PS5, Pickup, and yet another Pixel

Instruction Set, 2023/10/13

Welcome back to Multicore. This is Instruction Set for the week of Friday, October 13th.

We are fully in the thick of phone season. Earlier this week I published impressions of the Google Pixel 8 Pro and the Oppo Find N3 Flip, and there’s a lot more on the way.

Here’s what else you should catch up on.

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Sony announced the first major hardware revision to the PlayStation 5, which everyone will call the “PS5 Slim” despite it not being particularly skinny. Sony just calls it “the new PS5” and says it’s been reduced in volume by more than 30%.

As had been rumoured for a while, the UHD Blu-ray drive is detachable and sold separately. That means the digital-only model, which costs $50 less than the one with the drive in the box, can be upgraded down the line for $80 if you change your mind about the future of physical media.

It’s a nice addition, but it does amount to a $50 price hike for the digital edition, which now sells for $450. The drive-equipped model is still $500, though, and both versions come with a 1TB SSD (up from the curiously unrounded 825GB at launch).

I also have to mention this $30 vertical stand, because I’ve seen a bunch of people mocking it for being a $30 vertical stand, which is fair enough, because it’s a $30 vertical stand.

But! Does no-one remember the PS2?

That vertical stand on the launch model cost $15 in 2000. According to USinflationcalculator.com, that works out at $31.09 in 2023 money. This is not a flagrant price hike on vertical console stands.

To be clear, I thought the PS2 vertical stand was wildly overpriced back in the day as well. But also I was 13 years old and couldn’t afford a memory card. I’m just saying.