A while ago Sony announced the release of the new CUH-1200 Series, but gave a launch date only for Japan, mentioning that the rest of the world would gradually get it afterwards. Looks like the console is indeed getting a rolling start in the west, and the first units are starting to appear at Game in the UK and at Mediamarkt in the Netherlands, as relayed by YouTube users MicDrive and OCD Guy.

At Game, the console was available at £349.99 with either The Last of Us: Remastered and God of War III: Remastered or Bloodborne.

Interestingly, OCD Guy also talked in detail about the console's audio impact. The first unit he got was noisier than he expected, so he went back to the store and exchanged it. The second attempt brought home a quite silent unit. MicDrive also confirmed that his unit is quieter than the CUH-1100:

It's not silent, but nothing with a fan is going to be silent, even the Xbox One makes noise, the difference is you need to put your head near it to hear it.

The replacement is similar to the Xbox One, infact at idle it's actually quieter. Xbox one reads 49dB at idle, and the ps4 reads 45dB at idle. Bear in mind that the decibel reading is not scientific and I don't actually care about the end figure as the actual sound reading is not from a calibrated device, I'm using a smart phone app, but all I'm concerned about is using it as a yardstick to measure the difference, so the ps4 I have now is 4dB quieter at idle. The advantage of the Xbox one is the fan noise seems to remain constant regardless of what you do, the psu fan is noisy though.

To put some perspective on my earlier unit, at idle it measured 56dB. Anyway back to the replacement ps4, I downloaded rocket league quickly as that ramped the earlier one up, and the ps4 remains quiet. I'm happy with this one.

He also mentioned the new mechanical buttons and LED light:

Two things I've picked up on though which are minor but thought I'd mention them is firstly the mechanical power and eject buttons feel cheap, they are a bit loose feeling and not as nice as the touch sensitive ones.

If anyone's got a Wii u controller, you know how the buttons feel on that? That's how they feel on the ps4. The other thing which isn't an issue, and I couldn't care less, but just thought I'd mention is the light in the ps4 (white when running) is much shorter, it doesn't look as good as the original, but no big deal.

We also get confirmation that the box does not have a handle (for some reason, this is relevant to some), and that the feet are positioned in the same way as the previous models.

If you want to check out your local stores for the new model, the model number for Europe is CUH-1216 in Europe and CUH-1215 in North America. You'll find it displayed at the bottom of the box.

You can see a few pictures from both users below.