It'll be on sale within 2 weeks then?

I don't have a PS3, but I've read you can plug in your own HDD

The PS3 uses standard 2.5" SATA disks; as long as you make sure it doesn't run too hot you can put as large a drive as you can buy in it. I did mine the day I bought it, release day 2007. It sports a 200GB hard disk which cost £60 and took less then 5 minutes to put in.

“has no plans to bring either a 120GB or a 160GB PS3 into the UK” - Marketing speak for we're bringing out a 250GB model no doubt.

just put in a bigger hard drive yourself? That's what I'm going to do..

160GB is still a tad too small for a PVR

“has no plans to bring either a 120GB or a 160GB PS3 into the UK”.

Doesn't rule out a larger model, does it? Sony and their weasel words are at it again ...

Can we have a Phil Harrison-with-halo and Phil Harrison-with-horns icon please?

... so they'll be in the shops from this friday then.

I am pretty sure that at some point Sony will have to boost the HDD size of the PS3, not because of an uprising of angry users, but because no manufacturer will supply those tiny hard disks anymore. Today already, if you're shopping for a 2.5" HDD you would have a hard time finding anything below 120GB.

For those hardcore users, I'd like to point out that you can get Hard drive extenders allowing you to hook up a fat 1TB external SATA HDD.

I don't get it. It takes 5 minutes to put a bigger drive into the PS3 and it is no way complicated. I bought a 40GB PS3 and a reasonably priced 250GB HDD. I now have a 250GB PS3. That should do me for now.

Never mind. You can quite easily replace the standard HD and put a 120GB HD in a PS3 anyway if you need the extra storage. As for dual shock those vibrating pads bug the hell out of me anyway. Give us some real news like when sony are going to release PlayTV!!!

Obviously Sony are going to deny the impending introduction of an improved product or package, because they don't want people to hold off buying.

It's a problem entirely of their own making. If they'd created one console with one specification and stuck to it, the only thing people would worry about would be price drops. But we've had 20Gb, 40Gb, 60Gb and 80Gb, two version with hardware PS2 compatibility, two with software compatibility and one with none at all, 2 USB ports, 4 USB ports, WiFi, no WiFi, and f**k knows what else. And it's impossible to believe they won't end up sticking DualShock 3s in the box. Is it any wonder people are waiting to see what next month will bring before they part with their £300?

If there'd been this many options and changes in the first year of the PS2, I'd still be holding off buying one.

Xbox 360's only a bit better, what with Core, Premium/Pro, Arcade and Elite. Developers can't even count on a hard-disk.

All these different configurations, one might as well game on a PC. Oh, wait, that's what I am doing these days. And FPSs are still better with a mouse.

Who cares about the HDD?

Backwards compatability.

Correct no. of USB ports

Surely what UK/Europe really want is to stop being treated like 2nd class citizens .blah...blah...blah [link to any video console forum]

Paris icon because at least she knows something about marketing.

Anonymous because I'm scared of Phil's hitmen.

..Not confirming, saying "no plan" and so on until you do it. *shrugs*

calagan - Some of the later Xbox 1's had larger disks for that reason, but they were configured so you didn't have the extra space available. At least with the PS3 that capacity will be available to the end user.. (although smaller disks continue to be available for mass-order well after the consumer can no longer buy them - look at the 360's 20GB...)

It's very easy to get your own 160GB HDD and fit it to the PS3. You just need a screw-driver. Just get the 40GB model and upgrade with a vanilla drive. As Sony would charge a premium for a higher capacity PS3 anyway, it's probably the cheapest option.

Can someone explain to me what you need a 250GB drive in a PS3 for exactly? Are the save games that big?

I'm more interested in what other features it might have beyond a bigger HDD and DS3. As so many have said, it's easy to upgrade the HDD yourself so that's not very interesting but since the 20GB/40GB/60GB/80GB all have different feature-sets (most readily recognisable from the HDD size), might this be a predictor that the 120GB/160GB are also different?

...and pay triple the price for something half decent. I'll stick to a console ta :)

Since every other new PS3 comes with yet another feature stripped out, I wonder what will be next to go? PS3 game support, leaving it just a BluRay player with a built-in web browser and media streaming code?

But Sony don't want that flow of 40GB units to dry up, because people are sitting waiting for something that may be weeks/months away.

It's logical that a high end bundle will arrive with bigger HDD, and Dualshock 3, but the questions are:

How big HDD?

PS2 BC?

4x USB?

Card Reader Slots?

SACD?

I hope it's a replication of the 60GB, just with a bigger HDD, and the 65nm Cell, everything else spec-wise, unchanged.

Ultimately, it's not that big a deal, as it's only the PS2 BC, and SACD support that cannot be added. The HDD can be upgraded with a standard 2.5in SATA drive, without affecting your warranty (Handbook tells you how to do it). Any USB hub will work just fine, as will any USB mass storaged class based card reader.

With so many different sized models, and different chipsets, I just cant buy one for fear of buying the wrong one, do I buy a UK one, a US one, a jap one?

Its not just a TV standards issue anymore (at all really, as all decent tvs are multi) its all chipset too.

