Surprise! Well, we’ve been expecting this for quite some time now, and I just have to say it -


FINALLY!!


Today at GamesCom, Sony stepped up and confirmed what we’ve all known deep down in our hearts: the new, slimmer PS3 is a reality. It’ll make it’s debut in the first week of September (September 1st for North America and Europe, September 3 for Japan..  whaaaaatt?!!?), and will retail for $300 (or about 300 Euro, or 29,980 Yen). It’s smaller and lighter..  actually it’s  32% smaller, 36% lighter, has a 120 GB HDD, consumes 34% less power, and packs “all of the same features” of the regular PS3. Existing PS3 SKUs have their prices dropped a hundie apiece tomorrow in anticipation, so be sure to grab a space heater while you’ve still got a shot — though we’re not really sure of why you’d want to pay $300 for an 80GB PS3 when you could wait a couple weeks and get 120GB in a cuter, better package. A couple pics and the official spec sheet from the unveil are after the break.

Specs:
Product Code: CECH-2000 (Charcoal Black)
CPU: Cell Broadband Engine
GPU: RSX
Audio output: 7.1CH LPCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, DTS-HD, AAC.
Memory: 256MB XDR Main RAM, 256MB GDDR3 VRAM
Hard Drive: 120GB Serial ATA
Inputs / outputs:
Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0): 2
Network: Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x 1, IEEE 802.11 b / g, Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)
Controller: Wireless controller (Bluetooth)
AV output HDMI OUT Connection: 1
AV output AV MULTI OUT connector: 1
AV output Digital out (optical) Connection: 1
BD / DVD / CD drive (read only) Maximum read rate: BD × 2 (BD-ROM), DVD × 8 (DVD-ROM), CD × 24 (CD-ROM)
Power Consumption: Approx 250W
Dimensions: approx 290 × 65 × 290 mm (width × height × length)
Weight: approx 3.2kg