Sony PlayStation 3 (320 GB) Black Console

If you want one of the most desirable gifts for your kids for Christmas, then you better run do not stop and do not collect $200 dollars as you pass go. Just run to your nearest store that sells these neat looking gaming stations. This Sony Play station is going fast, by that I mean is that one day you could walk into the store and they will have a whole display case full of these, and then the next day the display case would be empty. This happen to me and my wife when we wanted to purchase this for our son, luckily we went to best buy and found that they had of few of these left. The only run $350 and you get a free game to start your new system out. But that is it, you probably will need to purchase other accessories to get yourself started, this should be enough for just one person players. The next best operating gaming system to this is the XBox 360, but this one from Playstation knocks it out of the park. This game system is well worth the money that you will be putting out. This is more that a gaming system it is just like having a small PC that you can take to any friends house and use it. From what I can tell Playstation is a lot better than all of the other systems on the market today. Even if you are only an avid gamer or young child just starting out this is still worth the money. One of the most important things you need to know is that you can't play the old games on this new system. The old glossy PS 1 & 2 will play the old games, whereas the new PS3 games are HD and Blue ray. This PS3 will only play the new games and you can download new games through the network without going through the store.

Description
For the most part this is about as heavy as you would want a game system to be, this weighs about 11 pounds, and is 12.8" wide x 3.8" high x 10.8" long. This particular model is black in color, but they do have it in silver one also. The only accessory that comes with this is one Dualshock 3 (vibrating)wireless single person game controller, an AC power cord, an AV cable, and a USB cable. This controller has two vibration motors, one of which is like the vibration of a pager and the other one is more like the rumble pack on the Nintendo 64, a slightly stronger vibration. This controller weighs about ½ as much as it predecessor. Because this is made from lighter plastics. This also has a 3.7 v lithium-ion memory back-up battery, for 30 hours of continuous play on a full charge. Using the USB cable you can simply recharge this battery, it usually take about 2.5 hours to fully charge the battery. The typical life span of one of the batteries, which get stored properly and used right is about 2 to 3 years. You cannot purchase a replacement battery  you will need to send it to Playstation to get it repaired. The easiest way to get a replacement one of these is by sending the whole controller to Playstation. If this battery does die, you can still use the controller via USB cable to continue playing.

On the front of the Playstation you will see the disc slot, the power button on the right hand side, the eject button, on the left of center you will see two indicator lights one for the WLAN access and the other one for HDD access, and to the left of that you have two USB connector outlets. On the back of the unit there is cooling vents that run the entire length of the Playstation, then you have the LAN connector, the HDMI out connector, the digital out optical connector, AV multi out connector, and the AC in connector. This also comes with a stand which allows you to place the unit in the vertical position. This is very easy to connect to your television, and it can be done in many ways, such as via the AV cable(one end has USB end and the other ends are the red, yellow, and white ends), the HDMI has a Hdmi connector on one end and the other end has several (5) plug ins, and the other way is the usual HDMI connector cable that does not come with the system. Another way that you can connect is via the Ethernet cable.  

Technical Specs
The hard drive that is inside of your new game system is a 2.5 serial ATA (160 GB)hard drive. This unit can be hooked via a Ethernet cable, or Bluetooth 2.0, and with a wireless controller Bluetooth wise. The AV output will give you the following sizes: a 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p, with HDMI hook up, and is able to bravia sync. If you have an analog tv you can use it on it if you have av multi out 1x, the digital audio out is optical x 1, and blu-ray/DVD/cd drive is a read only. You can use any USB cord that is 2.0 x 2'. The central processing unit inside is cell broadband type, the gpu is RSX, and the memory is 256mMB XDR main Ram, and GDDR3 VRAM. There is no removable media slots, there is however three optical drives which are cd-dvd-bd. The power consumption is 250w, and this unit is not backwards compatible (self explanatory).

