Great... but not perfect! (Sony Playstation 3 80 GB)

Member Name: sparksteroid

Product:	Sony Playstation 3 80 GB
Date:	14/10/09 (15 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Blu-ray player, free to play online, CPU power

Disadvantages: jerky graphics, low memory (RAM), expensive

There currently seems to be a lot of speculation around at the moment regarding which one is the better console, the Playstation 3 or the X-box 360. Well, after weeks of speculation, conversation and research I have come to the conclusion that it's near impossible to say that either one is the best. The pros and cons of each console seem to outweigh each other and overall, I think the choice on which one to buy should ultimately be left down to personal taste.

Quite impressively the Playstation 3 comes with a seven core processor, each core running at 3.2GHz each - this is pure processing power at it's best and is over double what the X-box 360 is running (three cores running at 3.2GHz each). The PS3 also has seven vector graphics, the same as the X-box 360 but where I feel it is let down is on RAM (Random Access Memory). The PS3 only comes with a measly 256MB of RAM which in all honesty, is not even enough to run decent graphics on a home PC system and it's not really enough memory to be able to make full use of the seven CPU's cores which seems, to me, to be a bit silly.

However, the console also comes with a built-in blu-ray DVD player so that you enjoyed watching your DVD's in maximum quality. One advantage is that Blu-ray seems to have now become the main player where High Definition (HD) television is concerned. But if you've got an X-box 360 you can always do what my brother did and go and buy a Blu-ray player for it. The other main benefit of the PS3 console is that it comes with a hard drive as standard, unlike Microsoft's Arcade system which comes with small capacity memory units that don't have anywhere near sufficient enough space to store data which can be extremely frustrating.

Another benefit to owning the PS3 is the fact that you get online gaming for absolutey free - yes, that's right, for free! It does not cost you a penny to play online with a PS3 and they have a rather entertaining community games section too where you can play games that you don't own for free. As everyone knows, Microsoft charge for this service which personally I think is a bit ridiculous, although there are probably twice as many people online on X-box Live as there are on the Sony Playstation network. This is most likely partly to do with the cost of the console. The PS3 also allows you to browse the internet which is a feature unavailable on the X-box 360. However, Microsoft have revealed that they are working on a feature that will allow users to access both Twitter and Facebook via their consoles.

The price of the PS3 console has recently dropped to £200, despite Sony originality announcing that they wouldn't be dropping the price no matter how many complaints they received. A drop from the original price of £320 to now a retail price of £200 is quite a substantial difference and it makes you wonder how much profit Sony are making on these machines. Personally, I think £200 is way too high a price for any games console and I won't pay it, that's nearly a quarter of a grand!

All in all, the Playstation 3 is a great console and it definitely works in terms of gaming, entertainment and playability. However, the lack of RAM does sometimes cause highly graphically detailed games such as Call Of Duty: World At War to jump and skip animation causing a jerking effect on the screen and affecting playability a little bit. This is a problem that Microsoft's 360 console doesn't appear to suffer with, but then it does have twice as much memory!

In addition, if you're looking more for exclusive gaming content then you won't find it with Sony. Microsoft have many more deals with gaming companies and therefore can provide both the best and most exclusive content available. However, being able to connect to your internet, slap your console on and just game away with online players without having to pay anything is definitely an added benefit and you don't have to mess around setting it all up first.

The only other real disadvantage with the PS3 console, is that there are not many players online - usually about half of the amount of players that are playing on X-box Live. I imagine that this is something to do with the initial cost of the console, it has been reported that Sony received unexpectedly low sales figures on the console which is why they chose to drop the price.

However, there is some interesting news that has come to light. Microsoft has revealed some of their secret plans for the future, stating that their 360 console contains state of the art technology from the two of the world's leading technology companies - this is their secret weapon, they've planned for the future! But have Sony done something similar too? Time will tell. Microsoft have recently unveiled their plans to introduce an infra-red sensor for the 360, similar to the infra-red bar that comes with Nintendo's Wii console. The difference being that Microsoft's tool doesn't require you to be holding any kind of control pad - instead, it senses your body movements and they will be using this form of gameplay for future gaming content to increase playability. I believe this is just one of many ideas that Microsoft have planned for the future.

Anyway, the PS3 is a great gaming and entertainment system, but it's certainly not perfect and it has a few flaws. As stated above, I believe personal taste comes into the matter of choosing which console to go for, so I'll leave it down to you to decide.

Summary: A great console, but with one or two flaws