Sony's PlayStation 5 scores with the big game exclusives that gamers want. It's also tall and blindingly white.
And it was right to be worried. The powerful new PlayStation 5 console towers over its predecessor, both physically and in its forward-looking graphics capabilities. Its AMD-powered GPU can process 10.28 teraflops versus 1.84 teraflops in the original PS4 (each TF represents about 1 trillion operations per second). Also, it's tall. Really tall. It stands 16 inches (40.6 cm) in its vertical position. Judging by the front of the box and Sony's promotional art, that's how the company intends for you to use it.
Not many people are going to have that kind of headspace. Fortunately, there's a dual-use plastic stand included in the box to help position the console securely in both vertical and horizontal positions. The stand ain't pretty (and needs to be screwed in with a metal screw in the vertical position), but it works. I'm already sketching out a less fugly version to 3D print, and I'll post the design files when I do...
Beyond that, the graceful curved white-over-black box reminds me of the organic architectural designs of Santiago Calatrava, who created New York's WTC Oculus. That sits in stark contrast to the Xbox Series X's design, which is closer to a Soviet-era constructivist office block as reimagined by Syd Mead.
Ironically, both consoles have a similar total volume, roughly 447 cubic inches for the PS5, while the chunky Xbox Series X is about 432 cubic inches. But only the PS5 feels like a potential living room logistics problem. Still, it's a bold visual statement, and looks great from any angle. It's clearly meant to be a sculptural conversation piece, rather than an anonymous bit of black stereo rack equipment.
Inside the towering tower, the PS5 is powered by AMD components -- as was the PS4, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. In this case, it's a custom eight-core AMD Zen 2 CPU and a GPU based on AMD's RDNA 2 graphics architecture. You can read a much deeper dive into the components of both new game consoles here, but the key takeaway is both new PlayStation and Xbox systems are built on very similar platforms. Both also offer default solid-state drives for storage (versus the spinning platter hard drives of the 2013 PS4 and Xbox One), and that makes for a huge improvement in loading times. Technically, the PS5 has a higher throughput speed from its SSD than the Xbox Series X, but then again, the Xbox GPU can, on paper, calculate more operations per second.
You can go down this "which is more powerful" rabbit hole, and stay there, for a very long time. The first console launch I covered as a reviewer was the Sega Dreamcast in 1999, and I've heard the same debate for every console generation since. It will be a couple of years at least before any new game comes close to pushing the boundaries of this hardware, so don't get caught up with teraflops or core frequencies. The real difference is one of temperament. The PS5 is a games-at-heart machine, while the Xbox Series X is more of a console-as-ecosystem, leaning heavily into multimedia, community, cloud gaming and cross-platform continuity.
One additional note. Despite all the talk about 8K gaming, it's not something you're going to get on Day 1, if ever. As my colleague Geoff Morrison points out in his excellent explainer here, higher frame rates and variable refresh rates are more important to a good gaming experience. nside the towering tower, the PS5 is powered by AMD components -- as was the PS4, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. In this case, it's a custom eight-core AMD Zen 2 CPU and a GPU based on AMD's RDNA 2 graphics architecture. You can read a much deeper dive into the components of both new game consoles here, but the key takeaway is both new PlayStation and Xbox systems are built on very similar platforms. Both also offer default solid-state drives for storage (versus the spinning platter hard drives of the 2013 PS4 and Xbox One), and that makes for a huge improvement in loading times. Technically, the PS5 has a higher throughput speed from its SSD than the Xbox Series X, but then again, the Xbox GPU can, on paper, calculate more operations per second.
You can go down this "which is more powerful" rabbit hole, and stay there, for a very long time. The first console launch I covered as a reviewer was the Sega Dreamcast in 1999, and I've heard the same debate for every console generation since. It will be a couple of years at least before any new game comes close to pushing the boundaries of this hardware, so don't get caught up with teraflops or core frequencies. The real difference is one of temperament. The PS5 is a games-at-heart machine, while the Xbox Series X is more of a console-as-ecosystem, leaning heavily into multimedia, community, cloud gaming and cross-platform continuity.
One additional note. Despite all the talk about 8K gaming, it's not something you're going to get on Day 1, if ever. As my colleague Geoff Morrison points out in his excellent explainer here, higher frame rates and variable refresh rates are more important to a good gaming experience.
A radically new controller
The DualSense controller is bold but minimalistic, with the retro-futurism of a Space: 1999 prop mixed with a killer-robot Ghost in the Shell vibe. While the new Xbox controller is a modestly modified take on the classic Xbox game pad, the PS5 controller has evolved far beyond the PS4 version, in both design and functionality.
The biggest improvements are the adaptive triggers (which can offer variable resistance, as if you're being asked to squeeze and break a glass object), built-in mic and stronger haptic effects. My colleague Mark Serrels put it best: "I reckon the controller is a game changer and, so far, has done more to sell me on the PS5 than anything else I've messed about with."
The preloaded Astro's Playhouse game is a well-thought-out platformer, as well as a fantastic demo kit for how much a controller can influence a game. It whirs, kicks, shakes, rumbles and kicks out its own sound effects. A built-in mic lets you literally blow into the controller to perform tasks.
The larger central touchpad -- more prominent than the one found on the PS4 DualShock controller -- might give that feature more ways to be useful on games and apps, but so far most of what I've done is swiped left to open Miles Morales' smartphone.
Perhaps more important than all that, the power connection on the back is a USB-C plug. Take that, iPhone 12! (To really rub it in, it even has a 3.5mm headphone jack.)
But there are some things that don't quite feel right. The option and share buttons are tiny, and the option button -- which should provide contextual choices no matter where you are, often does nothing. The PlayStation button at the base of the controller is no longer a circle, as in the PS4 version. Instead, it's literally a cut-out PlayStation logo and much harder to hit by feel. By default, it kicks up a lower menu bar of choices, instead of taking you back to the home screen. That's a big difference from the old PS4 behavior, and I'm not sure which I like better yet.
Lastly, the Home button is right above a tiny button that turns the built-in microphone on and off, again too easy to hit accidentally while aiming for the Home button.
Source:CNET
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