Experience
The first thing that we noticed was that this works a lot better the further away from the television that this is set up. This also kind of acted up if we did not give it enough air ventilation, this will help if you keep it at least 4' from the walls. It will work a lot better if you set it up on a table or hard surface rather than the carpeted surfaces. You will also need to keep this dust free and the vents from getting clogged up. If you have the urge to disassemble this unit, you might think twice about it, because this will void the small warranty that this comes with. This gamming system will need a broadband connection  to be able to access the internet, and this also has a 2.4 Ghz range for the radio waves for the wireless network to work satisfactorily. The scan function will need this to help with the smoothness of the operation of the gaming system. We also noticed that when we set this up in the basement the cold affected the way that this operated. This ran smoother in a room that was at room temperature rather than in a cold basement. Even though we enjoyed the old the Playstation we liked this new one better.

Yes, it is important to keep this gaming system clean, so the best way is by using a soft dry cloth. We called the company and they said that there is no cleaning solvent that is safe to use on this unit. We found out the hard way why it is not a good reason that we should use compressed canned air when trying to clean the air vents out. This only creates problems by blowing the dust back into the inside of the unit. You will need to use suction via a vacuum cleaner to suck the dust out of the air vents. This goes the same when you need to clean the discs if they get too many smudges on the surface, do not use any cloth that has any kind of solvent on it. You should use a lightly swiping motion from the inner circle to the outer edge.

You will see 9 different Icons when you finally get this hooked up, and they are a friends icon, the play station network icon, the network icon, a game icon which is in the shape of a controller, a video icon in the shape of a piece of film, a music icon in the shape of a set of connected notes, a photo icon in the shape of a camera, a settings icon in the shape of a toolbox, and a users icon in the shape of a home with a smiley on it. What you will see on the screen is a set of cross hairs with arrow ends which help put a line under and along side of all of the icons and sub-icons. The vertical way will say item on it and the horizontal arrow it will say category.

This is very easy to use with the use of the game controller that you will get with the game system. On the left side of the controller you will get the usual  directional buttons that allow you to go up and down and from right to left with a simple press of a button. The on/off system button is located in the center of the controller and on the right side you have another set of buttons that will allow you to display the menu on the screen and help in canceling the operation, and also will let you confirm the action that you have selected. This controller also has two little knobs that allow you to steer you characters through your game. On the front of the controller you have a couple of connector options which is the USB connector and another slot for other connectors.

Once you have turned the TV on this is when you can power up the game system and you should see a green light on the front light up if everything is connected properly. You will have to make sure that your game system recognized your controller before you get started playing, if you don't do this you will not be able to control your system via the hand held controller. You will need to do all of your initial set up before the game will allow you to play. When we got all of the settings corrected we were able to hook it up to our surround sound system and what great sound effects that this system has. But, remember the sound will depend on how good of a sound system that you have. We have a Sony sound system so this is working out great for us.

We have experienced the greatest 3D graphics that we have ever experienced. The controller has a hair trigger and touch, and we love the Bluetooth and WIFI capabilities. We were able to customize the home screen and we were able to custom load our songs with different to any different games that we purchase. The really nice thing about that you can do to this PS is if you have the need to have more memory all you have to do is swap out the hard drive and use a USB cable to transfer your files to your new hard drive or also you can set up an external hard drive and just keep adding to your system.

The next thing you are probably be wondering is what to do with that extra hard drive, well, PS will buy back the old hard drive and recycle it for you. We are enjoying our Playstation and not doing any housework. With the hair trigger of the controller that this has we have had no trouble getting the characters to respond and we are finding out that we get lost in the game and the time flies by so quickly.

Warranty
This unit only has a limited one year warranty. This is not much of a warranty for the price that you pay.

Conclusion
After using for several months, we have started having family gaming nights and this is the best way that you can have quality time with your kids without them getting bored with you. They might not consider you an old out of date fuddy duddy if you do. This is a great way to have fun with your family and I give it five stars for the ease of set up and once you set it up you will only have to do it once.