I have both but I'm not sure what you mean by "slimmed down". I prefer the XMB to the NXE but viewing and comparing friends profiles is quicker on the 360. I find that PSN and Live both have their advantages-

PSN has more dedicated servers than Live, I think every 1st/2nd party Sony game has them. Resistance 2 with 60 players and no lag and Warhawk are simply head and shoulders above anything I've played on the 360. And the PS Store has no file size limit so you can download large games like Siren, SOCOM, Warhawk etc. And Remote Play is an awesome feature.

Whereas Live has better chat features and the advantage of cross game invites. So it's easier to set up a game with friends at the moment. And I like how updates are quicker on the 360, they do take longer on the PS3.

But at this point, if I had to choose one service it would be the free PSN. All I think Sony REALLY need to do now is cross-game voice chat. Having barely any dedicated servers on Live is a poor show by Microsoft, considering you have to pay for it. I honestly wouldn't say the 360 has "better online", certainly not in my experience anyway. But if Live was free, I would have no problems with the service whatsoever.

^^^I kinda rambled on for a while there, but you can't say I didn't add to the thread, lol.

Hell, it took me a record 1 minute to get out one of my friends trophies out. On the xbox, even if it a stranger it takes no longer than 1 sec. Hell it doesn't even load, its just there when you click on it.

I've noticed that viewing your friends Trophies in-game seems to have sped up since the 2.53 update. It's still not as fast as on the 360 but I've noticed a definite improvement, I don't think it's ever taken me 1 minute.

Na i haven't noticed even a slight difference.

I was finally playing GT5P again, took like 20mins to download and install Spec3 patch.

The TV channel on GT5P took 2 mins to load.

And before PS3 defense force come crying about my connection, I have cable with fairly fast connection. I can stream Netflix HD without hassle.

I only have one friend and trophy take forever. Even your own trophy take long time to load (and I barely have any of them trophy, and yeah I thought I read somewhere when trophy launch along with in game XMB that it will pwn 360 gamerscore system... it's like crap shoot to find even newer games that support trophy on PS3).

I have to admit, demos download much. much faster than the 360 but the updates? WOOOW. They take 30 minutes to download which quick frankly takes the Pee. Another thing I have to admit is that the trophies look excellent and sound better than achievements. Sadly looking at other peoples trophies isn't as good. I know now the difference between free and £40.

I prefer the PS3 i had to my 360 when it comes to the console itself....when it comes to looks and noise especially

But the thing is you gotta test out more than 2 games on the 360. You only have Halo 3 and GeOW. You should try these games:

Fable 2

Crackdown

GeOW 2

Left4Dead

Mass Effect

Are we having buyer regret?  : )

I won't argue with you about noise and hardware because 360 blow when it come to that.  Though I am lately thinking about getting stand alone Blu-ray player instead of using my PS3.  While the PS3 is quiet (and superfast when it come to boot up blu-ray movies), after awhile the fan do kick in and it's still very distracting to watch some of the movies.   Also the lack of IR remote just drive me nut with my universal remote when I just want to watch movie.

Still Sony still have a way to go to catch up to 360 when it come to on-line functionality.

Yeah, I own and play both consoles as well.

I have sat down an analyzed the differences myself, and really for me, they are close, but XBOX wins a slight edge because LIVE. LIVE is hands down the best online gaming service between the 3 consoles this generation.

I was thinking of trying one of those hacks that show you how to convert your PS3 controller to an XBOX 360 compatible controller... I think the 360 analog sticks are too stiff for me. I like the "feel" of the 360 controller, I just hate the stiffness of the analog sticks (although I do like the fact the 360 analog sticks are convexed and shorter).

I hope the new PSN Home service is better.

Which brings me to another question for some of you. For those of you have tested the 'Beta' Home out, did they change the interface of the PSN too? What exactly are the new features of Home?