Sony really has come through with a smaller, lighter, quieter, and more energy-efficient piece of hardware, and at $300, even if your sole interest is a Blu-ray player, it's a hard value to beat.

A long-overdue price drop, a hard-drive bump, and a compelling physical redesign make the Sony PlayStation 3 more desirable than ever.

Factor in games, social networking features like PlayStation Home, music and custom video playback, Web surfing, and picture browsing, and this may be the best-value Sony game system yet.

With a smaller design, more energy-efficient operation, lower price tag, and built-in Blu-ray and multimedia capabilities, the PS3 Slim delivers a compelling package for an affordable price.

By lowering the price and making a more economical console, Sony's finally more or less evened the hardware landscape with Microsoft, and continued to ensure that the PS3 is still the best-value-for-your-money Blu-ray player. Now all that's left is getting some more games on there.

Over all, the PS3 Slim is a phenomenal piece of kit. It's amazing that something so small can do so much. And so if you've just bought a new telly, that extra £50 you'd have to spend over the cost of an Xbox 360 Elite will be worth it just for the Blu-ray player.