The leaks proved true: Better Way Electronics (BwE) leaked photos of an alleged PlayStation 5 Slim in August. It was greeted with much skepticism mainly because it “looked too light.” However, BwE said it was just the chassis, not a full, working PS5 Slim. From the looks, it would appear the empty case was an authentic Sony sample.
The anonymous sources that provided BwE with the casing said that the Slim would feature an optional optical drive – that is to say that customers who buy the digital-only Slim could later buy a disc drive and easily install it themselves (bottom). However, the insiders didn’t have much more information than that.
On Tuesday, SIE Content Communications Senior Director Sid Shuman officially announced the PlayStation 5 Slim. It matched up to everything the leakers had to say and more.
The thinner design will still come in two flavors – digital and disc – with volume reduced by 30 percent and weight lowered by 18 and 24 percent, respectively. Shuman said the optional Ultra HD Blu-ray optical drives will run $80 US, €120, £100, and ¥11,980.
Unfortunately, we won’t see the typical significant price dip that we have seen with past mid-life refreshes. The Slim costs the same as the US launch price for the PS5 – $500 (disc) and $450 (digital). Prices remain flat for all other regions except for Japan, where MSRP goes from ¥60,478 to ¥66,980 for disc and ¥49,478 to ¥59,980 for digital.
Fortunately, the new consoles come with a slight storage upgrade. The original PS5 had an odd SSD storage configuration of 825 GB. With games only getting bigger, it became a point of contention with gamers since it only left 667 GB of usable space after OS partitioning. After factoring in system software, the bump should leave users with about 842 GB of storage.
You can check out the rest of the PS5 Slim’s specs on PlayStation’s blog, but other than the SSD and replaceable disc drive, they are exactly like the original SKU.
The refreshed models come with the standard horizontal base. Sony has a new attractive vertical chrome-ring pedestal sold separately for $30. These back-compatible stands also fit on the PS5 fatty for a more stylish look.
Shuman didn’t have a precise release date, only saying that the new consoles would be available sometime in November.