As we reported last week, CeX has managed to get its hands on some much coveted PS3 hardware for its stores across the country. We've got some hands-on impressions for your consumption.

If you take a walk into your nearest CeX (ours is the Albion Street store in Leeds) you'll find the console placed venerably in a glass cabinet. You might need to wander a little way in, it was the glut of skater kids that gave away the location to us (presumably said glut would be something of an annoyance by the door).

In the words of CeX's in-house tester:



We'll attest to this. Playing face-on to the machine really emphasises what a mammoth it is. Unfortunately the standard definition screen the machine is attached to (in the Leeds store at least) doesn't show off all that the hardware's capable of, and a glass screen doesn't help. That said, a large number of gamers will be playing on SD tellies for the foreseeable future, so you might want to get used to seeing less than optimal performance from the PS3 now.

CeX's man goes on:



So it turns out Sony aren't quite the hard-asses they'd have us believe. The consoles are fully playable and you won't be forced to guess at Japanese text all over your PS3 experience.

At the end of the day, though, it's all well and good us telling you about it, but we'd recommend getting yourself down to your nearest CeX (you can find it on their website) and getting your thumbs on it. And when you get home, get on the forums and tell us what you think.