Sony has finally lifted the lid on the much-rumoured (and already pretty much confirmed) PS4 Slim. Unveiled in full at Sony's PlayStation Meeting conference in New York, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment Andrew House spilling the beans on its brand-new steamlined PlayStation 4 Slim.
It was actually one of two new consoles Sony announced this evening, the other being the PlayStation 4 Pro (previously code-named Neo), which comes with 4K HDR support and fancy new internals, along with more details on its upcoming PlayStation VR headset that's due to launch this October. The PS4 Slim, on the other hand, is coming much, much sooner, so here's everything you need to know about Sony's slimmed down PS4 before it hits shop shelves.
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PlayStation 4 Slim: Release date and price
Despite already doing the rounds at various reseller stores such as CEX and the like, the PS4 Slim will launch properly on September 15. That's barely over a week away at the time of writing, so you won't have to wait very long at all before you can get your hands on it.
That said, Sony's still playing a little bit of catch up here, as Microsoft has already released its skinny Xbox One in the form of the aptly-named Xbox One S.
Sony doesn't even have the edge on price, as the PS4 Slim will cost £259 here in the UK, while the 1TB model will retail for £310. There's no word yet on any bundles such as included games, and even whether it will be available with the PS VR headset, but I'm sure there'll be some great deals announced in the coming days.
The Xbox One S, on the other hand, is available for £249, with the 1TB version retailing for £299. Of course, that's not a huge amount of difference between the two entry level models, but considering the Xbox One S also comes bundled with an upgraded controller as well, it'll be interesting to see which is the better deal once Sony gets its console out the door.
PlayStation 4 Slim: What's new?
Much like the Xbox One S, the PS4 Slim is essentially a replacement for Sony's current PS4 console, with the existing model gradually being phased out over the coming months in favour of its smaller and much more attractive-looking sibling. Of course, considering we've already seen the PlayStation 4 Slim out and about in the wild, we've had plenty of time to get acquainted with its new look and features.
The PS4 slims still has the same guts on the inside as the outgoing model, so performance should be pretty much the same for the most part. However, it's considerably smaller and lighter than the out-going PS4 model, taking up around 30% less space. It's also 16% lighter at 2.1Kg and 28% more energy efficient, according to Sony.
It still has the same AMD-based Jaguar CPU architecture, 8GB of GDDR5 RAM and an AMD 1.8 TFLOPS GPU originally found in the original PS4, so we can expect roughly the same performance. There's also going to be both 500GB and 1TB storage options too.
However, the key thing to note is that, unlike the Xbox One S, the PS4 Slim won't have a 4K Blu-ray drive inside it. That means it won't be able to play 4K Blu-rays. That might be a bit of a deal breaker for some, but it will be able to play games in HDR, as Sony announced that all PS4s, including the original PS4, will be receiving a free over the air update for HDR support in the coming weeks. That's pretty impressive stuff, and it means that existing PS4 owners won't need to upgrade to see a benefit to their existing game library.
HDR (or high dynamic range) content essentially shows a much wider colour gamut than standard, non-HDR content, so colours won't only look brighter and more vibrant, but light and shadow areas will also be more detailed and pronounced. As a result, games should look far more impressive in HDR, with bright objects in particular really pinging off the screen.
Of course, the PS4 Slim will only play games in HDR if the games themselves support it, but with an impressive line-up already taking shape in the form of Horizon Zero Dawn, Mass Effect Andromeda and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, there should be plenty of HDR goodness to sink your teeth into over the coming months.
With HDR capabilities under its belt, this more or less puts it on par with the Xbox One S when it comes to the overall gaming experience, as despite having a 4K Blu-ray drive under the hood, the Xbox One S still can't play games at natively at 4K - that's reserved for Project Scorpio. That said, if you want a TV that does HDR, you'll also need to get one that's 4K, as the two are pretty much intrinsically linked right now. As a result, both consoles will still need to upscale their games to 4K if you really want to get the best out of them, but we'll be putting both consoles under the Expert Reviews microscope as soon as the PS4 Slim is available for review.
In the meantime, check out our current Best PS4 Games for 2016 as well as our in-depth hub on the PlayStation 4 Pro - Sony's answer to Project Scorpio.