And now for the bad news.
80GB PS3 has limited backwards compatibility - Joystiq

As a note, the controller included with the 80GB PS3 will not vibrate. (The red light on the controller means nothing. It's a 'lighting trick')

The main point, and this is why I bought my PS3 when I did: the 'limited backwards compatibility'. It appears that the new batch of PS3s will have switched to the Software Emulation for backwards compatibility instead of having the PS2 brains inside of it. This makes it cheaper to produce (making the price drop hurt less for Sony), but it seems to exclude quite a bit of legacy PS games.
Take a look at PAL PS3's backwards compat site, search for some of the more popular games. For 2 examples, PS2's MGS3 'works with noticeable issues', while PS1's Final Fantasy 7 isn't even listed.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe doesn't seem too pressed on updating the emulator either.
Quote Originally Posted by SCEE
...rather than concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility, in the future, company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3...
Whether or not SCEA will take the same stance remains to be seen.

If backwards compatibility is important to you, beware of this new PS3.