Sony’s Quiet PS5 Slim Update Hits Europe, Here’s What You’ll Find

Sony has a habit of quietly adding new hardware to its lineup and the new PS5 Slim, which is now in European stores, is no exception. This one, model number CFI-210, cuts the fat in ways that show a company fine tuning the recipe in the face of rising costs. When you open one of these up you’ll notice the difference straight away: the storage inside clocks in at 825GB, down from the full terabyte of the previous Slim models.

Early impressions of the CFI-210 show a console that’s easier to use during setup. YouTuber Austin Evans measured the weight of the Digital Edition at 2,433 grams, down 123 grams from the previous 2,556 grams. Owners who juggle consoles between entertainment centers and shelves will appreciate the reduction, even if it’s just from small scale efficiency rather than a full redesign. The most obvious change greets you before you even turn it on: Sony replaced the glossy highlights on the side panels and the black strip around the ports with a matte finish across the entire exterior.

Evans disassembled the console methodically, starting with the outer shell and working his way in to the heart of the computer. The teardown is similar to what long time PlayStation owners are used to: a few screws and clips and the panels come off, revealing the tiny innards that made the Slim so popular in the first place. A thinner steel plate now protects the motherboard, which is where most of the weight reduction comes from. That plate was originally a strong barrier against bends and bumps during shipping, but it’s been thinned out without damaging the fundamental structure. The remaining 50 or so grams of savings are a mystery – perhaps due to minor material substitutions elsewhere, but Evans couldn’t pinpoint a single part.



Deeper into the teardown the motherboard tells a story of careful reorganization. Sony has rearranged components to fit the same chassis while removing excess. Voltage regulator modules, small circuits that stabilize voltage to processors and other electronics, are disappearing. That means Sony is streamlining the electrical flow without sacrificing stability, a nod to efficiency in an era of thin margins. The cooling configuration has its own variation: heat pipes that carry heat away from the CPU and GPU to the main heatsink are now reoriented.


Given the headline cut, storage is the area that requires the most scrutiny. The SSD here has 825GB of usable space, which isn’t enough room for large open-world games that often exceed 100GB. Evans noticed a quirk during the downspec: the drive has more NAND memory modules than the previous gen. NAND creates the raw memory cells in solid-state storage, so more modules might mean reconfiguring for increased reliability or future-proofing even as total capacity goes down. Gamers buying this unit will have to decide if the built-in space is enough or if an M.2 slot is screaming their name from the get-go. Sony positions the PS5 as a digital-first ecosystem but repeated installs and uninstalls get old fast when library space is limited.


Performance is the focus of all this downspec discussion and Evans ran the CFI-210 through the usual console tests: startup times, load screens in demanding games and long play under pressure. The power draw was the same as the previous model, around 200w peak during intense activity. Thermals were up a couple of degrees Celsius on the chipset after an hour of ray-tracing but not enough to cause thermal throttling or fan ramp-ups. Speaking of the fan, the huge blade spins with less audible hum than the previous model, a small win for late night gaming where every decibel counts. Benchmarks in Spider-Man 2 and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth returned the same frame rates and resolutions as before so I guess Sony saved the speed boosts for the more expensive Pro model.
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