Someone is selling an unannounced PS4 model online

Vaughn Highfield August 22, 2016

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A new version of Sony’s PS4 has appeared online and, no, it’s not the heavily rumoured PS4 Neo. A post on Gumtree (which has now been removed), as spotted by NeoGAF, has popped up with a user selling – what claims to be – a PS4 Slim. Despite the fact that the PS4 Slim is a completely unannounced and unseen piece of hardware, the seller is only asking £295 for it.

The legitimacy of the new piece of hardware is hard to prove as there are only a handful of photos showing off the device and none of them show it in great detail. Given Sony’s track record for releasing slimline consoles – and the fact Microsoft has just launched a slimmer Xbox One – it’s not hard to believe Sony would be working on a slimmer PlayStation 4. If this model is the real deal, it appears to simply be a PS4 replacement that could launch later this year, leaving the PS4 Neo as a beefier update to arrive in 2017.

Judging from the poorly lit photos, this new PS4 Slim is available in a 500GB model and comes with a standard DualShock 4 controller. The console’s appearance has also changed somewhat with the now iconic PS4 lighting strip and touch-sensitive power and disc eject buttons being removed. Now the power and eject buttons sit as two clickable buttons just in front of the disc slot. For some reason, the two front-facing USB ports have also moved further apart.

For those who have upgraded their PS4 hard drives, it still appears that this slimmer PS4 will retain such a feature. In photos a flap on the rear side of the console can be seen, suggesting that’s where Sony has located the internal storage. Pictures also show that the console is ever-so-slightly smaller than the PS4 in footprint, but still has the sloping aesthetic seen on the original model.

If this slimmer PS4 is a hoax, it’s a damn good one as the build quality and attention to detail on the model is quite impressive – the underside even features little PlayStation symbols as stabling feet. The Wall Street Journal is also reporting that Sony has cut production of the standard PS4 model to help facilitate inventory for a new slimmer model – explaining why many websites, including Sony’s own site, are sold out of PS4 consoles.

We know Sony is holding an event on 7 September to talk the future of PlayStation, so expect to see this console turning up there alongside an announcement of the Neo.

You can see more photos of the new PS4 in the gallery below.

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