A PSN download requires the system to host the file and then unpack/install it, requiring twice the space. All models of the new PS3 super-slim are kitted out with all the same ports as the Slim - two USB ports at the front, HDMI and component video interfaces, optical (SPDIF) audio and Ethernet, although frustratingly there's still no HDMI cable included in the box. While it's weird to have a lossless output not operating losslessly, the human eye can't tell the difference.

We ran tests on several games: Gran Turismo 5's install is the stuff of legend, the kind of unoptimised dumping of data that is entirely at odds with the level of technological achievement found elsewhere in the game.The chip found inside the new model - Samsung NAND identical to that used in the Kindle Fire HD - actually has 16GB of storage, but only 12GB is available to the end-user (Microsoft take note). One thing we should point out is that all our comparisons were based on entirely empty hard drives - these will lose some performance over time as they become fuller and as fragmentation takes hold. After much eyeballing, we can't tell the difference, and as such we have no hesitation recommending any PlayStation 3 as a brilliant Blu-ray player. The almost instant performance of the SSD is still missing, but the improvement overall is noticeable, as this video hopefully demonstrates. At this point, the entirety of the flash chip is copied onto the hard drive in a somewhat lengthy procedure.

All items that are included when bought new must be present (not paperwork but controllers/TV cable/power leads/memory cards/stylus etc). All the ports and sockets remain as they were, so in areas where Sony might have been tempted to make cutbacks (removing the Toslink audio output for example), we find that the firm has commendably restrained itself.It's a little disconcerting to find a digital video interface not transmitting its output losslessly, and some members of the more hardcore AV fraternities believe it is visible to the human eye, something we didn't agree with - so we put it to the test. But even in these tests, we found that selected games actually load data faster, though deletion speeds on the flash storage are dire. A multitude of tiny files are transferred across en masse, making it perhaps the sternest install-based workout available.