$500 PS3 to lack HDMI, WiFi, card reader
Published by forahobby on Sunday, May 14, 2006
When Sony gave out the specs on the PS3 earlier tonight, the company mentioned that there would be two configurations: a $500 version with a 20GB hard drive and a $600 edition with a 60GB drive. Turns out that was only half the story. Yes, that pricing and storage info is accurate. But it turns out that there are a lot of other things missing from the lower-end (we can't bring ourselves to call a $500 console "cheap") version, besides an extra 40GB of storage.
According to the specs released by Sony, the 20GB version will lack WiFi, a memory card reader and, most significantly, HDMI output. While you could probably get along without WiFi in a home-based console that already has Ethernet, and you can always presumably hook up a memory card reader via one of the unit's four USB ports, the lack of HDMI output makes this pretty much a non-starter for anyone hoping to actually use the PS3's Blu-ray drive for anything more than playing games. Sure, we can understand Sony not wanting to undercut sales of its own dedicated Blu-ray players by offering the $500 PS3 as a cheaper alternative. But if the company was hoping to use the gaming platform as a way to build a base of fans for HD discs, chances are the strategy is going to backfire the first time someone tries playing a Blu-ray flick in their 20GB version and discovers that the unit's lack of HDMI limits them to analog 1080i output (or worse, depending on a disc's use of HDCP).
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