PS4 Slim Review

[torok]

Pemalite said:

torok said:

The 4K BR drive was around 40 bucks more, so it is a bit expensive.

I have just checked, drives that support UHD BD/BDXL are the same price. (In Aus at-least.)
Most drives don't even advertise the fact they are 4k capable when they actually are.
Some drives which were BDXL only just need a firmware update for 4k Blu Ray.

The real issue is HEVC/UVD6/PureVideo support in the GPU and licensing.

torok said:

I guess that the total cost of a 4K + HDR capable PS4 Slim would be 50 to 70 dollar more, so I think it was sensible to cut it so they could even try a 200 dollar price point. I think it wouldn't be sold like this, I wouldn't be surprised if they equaled the 300 dollar price point of the One S and kept a high profit margin. 250 is more likely since it will be profitable and still give them a significant edge.

The majority of the cost would likely be because of an update and respin of the APU as you would need to revise the entire video block.

torok said:

However, as we will have the PS4K as an option that will include 4K, HDR plus a better hardware while still being much cheaper than most 4K BR players, I undertand why they didn't want to rise the costs of the PS4 Slim to attend a niche of users since they already have a product for them.

The Neo could be a multimedia powerhouse... And win the Multimedia game.
But it's also still not on the market...

I'm interested to see how the Xbox One S sales do to be honest over a long term and what kind of a difference it will make as it's currently the best machine on the market for Multimedia.

I guess that the teardown probably summed all the costs with the drive price, or simply is wrong. Anyway, there's a difference in the final price of the product.

The Neo isn't on the market yet, but it's actually quite likely that both it and the Slim release for the Holidays, while MS will only have the One S to compete. While the One S pack some interesting multimedia capabilities, I'm not sure about the effect it will have against a simply cheaper version of the current PS4.

While 4K gaming is a thing, 4K movies are not. Almost all films are, at best, adequate to 1080p. Current 4K Blu-Rays are usually just upscaled versions. We don't have HDR content. Despite all of this, I don't think people care about Blu-Rays at all anymore. People will rent films on Blockbuster? Buy them and wait for a deliver? I know that physical media for games is still rocking, but I believe that people are more keen to chose it because the resale value is good and games are things that you can put dozens of hours on it, unlike films. HDR support is great, but nobody has HDR TVs.

The point is that, if someone has a 4K HDR TV, I don't see the point of getting a One S and play most games at 720p or 900p in such television. It would be better to grab a PS4K and play at least on resolutions probably midway between 1080p and 4K with good upscaling. Scorpio would also be a better option for this kind of consumers, when it launches.