At least with old consoles the choice was so simpler, I have an xbox1, with a bigger HD, lasted years and no version worries.

Storing music and video files, obviously. Welcome to the 21st century.

It's easy to say, 'you can just bung any h/d inside it', but you're defeating the point of buying a console, which is a standalone system without the need of any upgrades at all.

Most of the readers here won't mind ripping it open to do so, but will normal parents and teens do the same?

Are all new consoles going to become glorified PCs in the end?

Since pretty much everything Sony has said about PS3 supply, backwards compatibility & joypad rumble has proven to be false.... I assume we'll be seeing these machines at retail within the next 3 months.

Hold those PS3 purchases.

The PS3 can be a full media centre. You can keep copies of all your xvid and HD videos on there. game updates and patches can be hundreds of megs each. Downloadable game demos run an average of a gig apiece.

I disagree.

If people want to use the PS3 as just a games console then they are able to do so. If they wish to use it offline, not download loads of demos, not download movies, not install pics from their cameras etc, then they are perfectly able to use their PS3 in the traditional sence, in which case, a 40GB HD will be ample.

However, should they decide to use their PS3 as a full blown media server, then whether Sony release a 80GB, 120GB or 160GB version, it still wont be big enough for a lot of people, and people will end up upgrading their HD (which the Sony manual describes how to do) anyway.

I've already upgraded mine to 160GB. It was absolutely painless, and very easy. Since everything's in ROM, it upgrades very simply. Sony doesn't need to release larger versions to retail, and it would be cheaper for you to upgrade anyway. I picked up a 120GB 2.5" SATA drive recently for $65US that would work perfectly.

It seemed popular so we've pulled it. Can't have any of that 'selling hardware' malarky with the PS3 y'know.

no. Its all about PC vs XBox vs PS3 in the battle to become the home hub of all digital media and on line interactive experiences etc etc [just think of all the "convergence" bullshit you hear these days].

Consoles are taking on some PC functions in a round about way (you can go online with a PS3, plug in a usb keyboard and write a letter or do a spreadsheet on google docs) but really the battle is for control of how you see your photos, watch telly/films, listen to music etc.

Much as consoles push this direction, PCs will always have rapid advancement in development of games and their hardware. Pc's however have one camp all to themselves - business use. If you ran a business, would you fork out for say 5 xboxen or 5 low end desktop Pcs?

People are installing bigger hard drives, and then putting another operating system on them. Just search for PS3 and Ubuntu for some step by step instructions. And yes, you can still play PS3 games on the machine.

You don't have to rip it apart. You open a door in the side, remove the drive, slot a new one in, close the door, done. An eight-year-old could do it, even if his parents couldn't.

"With so many different sized models, and different chipsets, I just cant buy one for fear of buying the wrong one"

They all play PS3 games exactly the same. It's the perhiphial functionality that differers, any PS3 will work the same as all other PS3's when playing PS3 games. Buy what suits your pocket or your requirements. Any PS3 can be fitted with a larger hard drive by opening the drive bay and relasing a clip. The Sony handbook shows you how to do it, and tells you that your warranty is not affected by this change. (just keep the old HDD, incase you need to send it back for repair/replacement). Your 40GB model can easilly be a 500GB PS3 next year, chock full of games, movies, music, pictures.. and the year after, solidstate 1TB storage...

Ok, I'll do it then.

"Can we have a Phil Harrison-with-halo and Phil Harrison-with-horns icon please?"

But Halo will never come out for the... oh, never mind.

I paid £700 for my PC, less than double the price of a PS3 at the time, and it runs Crysis on full eye-candy settings. Games cost half what they do on the next-gen consoles. Plus I can run all this other software on it too...

That may be true.

But what about all the games that don't come out for the PC?

What about say in 2 - 3 years time when PS3 programmers are streamlining their games to take full advantage of it's capabilities. By that time new games coming out for the PC will require the latest £450 graphics card to run with all guns blazing, will have been optimized for however many cores is then standard, rather than single or dual core etc etc etc.

Last year, not including my monitor I spent £1400 on a PC. I still had to spend ages tweaking certain games (oblivion, FSX) in order to get them playing smoothly. I pretty much assume that spending £1400 should give me around 3 years of relatively grief free gaming (no upgrades needed to play at decent settings). I fully expect to have to do a major upgrade at that point (i know, it's a lot of dosh, but it's my hobby :) .

Given the choice of spending £700 and £1400 I would take £700 every time. But playing games maxed out on my nice 24" monitor at 1900x1200 I need a top notch graphics card.

On the other hand, my £299 PS3 on the same monitor at 1080p looks superb.

Not forgetting I can also run a load of other software on it, such as loading Linux etc

As others have said, they'll do it if they've absolutely denied it. Sony tend to ignore rumours when they are about things NOT in planning and deny those that they are actually doing. There are lies, damned lies, statistics, and Sony statements so it seems.

sony has always treated the usa with kid gloves as if the sun shines out of their **** in stead of them just talking out of it, lol.

your a fool if you think that sony would give you something for nothing, like the other reviews say if you want a bigger hd fit it your self. the ps3 is ok for playing blueray disks but a second rate for games, no vibration and on most games only 720 res instead of 1080p on the 360.