Let's be honest... the PlayStation 3 is a boy's toy, a bloke thing. It's primarily a games machine and the majority of the launch titles involve shooting, driving and sport. But one of the big strengths of Sony's previous console, the venerable PS2, was its ability to transcend its 'geeky' boundaries.

The PS2 wasn't all about driving and shooting. It was also about jumping, dancing and sometimes it was about guitar playing. Its longevity in the market has given it an unparalled software base and its continuing popularity reflects this diversity of content.

Put it this way: your mum probably owns a PS2. She probably still plays EyeToy on it.

With this diversity in mind, we wanted to perform a simple test: can your wife or girlfriend get to grips with the next-gen features of the PS3? And can they do it against the clock? Dan Griffiths, Editor of PlayStation Technology Projects here at Future decided to give it a try.

Test 1: Set up the PS3

We pass our test subject the PS3 and the HDMI lead. Short work is made of the packaging (she's opened things before) and everything is systematically destroyed. "Which way up does it go?" She asks. You choose. The PS3 goes upright.

Things progress rapidly. The power cord goes into the wall socket the other end goes in the back of the PS3. That's the easy bit. I remove the supplied composite AV cord to avoid a spiral of confusion and tell her we'll use an HDMI lead instead. Damn. That's a tip off.

She plugs the USB charging lead into the Sixaxis pad and looks around the back of the PS3 for a socket. She can't find one and she's getting tetchy. Already. She spins the PS3 around and inadvertently lifts the front flap revealing the Memory Card slots. Oh God. Things got a whole lot more complicated. She then tries (in an extremely half-hearted way) to ease the USB socket into each of the three card slots before spotting the four USB ports below and shoving it home with a flourish. "Stop the watch!" she cries. What about the TV? "GAH!!!"

The TV is a Sony Bravia V2500. "Where do I plug it in?" She asks. For some reason she's panting. I'm stony faced. "Does it turn around?" Does it turn around!?! She spins the TV on it's base and once again Sony have let us down by clearly printing 'HDMI' on the sockets on the TV. It's a bit fiddly - "It only goes in one way!" - but it's in. Stop the clock: 4 minutes 20seconds.

Verdict: An Impressive start, but I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't have said HDMI out loud...

Test 2: Switch it on

The TV is on. And Sky is on. She's done that before. She switches on the PS3 socket and the power switch on the PS3. The PS3's power light glows red! Which means that the PS3 is switched off. This is much harder than I thought. We're at a total dead end. "MAKE IT COME ON THE TELLY!" she shouts. I pass her the TV remote. She presses 1... Then presses 2... Then gives up entirely. Is that it? "Yes." You can't do it? "There's no point in this, it's impossible." Impossible? The time? 10 minutes plus.

Verdict: Failure. Despite the manual clearly pointing out the flat touch-panel power button on the front of the PS3 and despite her actually reading those words, she failed to turn on the PS3. To prevent total mutiny I 'make it come on the telly.'

Test 3: Connect a camera

Which contains photos of kittens - as an incentive. It's a Canon IXUS 2. I've even given her the Canon USB lead and the camera end even has 'Canon' written on it.

Instead she is reading the camera... It says 'Memory Card' on the side... I can see her brain working... She opens the camera's card slot and scrabbles with her nails at the card. I'm about to tell her that there's a button that ejects it when she manages to hook a nail under a chink in the card's casing and levers it out without a complaint. (But plugging in an HDMI lead was hard?)

The card goes into the PS3 slot discovered earlier and she instinctively picks up the joypad. She moves the D-pad and the menus spring to life. (Surely you'd go for the stick first - which would have produced no response.)

'Photos' says the PS3. We go past it and come back. 'Photos' says the PS3 again. She pauses... She reads the word... 'Photos'... Then presses X and the card appears. There's some confusion over pressing X again and moving right 'onto' the card ("Why is it buttons sometimes and movements the other?") But she gets about a minute later. Click. Bang. Kitten. Time: 3 minutes 41 seconds

Side note: Just for fun I disconnect the USB charging lead between the PS3 and the joypad. It continues to work. She is amazed.

Verdict: An unconventional approach, but inserting a card (rather than using a USB lead with the camera) totally forgoes the need to turn on and engage USB mode on the camera.

Test 4: Play a Blu-ray movie

I give her the disc (in the box). She's seen this kind of thing before. She opens the box and crudely clicks out the disc (bending it to the point of fracture). "Which way up does it go?" She looks at the on-its-end PS3 and holds the disc up against it... then lays the PS3 on its side and puts the disc into the slot. She smiles a smug, antagonistic smile... but then turns the PS3 back on its end again. She even smiles the smile again. Things are easy from here. Move to the Movies option. Click. Bingo. Time: 1 minute 10 seconds.

Verdict: Good. When you've driven through the menus once it appears that it 'sticks'.

Final Verdict: It's surprising how much we take for granted - that the PS3 needs connecting to a TV for example - but, all in all, once you've done the hard hardware bit the XMB menu - the heart of using the PS3 - is obvious and intuitive.

But let's leave the final verdict to the Missus. So what do you think? "It's all just stupid," she says. Hmm. In what way? "It just is." As we said earlier, the PlayStation 3 is a boy's toy...