I'm buying a US 40gb PS3 to give to a friend in China (220v there). I've heard of some conflicting reports on whether the PS3 requires a transformer or not. Does anyone have any knowledge about this?

Thanks!

I am pretty sure it is, although it's not listed on the PS3 itself. My friend successfully plugged his console into 220 when he traveled to Europe, without frying it... Although he has the Elite.

Great, thanks :)

... Although he has the Elite.

Which PS3 is an Elite? I think you might be talking Xbox 360 since all PS3 models are named based on thier harddrive size eg 20GB, 40GB, 60Gb and 80Gb.