PlayStation 3 40GB System Review

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Price: $399USD, 399 Euro, $699AUD, RM1356

Buy Online: Play-Asia.com

Another PlayStation 3 hardware revision from Sony enters the consumer market. This review aims to inform newbies and those interested in knowing what's different or new about the 40GB PS3 which is aimed at shifting many units for Christmas.

Open the Box Dammit!


Upon opening the box you'll find the following items:

PlayStation 40GB console (hah! I never would have suspected)
Sixaxis Controller
USB cable (for charging the controller or other devices)
Power Cable
Manual
AV Cable (Composite)



The Spider-man PlayStation

The PlayStation 3 in my opinion is one of the better looking consoles this generation, although the Spider-man font always makes me think of my favourite webslinger instead of the PlayStation brand. Anyway, the PS3 is quite big and heavy with the AC Adapter making it's home inside the system. However, since the aim is of the PlayStation 3 is to wage war with your other electronics products and take the sole spot in the living room, this isn't much of a problem.

The PS3 can be placed vertically or horizontally and works well either way. You can even move the PlayStation symbol for the vertical position. Nice touch. It's very quiet and both the hard drive and the Blu-Ray drive make little noise. It feels very solid and well built as you'd expect for the admission price. The system can get fairly hot at the back where it vents heat after extended use of play, but it's not as bad as the Xbox 360 and there isn't much fear of using the system in higher temperatures, it's a reliable machine. You won't be able to fry an egg on it for those who are wondering.



It Ate My Disc!

Upon turning on the PS3 for the first time, you'll be greeted with a new OS which is very similar to the PSP's XMB interface. After setting up the date, clock and other options, you're all ready to go.

Of course once you look at the optical drive in the PS3 to put in a disc, you'll be chuffed. No longer a motorised tray, the PS3 incoporates a funky new Blu-Ray disc drive which simply eats your disc up after you push it in slightly. It's just like the car CD players and it's very cool. A nice change from the motorised trays of yesteryear.



Why isn't my controller rumbling?

Much has been said about the Sixaxis controller. It's slightly disappointing that the new 40GB model doesn't ship with the Dual Shock 3, which was announced recently. No doubt the Dual Shock 3 will be bundled later with another hardware revision.

Anyway, the Sixaxis is a very comfortable controller and does not have rumble if you didn't know already. It uses Bluetooth wireless technology and you can use the USB cable to charge the controller or "wire" it to your PS3. At it's core, it's basically a PS2 controller with some slight modifications. The L2 and R2 buttons have now been turned into analog triggers, which are much better for accelerating and braking in driving games for example. The controller is lighter and feels very responsive.

The motion sensing of the controller is a mixed bag. In some games, it's completely unusable (Motorstorm), while in other games (Folklore), it makes the game even more fun. As developers put more effort into the motion sensing control, it should be quite a nifty feature in gameplay. Though, it will make you sometimes look like an idiot waving your controller around.

Out With the Old

The 40GB model has been designed to reduce production costs and slash the price of the PlayStation 3 to make it that much more affordable. First thing you'll notice is the 40GB hard drive. It's been reduced from the 60GB and 80GB models. Let me just say, that 40GB is still plenty of space, unless you're going to be downloading games, demos and movie trailers like crazy. No complaints here.

Apart from that, a bigger change to the hardware is the removal of backward compatibility of PlayStation 2 games (PS1 games are still compatible). Yes that means you're brand new 40GB PS3 will not play any PlayStation 2 games at all. Now before throwing a hissy fit, let's put this in perspective. Are you buying a PlayStation 3 to play PS2 games?

Now let's look at it from another angle. The 40GB unit price has been slashed across the board in every region. For the money saved compared to the 60GB model which does play PS2 games, you could easily buy a new PS2 system with many games. So if you're not ready to move onto the PS3, I recommend picking up a PS2 and playing it until you're ready to move on to this generation or buy both systems and some extra games to boot!

Finally, a couple of USB ports and the card reader have been removed as well, leaving two USB ports at the front for all your equipment and charging needs. You'll need to use your own USB card reader if you choose to. Two USB ports should be enough for most, but you won't be able to charge or wire more than two controllers at the same time for example.

The Games

Sure the PS3's game library is sorely lacking, but it is steadily improving and buying a PS3 is a good investment. Sony isn't just going to give up any time soon and once there are more PS3's in households, there will be more quality games.

Visuals are a mixed bag, but some games already show the power of the PS3 and there will be much more in the years to come. If after this review you decide to gleefully dance to your local store to buy a 40GB PS3, I have some recommendations for you. These are some great PS3 exclusive games that you should consider picking up:

Resistance: Fall of Man (First Person Shooter)
Motorstorm (Racing)
Folklore (RPG)
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (Platformer)
Warhawk (Online Action)



The Movies

Playback of DVD and Blu-Ray movies is an easy affair and works great. The PS3 can also upscale your old DVD movies to 1080p, making them look so much better on a HDMI enabled TV. It's highly recommended you only start buying Blu-Ray movies if you have a decent sized TV, preferably with a HDMI input to fully utilise the benefit of the increased resolution and quality of Blu-Ray movies.

Will Blu-Ray win the video format war? I don't know, but I do know that it is stupid having two different formats and only consumers lose out on the deal. Hopefully one of the formats will emerge victorious in the near future. Currently, Blu-Ray is dominating over HD-DVD and I think it's a good idea to buy the movies for your PS3 if you want to experience high definition movie goodness.

Online With Your PS3

After setting up a PlayStation Network (PSN) account on your PS3, you'll be ready to play online and access the PlayStation Store which has plenty of free and pay downloads. There's currently only one PlayStation 3 available for download (Warhawk), but it's half the retail price of the disc based version. With these kinds of prices, digital game distribution may become popular very quickly.

