Favorite Games: Demon's Souls, Far Cry The Wild Expedition, Little Big Planet, LEGO games, more to come!
This is one of the best PlayStation's I've ever used. This model can play PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games through backwards compatibility and Play PS3 games. That's three generations of Games, just as the GameCube GameBoy Player! It features so many I/O and can play Blu Ray movies and features capacitive touch buttons which makes this thing feel as if it's from the future! I love the round design since a lot of consoles try to follow the boxy design which is so traditional... I do love the boxy Xbox Series X and GameCube design though. It comes with 4 USB ports and a lot of Sony storage ports which allow you to view your photo's and videos directly from a camera if you are a photographer who uses these formats.
There are some problems with this device though. The yellow light of death is very common with this first model, and mine has some issues playing PS3 games, these issues include framedrops which are not existent in newer models, graphical glitches and crashes (yet no YLoD). Due to these problems I no longer play PS3 games on this model and use it mainly for PS2 games. It can get really noisy when playing PS3 games or heavier PS2 games, but not as noisy as my Xbox 360 and even worse, my friends PS4 Pro. I think his device wins the title of being the most noisiest console ever due to its fans.
This console supports a large amount of digital disc formats so you can almost play every type of disc in it! Be it audio or video (but not non-PlayStation games). It's the most excelent multimedia device and both home console I've ever seen. One of the smoothest UX I've ever had. I wish Sony kept the XMB, it's beatiful and allows customisation.
Another thing is the XMB menu's default background. If configured, it changes color depending on month and day and night. It is one of the most tranquil console menus I've ever seen. I have yet to see a console that brings this back... It can be fully customized and the particles in the default menu react on motion of the Dual Shock 3 'Six Axis' controller.
The glossy look is beautiful but attracts scratches easily. It receives my award for best looking game console along with the PS5.
It's a very heavy system to move, I wouldn't recommend moving this once it's placed. It's also very big.
The controllers are good, better than the Xbox 360 and have quite some rumble effect too, but not as much as the mentioned controller. The Six Axis doesn't feel like a Nintendo Quality controller though but it's very good.
RIP those, which have lost their PS3 Phats due to the YLoD.
Should you get this device?
Are you looking for a cheap 1080p Blu Ray player? Get a Phat or Slim model that's produced after 2007.
Do you want to play PS3 exclusives? Defintely get a PS3!
Do you want to play this generation console exclusives but care more about performance? Get an Xbox 360 instead, the games for this device have worse performance than their Xbox 360 variants generally. If you can't stand the Xbox 360 Wireless Controller, stay with PS3.
Do you like round consoles? Get this thing.