Image: Push Square
Sony is notorious for optimising its hardware right throughout each generation, and it looks like it’s shipping refined base PS5 Slim consoles, starting with its Marvel’s Wolverine console.
A Polish hardware expert recently took to X (or Twitter) to report his findings, discovering a number of minor refinements compared to past versions of Sony’s flagship console.
Among the changes are an optimised motherboard layout, tweaked cooling (which matches the PS5 Pro), a different heatsink, and some other minor modifications.
These tweaks are likely to represent cost-saving endeavours from Sony, or reflect changes to manufacturing contracts.
Compared with the 2025 Slim revision, which had already received the improved cooling system, Sony has changed things again.
The area around the APU / die and its protective surface looks different, and the liquid-metal containment appears to be closer to the approach used in… pic.twitter.com/fR0PLFTXvZ
— modyfikatorcasper (@Modyfikator89) September 30, 2026
While these alterations are unlikely to make any difference to the end user, the CMOS battery inside the console is now easier to access and replace as a result of the refinements, so that’s appreciated. Like any battery, these do eventually die, so making it simple to swap out is a welcome tweak.
The original poster notes that these changes are so fresh the firm hasn’t even made any alterations to the console’s manual to reflect them, which is pretty funny.
As I mentioned at the start of the article, Sony has always made minor tweaks like this to its consoles, so it’s not really a surprise to see it further refine the device as it reaches its sixth anniversary.
In particular, the company will be looking to shave off as many manufacturing costs as possible right now, as the global memory crisis continues to push the price of hardware sky high – with no sign of things improving anytime soon.
As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.