There are plenty of demos and movie trailers to download and there are quite a few PSN-only games for you to purchase. Browsing the store with a controller is very intuitive and you'll be downloading and buying in no time.

Web browsing also works well, but is a chore with a control pad. Finally, unlike Xbox Live, there is no cost to play any of your games online against other PSN users. It's part of the great service.



The Verdict

The PlayStation 3 is a cool piece of hardware, there's no doubt about it. It's loaded with the latest technologies to propel you into the future even though it's not fully utilised yet and a bit difficult to program for.

The cheaper 40GB model is a welcome addition and will provide many potential buyers with an affordable PS3 and Blu-Ray player. Indeed, it's cheaper and wiser to buy a PS3 just to play Blu-Ray movies instead of a standalone. While the couple of USB ports could have been useful, they aren't a necessity and neither is the backwards compatibility considering the amount slashed off the retail price. It looks like a bright Christmas for the PlayStation 3 and once more AAA titles start rolling in, the sales of units should increase rapidly.

Gamers Galaxy Verdict Overall (out of ten):

9.0


Tech Specs

PLAYSTATION(R)3 40GB Specification
Product name PLAYSTATION(R)3
CPU Cell Broadband Engine Processor
GPU RSX
Sound Dolby 5.1ch, DTS 5.1ch , LPCM 7.1ch, AAC, others *1 *2
Memory 256MB XDR Main RAM, 256MB GDDR3 VRAM
HDD 2.5" Serial ATA 40GB
I/O USB 2.0 x2
Communication Ethernet x1 (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T)
IEEE 802.11 b/g Included
Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR) Included
Wireless controller (Bluetooth) Included
AV Output
Screen size 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
HDMI OUT x1 *3
AV MULTI OUT x1
DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x1
BD/DVD/CD Drive
(Read Only) Maximum Read Speed BD 2x (BD-ROM)
DVD 8x (DVD-ROM)
CD 24x (CD-ROM)
Dimensions Approximately 325mm (W) x 98mm (H) x 274mm (D)
Weight Approximately 5 kg

*1 A device compatible with Linear PCM 7.1 Ch. is required to output 7.1 Ch. audio, supported by Dolby TrueHD or a similar format, from the HDMI OUT connector.
*2 This system does not support output from the DTS-HD 7.1 Ch. DTS-HD 7.1 Ch. audio is output from a 5.1 or lower channel.
*3 "Deep Color" and "x.v.Color (xvYCC)" defined by HDMI ver1.3a are supported.

This post has been edited by mazdagtr210: Nov 17 2007, 03:08 PM

i'd kick my own ass if i bought this model

friggin expensive!!

so better stick to 60GB n 80GB model?

rm1356 is a great price for this awesome console

im gonna racun my frens to get this,hopefully the 40gb ps3 will help boost ps3 sales and once again become console that hav the largest userbase

then all the exclusives will be coming back home

RM1356 for this model = expensive?

only 2 usb ports
NO flash card reader
NO SACD playback
NO BC

oh yeah,very cheap

i'd top up another $100 or so and get the higher end model,which has all of the above and more

it's not really expensive, consider PS3 just launched 1 year ago. PS2 and Xbox had been at that price point too.

Now the problem is, the games on blu-ray disc are expensive, provided no cheaper alternative available at the moment, at RM170+ each title, that will halt the movement of mainstream gamers in Malaysia

the online purchase of games through PSN at half price is good, but to our doomed screamyx and just 40GB HDD, this will have some difficulties.

im comparing it to the 60/80gb models..

if those two werent available,this 40gb IS cheap.
RM1k for a BR player is in itself cheap,let alone a whole console with wifi and a hdd

Compared to Premium Xbox360? All those shortcomings you've listed are of no big deal to me. USB hub works, usb card reader also works. Why BC when most likely u'd have a PS2 anyways. So no biggie as $100 is still alot to consider for most ppl.

im sorry,what?3ROD?





3rod60 lagi mahal
they talk big about having hdmi yet being cheaper by a few dollars(was it $50?) but they dont have either a hd dvd nor a br player.. talk about rip offs..

and the xbots hail them as being truthful and honest "unlike sony" pfft


to each his own

yup,but personally,im the type that loves to hook up a billion things into one...

no more plug lol...
and i malas nak tukar tukar...hassle lor..

yup

US$100 = RM 330+-

actually with the money saved, I can invest on bigger 2.5" HDD, we can use the cheap rm20 USB card reader also, and even with the PS2 compatibility, it still sucks as its in software mode, unless you can find the 1st batch one which got EE/GS chip but that will be a bomb price.

the choice is the colors... dunno which to choose, both colors also nice :drools:

It is cheap! And for that price u get a PC if u install linux on it!
Why bother with BC, since there isnt much PS2 game that is really big deal coming out!

Wah the price is nice! I don't care about the readers though. I have everything in my PC. I agree with dattebayo about the US$100. The games probably hard to find and lots of $$$$$.

sg wang price berapa??

i've asked yesterday and it's around RM1350-1600. I pity those who'd bought the console at RM1.6k.

PS Zone selling for 1.5k with 2 SIXAXIS. Expensive to me though considering the DS3 is already out.... I'll wait for a DS3+40GB bundle.

How much you get yours again?
and does yours come with a free bluray disc or i think that offer is just exclusive at japan i think.

This review is taken from the strikebang forum...

Click me... and please state out where is the article from...

This post has been edited by hezda: Nov 18 2007, 11:04 AM

just buy extra DS3 la like me...so have 1 six axis and 1 DS3...

Just get those have good feature and less hdd space. You know why?

The HDD is same as laptop HDD. So you want 200gb you can go get it frm low yat.