Sony’s new ‘slim’ PlayStation 5 is smaller but also weirder

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By Antonio G. Di Benedetto, a writer covering tech deals and The Verge’s Deals newsletter, buying guides, and gift guides. Previously, he spent 15 years in the photography industry.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Sony’s refreshed, slimmed-down consoles ever since the adorable PS One. All the Sony consoles I’ve owned were launch versions that are bigger and goofier-looking than their eventual redesigns — giving me massive FOMO — but I think my love affair for “slim” PlayStations is now at an end with the new PlayStation 5.

If there’s ever been a PlayStation in need of a glow-up, it’s the PS5. Sony’s white-and-black obelisk is a gargantuan console with a design that you learn to live with more than you grow to love. The thought of course-correcting the PS5 design like Sony did with the George Foreman grill-style PlayStation 3 should be a slam dunk, but what we’ve now got with the $499.99 new PlayStation 5 and $449.99 new PlayStation 5 Digital Edition are some weird half-measures.

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Design-wise, the new “slim” PS5 is indeed smaller. Sony says it’s been reduced in volume by “more than 30 percent,” but up close and in person, I alternate between feelings of “Oh yeah, that’s much smaller” to “Okay, it’s smaller… but it’s still a big boi!” The swooping curves and contours of the new PS5 can have you changing your opinion on its design on a minute-to-minute basis depending on what angle you’re viewing it from. It’s a byproduct of such a fussy and busy (and frankly, kind of ugly) design.

The slim looks more refined than its bigger, clunkier older sibling thanks to its shorter white covers, concave top curve, and panel lines cutting across its sides that divide shiny and matte finishes. However, the new PS5 also makes some