Product Reviews

Sony's PlayStation 3 looks impressive, and at 5kg you certainly know where your £400 has gone. Though bulky, it has a built-in power supply, unlike the external brick-like one used with the Xbox 360. It's also far quieter than the Xbox 360 when running games.

On the rear is an HDMI output, the first standard video output we've seen on a games console. There's also an AV Multi output, which supports component, RGB SCART, S-video and composite video. The HDMI socket supports version 1.3, so you can output lossless audio, such as Dolby TrueHD, to a compatible surround-sound amplifier. Alternatively, you can output Dolby Digital using the optical S/PDIF or analogue Dolby Pro-Logic II through the AV Multi output. At present, there's no VGA lead available, and no official support for connecting monitors using an HDMI-to-DVI lead. HD resolutions of 720p, 1,080i and 1,080p are available though component and HDMI, although Virtua Tennis 3 is the only game to support 1,080p at present.

The Sixaxis joypad looks almost identical to the PlayStation 2's DualShock controller. However, the rumble feature has been removed and tilt sensors, similar to those in

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the Wii remote, have been added. The lower shoulder buttons on the front of the joypad have been replaced with triggers, but pulling them is awkward and makes the joypad shift in your hands. It's not as good as the Xbox 360's controller, although it's a neat touch that you can recharge them by plugging them into one of the front USB ports.

There's also built-in Gigabit Ethernet and wireless networking, so accessing online content is simple. There's not much content available at the moment, but expect more as more games are released.

Turn it on and you're quickly faced with the minimalist interface. This looks great and makes it easy to find everything you need, unlike the Xbox 360's often confusing Dashboard. The PlayStation 3 can play a wide variety of media files from external devices or its own 60GB hard disk.

The selection of games is currently rather limited and most are already available on the Xbox 360. Motorstorm is the best of the release titles, as it's fun to play and looks fantastic. However, we saw nothing here graphically that couldn't be achieved on the Xbox 360. Furthermore, the Xbox 360 has a more impressive range of exclusive titles coming up, such as Halo 3, while many big games, such as Grand Theft Auto IV, are launching on both consoles simultaneously.

The PS3 can play Blu-ray discs, too. The results are equal to any dedicated Blu-ray player we've seen, making the PS3 the cheapest Blu-ray player you can buy.

If all you want is a games console, the Xbox 360 has a better range of games and a better joypad. However, with Blu-ray playback, wireless networking, a 60GB hard disk and a great interface on which to browse media files, the PlayStation 3 is a more versatile, if expensive, alternative.