There’s a brand-new rumor circulating online, and it’s about a potential PS5 redesign that’ll supposedly enter production in a couple of months. According to Taiwanese news outlet DigiTimes, Sony plans to start production of this peculiar revision of the PlayStation 5 in the second half of 2022 — between the second and third quarters, to be more exact. This means that, if true, Sony could have something akin to a PS5 Slim in time for the 2022 holiday season (or the first half of 2023 at the latest).

As always, these rumors have to be taken with a grain of salt, but knowing Sony and their proclivity for shipping revisions and redesigns of their consoles gives this rumor a fair bit of credence. After all, it’s not exactly a rumor if it’s been the norm for each and every single PlayStation console throughout history. Sometimes these redesigns are just that: visual overhauls with the exact same internals. Other times, Sony goes the extra mile and actually imbues them with a slew of quality-of-life improvements, therefore making these revisions noticeably more alluring.

The PS5 has only been out for a couple of months but only a fraction of those looking to own one have had the “luxury” of finding it in stock.

The potential redesign is just one half of the equation; the internals of this updated PS5 warrant a bit of attention as well. It’ll supposedly pack a semi-customized 6nm CPU from AMD, instead of the initially predicted 5nm option. The six nanometer node would be noticeably cheaper to manufacture although it’s still uncertain whether this would help with the ongoing chip shortages or, conversely, complicate things even further. Based on all currently available information, we’d have to lean towards the latter. TSMC (the world’s leading semiconductor foundry) is once again expected to handle production.

A more efficient manufacturing process always results in better performance and, depending on a slew of other factors, thermals. This means that, in theory, this upcoming revision of the PS5 might provide gamers with slightly better performance, although even if that does end up happening, it won’t be all that noticeable of an upgrade. Based on pure logic and reason, it’s fair to assume that Sony still plans on going the 5nm route in the future with a potential PS5 Pro (perhaps in 2023/2024), by which point the ongoing manufacturing problems will surely subdue.

This is nothing more than a rumor at this point, but it’s an interesting thing to discuss nonetheless, especially given the current state of CPU/SoC manufacturing and just how big of an impact it has had on graphics cards, gaming laptops, consoles, mobile phones, and even the automotive industry.