PS5 Slim - Will It Ever Happen?

Though the PlayStation 5 console has been on the market since November 2020, there are still lots who are biding their time. Waiting for that one specific killer app, for instance, or maybe for a great bundle or a price drop (as its price tag is rather exorbitant). Still others are surely holding out after hearing rumors of a PS5 Slim model.

The reveal of the PlayStation 5's design was met with a wave of memes, with its sheer size and white paneling attracting a lot of attention. There's really no arguing that it isn't a beast of a system, weighing in at 14.8 lbs and measuring 17 inches tall and 18.5 inches wide. For gamers with a smaller entertainment unit, a sleeker version of the powerful system may be preferable. 

When, then, can those holdouts expect to see a PS5 Slim? Will it happen at all? There's no official word from Sony on the matter yet, but there are reasons to believe it could be just around the corner.

Console redesigns are all but an inevitability, and Sony and the PlayStation family have gone in for this on multiple occasions. The second PS3 model — known colloquially by fans as the PS3 Slim — was released in September 2009. In a press release from the time, Sony boasted that its thickness, weight and power consumption were reduced by around one-third of the original model's.

In September 2012, another Sony press release heralded the launch of the third and final PS3 model, which came to be known as the Super Slim. "The volume and weight of the new PS3 has been reduced by more than half compared to the very first PS3 model ... and by 25% and 20% respectively compared with the current PS3," Sony stated.

The PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro, meanwhile, were both announced at the PlayStation Meeting of September 2016. Again, the "Slim" descriptor was not part of this model's official designation, but it is considerably smaller than the original: It measures 10.4 x 11.34 inches —  compared to 11.61 x 12.87 inches — and uses around half the power at 165W.

Ultimately, the PS3 family sold over 87.4 million systems, and the PS4 line blasted past 117 million. These redesigns seemed to play their part in these sales. At 2009's Tokyo Game Show, GameSpot reported Sony Computer Entertainment boss Kaz Hirai's claims that one million PS3 Slims were purchased in the console's first three weeks on sale. It would make sense for Sony to want to galvanize PS5 sales in similar fashion.

For aesthetic and practical reasons, a smaller model of the PlayStation 5 would surely be a hit. Those still on the fence, less than enamored with the console's current hefty design, might reconsider jumping on board for a less cumbersome option. As with previous slim consoles, Sony could also take the opportunity to revamp the internal hardware for the PS5 Slim, perhaps even making the system cooler and the fan quieter. 

Again, there's a precedent for this. PlayStation 2's own slimmer edition, which arrived in October 2004, didn't include an internal HDD. While there's no official word from Sony, it's been reported that the same will be the case for PS5 Slim. In September 2022, Insider Gaming cited "sources familiar with Sony's plans," who reportedly claimed the redesign was set to launch around September 2023. These sources claimed that the console's overall specs wouldn't really differ, but the hard drive would be attached via USB.

This remains unofficial, of course, and there has certainly been a lot of continued discussion about a potential PS5 Slim for many months. If these reports are correct, the timing would check out: The original PS3 and PS4 systems dropped in 2006 and 2013 respectively, meaning that they were around three years into their lifespan when their own slim models launched. This is a well-established pattern, in other words. Thankfully, while we wait for more news, the standard model is easier to find than it used to be.