DF Weekly: the new PS5 may not be so ‘Slim’ after all

I’d thought that the era of console leaks was over and that the platform holders had battened down the hatches to minimise the flow of unauthorised information to little more than a trickle of unreliable hearsay, but it’s looking like Sony in particular may have a problem. The evidence suggests that imagery and even a video of the second generation revision of the PlayStation 5 has reached the public. The circumstances aren’t quite as spectacularly unlikely as the PS3 Slim’s unofficial debut in a Philippines marketplace a month before its actual unveiling at Gamescom 2009, but the story is intriguing nonetheless.

We’ll need to come up with a new name for the console as the unofficial ‘Slim’ branding looks to be off-beam. An image based on a Chinese forum, backed up by video from another source shows a machine that seems to have much the same girth as the existing console. However, unless the human hand shown in the video is much smaller than the average – and that the dimensions of a Blu-ray disc haven’t changed (!), the so-called CFI-2000 model PlayStation 5 does seem to be significantly shorter, described from the machine in its vertical configuration. The video seems to be a mere shell only, however, with no innards.

Side-slashes on the unit point to the plate design of the PS5 changing dramatically and the suggestion is that the the lower part of the unit breaks away, perhaps validating Tom Henderson’s initial leak of a new PlayStation 5 with a detachable optical drive. With that in mind, it would make sense the the plate on the opposite side can also be removed, perhaps for access to the M.2 expansion bay. Are these leaks genuine? As best as I can tell, the static image and the video do seem to come from two separate sources and the design does seem to corroborate the idea of a unit with an optional/detachable drive. Of course, here’s still an element of doubt and this might just be an elaborate conspiracy, but the odds are starting to look favourable for this one.

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