Europe’s latest PS5 Slim revision is out in the wild, and an early teardown offers a clear look at what’s changed—and what hasn’t. Content creator Austin Evans opened up the refreshed digital-only model and found subtle design tweaks and internal reshuffles, but no meaningful performance gains to balance out the cut in storage.
The headline change is the move from a 1 TB drive to 825 GB. That’s a tough pill to swallow as modern games continue to balloon in size. On the outside, Sony has swapped the mixed finish for an all-matte shell, ditching the glossy accents on the side panels and port surround. It’s a small but welcome quality-of-life improvement that should better hide scuffs and micro-scratches over time.
This PS5 Slim Digital is also lighter: 2,433 grams versus the previous 2,556 grams. Storage alone doesn’t explain the 123-gram drop, so Evans dug into the hardware. Inside, the steel plate that shields the motherboard is thinner, contributing to the weight reduction. The heat pipes have been reoriented, the voltage regulation stage uses fewer VRMs, and the SSD now features more NAND packages despite delivering a smaller total capacity. The motherboard layout has been shuffled, but none of these changes translate into faster performance.
On the metrics that matter to everyday play, the console behaves much like its predecessor. Power draw remains essentially the same, temperatures are only marginally higher, and the large internal fan may even sound a touch quieter under load. In short, day-to-day gaming won’t feel different—except for how quickly the internal drive fills up.
That storage cut is the sticking point. New buyers may find themselves juggling installs sooner than expected or prioritizing an expansion SSD from the start. Thankfully, the PS5’s M.2 slot makes upgrades straightforward with a compatible NVMe PCIe Gen4 drive and heatsink, but it’s an extra cost many would rather avoid. If pricing pressure forces future increases on the digital model, expect frustration to grow louder.
There’s also chatter about a new high-end variant registered in Europe under model number CFI-7121, often associated with a “Pro” refresh. If and when it appears, only a deeper teardown will reveal how its internals differ and whether it delivers the kind of performance uplift enthusiasts are hoping for.
Key takeaways:
– New PS5 Slim Digital in Europe drops from 1 TB to 825 GB of storage
– All-matte exterior helps resist visible scratches and smudges
– Weight reduced to 2,433 g, partly due to a thinner motherboard shield
– Revised internals: new heat pipe orientation, fewer VRMs, more NAND packages
– No meaningful performance gains; power draw similar, temps slightly higher
– Fan noise may be a bit quieter
– Less storage means more juggling or an early M.2 SSD upgrade
– Separate CFI-7121 model has surfaced, pointing to a potential Pro-tier update
