Sony PS3 Slim uses half the power of old PS3

Sony heralded the new PlayStation 3 Slim as more energy efficient than previous models, but that's not much of a boast -- the older PS3 'Fat' was one of the most power-hungry home video appliances available, with power consumption similar to that of a 50-inch plasma TV.

To test Sony's claim, we put the PS3 Slim through a battery of power-consumption tests and the results really are impressive: the PS3 Slim generally uses less than half the power of the original PS3, no matter what task it's performing. Check out the comparison:

Whether the PS3 Slim is a 'green' device depends on your perspective. As you can see from the chart, the PS3 Slim still uses much more power than a typical standalone Blu-ray player such as the Samsung BD-P3600, so if you're mainly just playing Blu-ray movies, the PS3 Slim is a real hog. On the other hand, the Xbox 360 uses about 187W while playing a game, which makes the PS3 Slim look like the HD game console for the environmentally conscious. The Nintendo Wii uses a paltry 19W, but is standard-def only.