The PS5 Slim puts Xbox in a great position for the rest of this console generation

Sony announced the PS5 Slim yesterday, confirming years of speculation and getting out ahead of Xbox in the battle for the mid-generation console refresh. At least they would have done, had Microsoft not leaked its own mid-gen upgrade last month. And while the PS5 Slim might be landing first, it's the new Xbox that I'm far more impressed by.

The PS5 Slim is 30% smaller than its predecessor, and will boast a detachable disk drive and an extra 175GB of internal SSD storage (equivalent to about two major games nowadays, if you're lucky). Beyond that, there's little to set the new console apart from the old, unless you'd like to spend $30 on an official horizontal stand or hike your PS5 around often enough that you'll benefit from the 18% or 24% reduction in weight. The Slim is even the exact same price as the original PS5.

Officially, Microsoft doesn't have a mid-gen refresh planned for the Xbox Series X, but unofficially, documents that leaked from the FTC court case have confirmed the existence of Project Brooklin. The Xbox Series X 'Refresh' leaked in full in September, revealing everything from specs to price to release date, so we can say with some certainty that while Microsoft won't be matching Sony with a new console this year, there's definitely something on the way.

And from what we've seen so far, Xbox Series X Brooklin is set to leave the PS5 Slim in the dust: storage is increasing from 1TB to 2TB; improved WiFi will reduce latency, and improved Bluetooth will mean better connection to your accessories; the entire console will be more efficient, reducing power draw by 15% and lowering the Series X's standby power usage to just 20% of the current Series S. A new controller, codenamed Sebile, promises improvements over the current controller and longer-lasting thumbsticks. An enhanced Series S, Ellewood, is also on the way. And for all those improvements, neither console will get more expensive.

PS5 Slim vs Xbox Series X Refresh

There's no competition, right? The Xbox Series X refresh might not be coming until Fall 2024, a year after the PS5 Slim, but as far as I can see, Brooklin leaves Sony in the dust. As a PS5 owner, there's nothing that draws me to 'upgrade' to the Slim, but there's a whole bunch of changes to Brooklin that draw me to the Xbox for the first time. Granted, it's unlikely to replace my PC as the vehicle by which I play games like Starfield, but this looks like a substantial step forward from Microsoft at a time when Sony appears to be running on the spot.

Perhaps that's forgivable. As Microsoft has made clear many times over the past year, it's struggling to compete with Sony in the console war. While Xbox chief Phil Spencer is pretty confident that his company offers the better hardware, it's more than fair to say that Sony has had the better time of it when it comes to software, and that its raft of top-tier exclusives have put the PS5 in a far stronger position that the Xbox Series X. 

But Microsoft's first Bethesda exclusives are starting to appear, and while the less said about Redfall the better, you can't deny the impact that Starfield has had in spite of its exclusivity. And with the Xbox Activision deal expected to close in a matter of days, Xbox's arsenal is about to get even bigger. Call of Duty might be staying on PlayStation, but can the same be said of future Blizzard games? As Microsoft gears up to make the most of its shiny new first-party studios, that software gap seems likely to close, and hardware might start to be seen as a far more important factor than it is right now. As we move towards the second half of this generation, Microsoft seems to already be winning that particular race, and while the PS5 Slim does nothing to close that gap, it's looking like Brooklin could widen it, setting us up for a new-gen console war clash that might be far more closely-fought than we initially thought it might be.

PS5 vs Xbox Series X: Which should you buy?