Good news at the GamesCom in Europe where finally all the speculations and rumors have ended as Sony have announced all the details regarding the Playstation 3 Slim. Now that the rumors have been put to rest and we are surely impressed y the new Slim version which is coming out in the first week of September... because it's cheaper and as many people where waiting for a cheaper version of the console to be more competitive in this struggling market. But... nothing comes cheap for nothing.

This reduction in size and prize is quite impressive and great, this might be a bit dissapointed as Sony has announced that the new Playstation 3 Slim will not be supporting backward compatibility, so you will not be able to play your favorite Playstation 2 classic games anymore.

Also for the Penguin lovers, unlike the previous models of the Playstation 3 which allowed users to install their own operating system, it will also no longer be supported. This will surely make a huge disturbance in the force where a lot of users have Linux installed on their Playstation 3 console. Will the price cut keep the Linux lovers at bay or will there be a reduction of interests by the geeky users? And yes, this is official as this was announced by Sony where they stated that users will not be able to install other Operating Systems to the new PS3 system.

Also from the looks of it, Sony are also changing their trademark from 'PLAYSTATION' to 'Playstation' while revealing a new PS3 logo. If we look back at the market success, the Playstation 2 is still keeping the Sony strongest sales as it has sold over 138 million units... where the Playstation 3 is still at around 23.7 million units. Hopefully the Slim version will speed up the slow start of it's fat and big father, the Playstation 3.

Although the Playstation 3 Slim is small, it's not that shocklingly smaller than it's predesessor. There was a huge difference between the original Playstation 2 and the slim version... but there isn't much for the Playstation 3.

The Slim version dimensions are 290mm (W), 65mm (H) and 290mm (D) whereas the original Playstation 3 was 325mm (W) x 98mm (H) x 274mm (D). As you can see, there isn't much of slim stuff but still it makes a difference when seen next to each other. The new console version measured as 33% smaller, 36% lighter and to the green people... 34% less power consumption. The change to Slim, apart from size is more like a modern and simple design where on the top you will have the PS3 engraved rather then having the silver 'PLAYSTATION 3'. Also Sony have removed the glossy look from the top of the console. There is a glossy part in the console where there are the eject and the power button with a thing translucent plastic cover.

As regarding new features, it will also house a Bravia Sync feature, allowing users to control the PS3 with their Bravia TV remote. The Slim version will have a smaller Cell processor with 45 nanometers rather than 65 held by a new colling system. The back on-off switch has been depreciated and removed. There is a relative reduction of the price where it is now with a price of �299 including a 120Gb hard drive although there is a rumor that it will also be included with a 250Gb drive.

We just have to wait till the first week until we can welcome the new Playstation 3 Slim.