PlayStation 4 Slim Reportedly Launching Alongside More Powerful Neo In September

Surprise, surprise—Sony is getting ready to launch not one, but two new iterations of its popular PlayStation 4 console. One will be a slim version of the standard PS4 and the other will be the PlayStation 4 Neo, a more muscular build with faster and upgraded hardware to tackle gaming and movie playback on 4K Ultra HD resolution displays.

We already knew the PS4 Neo was eventually headed to store shelves, as Sony confirmed the more powerful 4K-capable console earlier this summer. Not long after, Sony President Shuhei Yoshida made it clear that the PS4 Neo wouldn't upset or signal the end of the typical 5-6 year console lifecycle in favor of hardware upgrades in smaller steps.


Leaked internal documents point to the PS4 Neo using the same eight Jaguar cores as the original PS4, but clocked 1.3x faster at 2.1GHz instead of 1.6GHz. It will also sport the same 8GB GDDR4 memory, albeit at a higher bandwidth (215GB/s versus 176GB/s), and an improved version of AMD's GCN CU's—three dozen CUs at 911MHz versus 18 CUs at 800MHz.

Pricing has yet to be announced, though the PS4 Neo will undoubtedly cost more than the standard PS4. Because of that, along with Sony's decision to make sure developers building games for the PS4 Neo don't leave standard PS4 owners out in the cold, there will still be demand for a less expensive model. That's likely part of Sony's motivation in releasing a slim version of the original PS4.

The other motivating factor probably has to do with Microsoft recently releasing a slim version of it's Xbox One console, the new Xbox One S, which launched at the beginning of August. A slim version of the PS4 would take away Microsoft's edge in terms of a space saving design.

By the numbers, Sony's been winning the console war against Microsoft. Sony's sold more than 40 million PS4 systems since launching in 2013, around double the number of Xbox One systems Microsoft is believed to have sold to date.