Sony PlayStation 3 (40GB) review

Average user rating

7.9

very good

Average user rating from 9 users

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Sony PlayStation 3 (40GB) user reviews

October 22, 2007

Posted by: sking

"Cooler than a polar bear in a refrigerator"

What I like:

Blu Ray Built in, Picture quality

What I don't like:

User Interface, WiFi setup

Review:

I have long been an XBOX user and pretty happy with that. I had a 360 not long after launch and it seems I'm one of the few that haven't had any issues with it.

I had made the decision to trade in my 360 Premium for an Elite mostly for the HDMI and the fact that it was supposed to be quieter. But the big issue was getting game saves off as my wife and son both have Viva Pinata gardens that they want to keep. Anyway long story short I spoke to a guy in GameStation and he warned me off the Elite as it too has reliability issues. With money in my pocket (so to speak) I decided to go for the new 40Gb PS3. As we have no PS1 or PS2 games backward compatibility isn't an issue and neither is the lack of memory card slot.

So after all of that preamble I got my new toy home and set it up. Which is nice and simple. I did have a couple of niggles such as having to change the security on my WiFi and a duff Remote Control for video playback. The store I got it from didn't have any HDMI cables either so I set it up initially on a composite input.

Once I got an HDMI cable and a working remote the system is working like a dream. It is so much quieter than the 360 and has the edge in a number of areas:

Builtin WiFi;
Blu-ray player;
Wireless controllers have rechargable batteries;
Quiet operation;

I prefer the user interface on the 360 it feels more intuitive and at the moment the 360 has more high quality games. It's disapointing that the 360 doesn't have WiFi whereas my phone, my PDA and my iPod (Touch) all have WiFi. But I'd say that Sony have set out the battle lines with the price cuts. At £300 the PS3 40Gb represents good value for money, you could buy it as a Blu-ray player alone at that price and the playback quality (through HDMI) is astonishing.

Sony have taken a brave decision with the remote control, it is not an IR remote but a BlueTooth device. In some ways this is a great idea and maybe someday all remote interfaces will be made this way. Imagine your PDA (or phone) could be the ultimate learning remote. But the downside is that you'll not be able to combine TV and PS3 remotes into one using any of the allinone style remotes. The wireless controllers use Bluetooth as well, in my view a smart use of an established wireless technology. The controllers charge up using a standard usb cable so if you lose one it'll be simple to replace.

Overall I am more impressed by the PS3 than the 360, I think Sony took that extra time to refine the product and get it right as it has all of the bases covered intelligently. And with the recent price cuts they have delivered value for money.