The Playstation 3 Slim (PS3 Slim) is Sony’s true power play of 2009, and has been mostly well-received because of its “sweet spot” price point of $299 for truly incredible features. You can’t even get a PC with the same features for the same price, plus the product is relatively still in its infancy stage. There’s more good news to be had though – it appears that the console will be shipping with a 45nm version of the Cell processor. That is a pretty big accomplishment to have a 45nm version ready for retail this year as the original PS3 came with a 90nm Cell. The 45nm Cell will use about 40 percent less power than its 65nm predecessor (found in models available today), and its die area will be reduced by 34 percent. The greatly reduced power usage will cut down on the amount of active cooling required by the console, which in turn will make it cheaper to produce and more reliable. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that it will run faster, which is something other technology sites are reporting today.
In related news, we commend Sony for being so sneaky when they submitted the PS3 slim to the FCC. Sony has had some problems in the last few years with products being leaked early due to the requirement that all wireless products pass FCC tests (that must get posted on the FCC website). I knew that it wouldn’t be long before they got creative to keep us bloggers away. Sony created a shell company called “Sand Dollar Enterprise, Inc.” and was able to gain FCC certification for the PS3 slim without anyone knowing. While the FCC report was laced with confidentiality agreements, there was one nugget of gold within the listing – the mention of CECH-2001B, which is detailed as a 250GB PS3 slim. So, it is very possible that right before the holidays that Sony is going to release a 250GB version of the PS3 slim at $299, and perhaps strategically price cut the 120GB PS3 slim to $250 at the same time. We have no confirmation of this, and the only other possibility is that Sony releases the 250GB for $350-399 and keeps the 120GB at $299. It’s hard to tell, but I would imagine that a $250 120GB PS3 slim at the holidays would be a total market juggernaut.
