I've been rather outspoken about the PS3 in the past. I havecriticised its high price, I've called it ugly and to be honest I've givenSony's new baby a bit of a rough time. Have you ever called someone else's baby'ugly' behind their back only to find out that actually it's quite cute after all?

That's the sort of the guilt I'm feeling right now, becauseafter having a play with one for a week I've actually changed my mind about thePS3. It's actually..ahemm... rather good. Sure there are not a massive number ofexcellent games out for it yet, but as a piece of kit there are some thingswhich I think are really really cool and worth considering. Here are ten of them:

1. The on/off button

Yeah, the on/off button. It's the first feature that youencounter when you get a new PS3 and it's actually pretty cool. You just haveto rest your finger on the flat surface of the front panel and it senses yourtouch and switches on. The Blu-ray drive works in the same way. It's simpletechnology, yet it's still cool. I like it. I think it's good.

2. User Interface

I also like the very simple user interface. I like the wayit scrolls, I like the way it looks and I even like the little clinking soundit makes as you scroll through the options. The way it's all arranged makes itvery easy to find exactly which setting you're after, even if you've never useda games console in your life. I likes it, see?

3. DVD Upscaling

I suspect that the first thing that most people do when theybuy a PS3 is to either play MotorStorm on it, or to watch Casino Royale onBlu-ray. I did neither of these things and instead randomly opted to watch a standarddefinition DVD of Donnie Darko with one of my housemates. The PlayStation 3'supscaling capability is really impressive. It makes standard DVDs lookabsolutely fantastic even on a 46 inch LCD TV. This is a real plus-featurewhich most people might not have considered. You may not believe how good itcan look - see it to believe it.

4. It's quick

I'm currently testing a Mesh PC with a Core 2 Quad processorand an Nvidia 8800 GTS card inside. Even so, playing Rainbow Six Vegas is notas quick as you might think. It still takes a while to load up, and loadingindividual missions in the game ranges from being really quick to being quitesluggish. The PS3 is consistently good. Sure it takes a few moments to load upthe games, but considering their sheer size and the amount of processing powerthat is involved, it's incredible.

5. Size/weight

I'd never actually bothered to pick one up before, so had noidea how much one weighed. And actually, it's nowhere near as heavy as youmight think (and if you've never seen one in person, it's not as large as youmight think, either.) It fits into some tight spaces and is a lot moreconvenient to have in my living room than I expected it to be. It is a bit tooshiny though to be honest. It's arched top surface is shinier than DuncanGoodhew's.

6. Wireless networking

It's great to have wireless networking capabilities insidewithout having to plug in any peripherals. You can connect, download firmwareupdates without a hitch. The Xbox 360 requires an additional and priceywireless adapter to perform these same functions.