it out yet although the DVD player works well. You can also share music on your computer through the PS3 to play on your surround sound if you have it. All in all it was a lot better value than the Wii and I would definitely buy it again.

BLUERAY-NETFLIX-INTERNET-VIDEO UPLOADER-ONLINE GAMING-VERY FAST PROCESSOR- PS3 GAMES ARE GREAT TO PLAY--BIG HARD DRIVE-WIRELESS CONTROLLER--THIS IS MY SECOND ONE AND I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT IT-