With Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days sale officially over, it’s time to take a look at our winner and loser in tech from the past week.
This week, everyone’s attention was focused on all the deals arriving exclusively for Prime members during Amazon’s two-day October sale. However, that didn’t prevent Sony from launching the highly-anticipated PS5 Slim.
Keep reading to learn more about our winner and loser this week…
Winner: Sony
Sony caught us off guard this week with a surprise PlayStation announcement. The company unveiled two versions of a new iteration of the PS5, colloquially referred to as the PS5 Slim, including an exciting new feature for the Digital Edition in particular.
The updated PS5 is Sony’s mid-cycle console update. In this case, the console offers gamers a slimmer and more lightweight alternative to 2020’s PS5. In fact, according to Sony, the new PS5 Disc and Digital Editions are 30% smaller than their 2020 counterparts.
The most exciting update this time is the detachable disc drive on the new PS5 Digital Edition. The modular design allows gamers to save money and space with the Digital Edition now but leaves them with the option to pick up a detachable Ultra HD Blu-ray drive later down the line if they change their mind.
This is an interesting update from Sony that should prevent PS5 gamers from needing to buy an entirely separate Blu-ray player if they find they’d like one for watching movies later on.
If you still haven’t gotten around to picking up the latest PlayStation console, the updated PS5 ‘Slim’ models might just be the update you’ve been waiting for.
Loser: Google
Our loser this week is Google after an executive at the company confirmed that there are no plans to release a budget Pixel in the near future.
VP of Google’s mobile business Nanda Ramachandran dismissed the idea of a lower-priced Pixel, explaining that this would involve too many changes when it comes to key Pixel features, like the cameras, security and AI.
“It is quite unlikely that we will go in that direction”, Ramachandran told Der Standard. “We would have to make too many compromises for that”.
While this will certainly be disappointing news for many – especially with the increased price of the Pixel 8 this year – Google does already offer great value mid-range phones as mid-cycle updates.
The latest of these is the Pixel 7a, which topped our guide to the best mid-range phones with its fantastic camera array and smart software. Hopefully, Google will continue to produce great mid-range phones if it can’t work within the constraints needed for a true budget handset.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
