The Bottom Line: The Sony PS3 offers an easy and fun way to have fun playing games and watching movies. This is a must have for anyone thats owns a TV.

I bought my PS3 in August of 2008 and I love it. I still have it to this day and enjoy it very much.
I bought this product because I had previously owned a PS2 and although primitive comparing it to the PS3, it provided several uses for my kids. Playing video games watching movies, and listening to music. We really enjoyed our PS2 and it brought us years of happiness. It was sleek, easy to use, and fun. When I found out there was a PS3, I freaked out, jumped in my car and bought one. When I got home, and ripped that thing out the box, my first reaction was, "damn this thing is a PS2 on steroids." The thing was sleek and looked simple to use. It has two buttons on it. The power and the eject button. It's so easy, even my dad can do it. (What you think i was going to say?)
When I finally got around to taking the other stuff out of the box, it came with very little to set up with, a RCA cable a wireless controller, the PS3 obviously, and the instruction manuals. I was disappointed that it did not come with an HDMI cable because trust me, you don't want to run the PS3 on Standard Definition, but I went out, bought an HDMI cord for $20 and I was on my way. I love that the PS3 is easy to set up. Once I plugged in the power and the HDMI cable, it was very obvious what I was supposed to do...press one of the two buttons on the thing, the power button!
When it turned it on it gave me the basic start up questions. Time and date, HD or SD setting, and my personal favorite, the Wi-Fi setting. I don't know how it does it, but when all my other devices cant find any wi-fi, my PS3 is always connected no matter what. It has excellent wi-fi hardware.
I love that the controller is wireless. On the PS2, the controllers would get all tangled up, but on the new PS3, you simply press the PS button on the controller and it automatically turns on the PS3 and controller. It is a very nice feature. Many people say they like playing on the X-Box controller, but I find that the PS3 controller is much more ergonomic and user-friendly. The two joysticks right next to each other makes it very easy to play combat games and navigate the menus.
There are several menus on the different features of the PS3. The PS3 can view your photos, videos, play your video games, stream your favorite Tv shows, and even stream the movies from your computers library. If you have a camera or a hard drive, you can plug it into the PS3's USB ports, and view your photos and videos from it.
The videos on this device are amazing also. It plays standard definition videos and Blu-Ray. Even if it is not a Blu-Ray disk, which is high definition, the PS3 will upgrade the quality of the video automatically to a higher definition.
A triumph of the PS3 over the X-Box is the free online gaming. Some of my friends have X-Boxes and they pay an un-godly amount of money just to play with friends. As long as you have an internet connection and a multiplayer game, you can go online with friends for free.
My pet piece about this product is when I use the streaming software such as Hulu and Netflix, the PS3 becomes a little slow. Especially on Hulu, which is still in development, it might crash or freeze and I will have to restart the system. They are constantly working on improvements though, and I am sure that soon there will be no lags or freezes. Also, I don't like the fact that when you launch a game, it will make you update the software of that game every once in a while. When you want to play a game, it might take ten minutes to download and install and then you get to play.
All and all, the PS3 is, in my mind, is the best console that a person can buy. It is easy to use, sleek, shiny, and most importantly, fun. If you buy this you will get hours and days and months and years of amazing family or by yourself fun. You will not be disappointed.