written by Jih-Wei Peng
With the PS5 reveal event over, it’s time to take a look at the looks of the PS5 itself, because if you’re going to have a big ole’ block of hardware sitting in your living room you might as well make sure it’s something that helps tie the place together, right?
And as far as that goes unless you live in a Borg cube the PS5 wins out over the Xbox Series X hands down. The Xbox may be powerful, yet the nondescript big black brick design isn’t going to be winning too many home decorating awards anytime soon, while conversely, the bright white rounded sleekness of the PS5 feels almost like what might have happened if Steve Jobs designed a game console. On top of that, the PS5’s relative thinness and demonstrated ability to be laid on its side could potentially mean more flexibility in where it goes as opposed to the bulkier Xbox Series X console.
Of course, the PS5’s look isn’t necessarily for everyone – I had a hard time not seeing popped collars on the PS5’s wings, which I suppose might be a pro or a con depending on whether you’re buying one for your frat house or not. But whether you love it or hate it, you’re liable to have some kind of opinion about how it looks – and that’s a lot more than you can say for the resounding “meh” of the Xbox Series X.
But looks aren’t everything, and the reveal had a lot more to say about the PS5. In particular, Sony announced that the PS5 comes in two flavors – the standard and the digital edition, the main difference of which is simply that the digital edition doesn’t have an optical drive and needs to get all their games from the Internet. This is nothing new to PC gamers, of course – I honestly can’t remember the last time I brought a PC game in a box – but so far the last attempt at a digital console was the Xbox One S All-Digital, which hoped to offer a cheaper alternative to traditional consoles by cutting out the optical disc drive.
It floundered somewhat unfortunately because it came out sometime after the original Xbox One S WITH a disc drive, which meant that by the time the All-Digital came out retailers were willing to offload their remaining stocks of Xbox One S consoles at a deep enough discount to undersell the All-Digital. Still, the concept of reducing price and making a console more affordable by cutting out the optical disc drive and relying wholly on digital delivery is still an inherently good one, and by releasing alongside the traditional PS5 Sony can avoid the trap the Xbox One S All-Digital fell into.
Sony also announced a new stereo HD camera accessory for the PS5, which suggests future developments in VR. The existing PS4 Playstation Camera has a relatively low resolution which it uses to track the movement of the PSVR headset, which leads to significant tracking errors. The higher resolution promised by the new camera can potentially make for much smoother motion capture, and we already know the new camera is supposed to work alongside the existing PSVR1 setup.
One might question whether the camera might not simply be intended to make life easier for those trying to stream PS5 games from home, but the use of the stereo camera is significant – its use offers little benefit for streaming while improving depth perception, an important consideration for VR tracking. Sony’s offered no word yet on the existence of a PSVR2, but the new camera hardware certainly seems like they’re setting the stage.
There’s still no word yet from either Sony or Microsoft on what their new consoles will cost as both of them play chicken in an attempt to get the other to declare their price first, but one thing’s for sure – however much it may cost, the PS5 looks quite distinctive and knows it.