Price and release date
The PS5 launched on November 12 in the U.S., and is coming to the U.K. and most other parts of the world on November 19. The standard PS5, which includes a 4K-Blu-ray drive, costs $499, while the PS5 Digital Edition goes for a cheaper $399, if you don’t mind going discless.
It’s worth noting the PS5 has been extremely hard to buy ever since pre-orders first went live earlier this year.
Design
It’s been discussed to death, but the PS5 is a truly gargantuan piece of machinery. Sony’s 15.4 x 10.2 x 4.1-inch console dwarfs pretty much any gaming system that’s come out in the past decade, including the PS4 Slim and the PS4 Pro. It’s also far bigger than its new next-gen rival in the Xbox Series X, and makes the Xbox Series S look like a children’s toy.
That massive chassis allows the PS5 to pump out some serious performance while staying mostly cool and quiet (which we’ll talk more about later), but the sheer size of the new PlayStation could be an issue for those with small entertainment areas.
Unless you plan on putting your PS5 on the floor, you’ll likely need a dedicated small table if you plan on standing it vertically. I was able to fit the PS5 in my entertainment center in a horizontal orientation, but just barely. As such, you’ll want to measure your available space before you set up a PS5 at home.
Speaking of orientation, the PS5 includes a detachable stand that allows you to position the massive console vertically or horizontally. The stand screws into the bottom of the console in vertical mode (the PS5 includes a screw, but no tool to screw it in), and clamps on to the PS5’s rear port area in horizontal mode.
It’d be nice if the PS5 included a tool for unscrewing the base, but I had an easy enough time using a coin to attach and remove it. The system stands up securely in vertical mode with the base attached, but I found the base to be far more finicky in horizontal orientation. It took me a few tries before I could get it to lay flat securely on the base. I eventually got the PS5 to sit still horizontally in my entertainment center, but the fact that the console slid off the base quite easily unless it was positioned just right gives me some pause.
Still, I’ll likely be keeping the PS5 in horizontal orientation for most of my time with it, simply because I’m worried about accidentally tipping over the insanely tall chassis while it sits on my table (especially when my hyperactive nephews are over).
The PS5’s eye-catching, futuristic aesthetic has been the subject of much debate ever since it was unveiled, and I still have mixed feelings about it. I find that the console looks like an unsightly, oversized cable modem when standing vertically, due to its pointy white side panels and the asymmetrical bulk added on by the Blu-ray drive.
But I’ve grown somewhat fond of how it looks sitting horizontally under my TV, where its curves and edges seem to shine more (even if it looks like a miniature Barclays Center). I also like the attractive LED status lights on each side of the interior, which is both slicker and more pronounced than the status light on the PS4. And the tiny, hidden PlayStation controller icons within the inner panels are a great extra touch. Love it or hate it, the PS5 is a system packed with attention to detail, and looks unlike any console we’ve seen before.
Ports and expansion
The PS5 has a fairly standard array of ports, complete with some welcome modern conveniences. You get a Hi-Speed USB Type-A port up front, as well as a USB Type-C SuperSpeed port. It’s nice to see a console finally feature USB-C connectivity out of the box, especially for connecting modern accessories and storage drives.
In the back, you’ll find two SuperSpeed USB-A ports, an Ethernet jack, an HDMI 2.1 port and an AC adapter. The PS5 has ditched the PS4’s optical audio port, which may be a bummer for folks with high-end audio devices with optical connections. However, some companies are already offering optical-to-HDMI splitters, such as Astro with its Astro A20headset.
If you want to expand on the PS5’s built-in 825GB of SSD storage, there’s a PCIe 4.0 M.2 expansion slot that you can access by opening up the console. Note that you’ll have to use certain PS5-certified SSDs that meet Sony’s bandwidth requirements, such as the Western Digital SN850. These drives won’t be supported until sometime after launch. The PS5 also works with standard external hard drives, but only for carrying over your digital PS4 games or save files.
Interface
The PS5 interface is a clean, attractive and snappy evolution of the PS4 software. Hopping in and out of games and navigating menus feels instantaneous, to the point where the PS4 menu now feels sluggish and cluttered by comparison. And while there are some features I’d like to see added to the PS5 interface, it introduces some exciting new ways to get to what you’re playing even faster.
The home screen will look familiar to PS4 owners, with a horizontal row of tiles that showcases your most recent games. When you highlight a game, that title’s art will take over the entire home screen while its music plays in the background, which is a neat aesthetic touch. There’s a handy Explore tab that shows news and updates, as well as a Game Library tab that allowed me to instantly start downloading my collection of PS4 titles. Much like on PS4, the PS5 lets you capture videos and screenshots, or stream to YouTube or Twitch with a quick tap of the Create button.
I like that the PS5 software looks clean overall, but I do wish there were an option for organizing your games into folders, like there is on PS4. And while it’s cool seeing the background adapt to whichever game you have highlighted, I’m surprised there’s no option to set custom wallpapers instead.
Longtime PS4 users will have to shake some muscle memory, as a tap of the PlayStation button now brings up a control center that lets you switch apps, view your friends, check notifications, monitor your controller’s battery life and more from the bottom of your screen.
Better yet, you can customize the control center to have quick access to features such as network settings, accessibility options and broadcast controls. It’s a big improvement from the PS4’s quick menu, which took up a far bigger chunk of the screen and wasn’t as snappy or customizable.
Snappy and clean software is great, but the PS5 interface really comes alive when you start playing a game. Tapping the PlayStation button while playing a PS5 game brings up the Activities menu, which shows information such as the current progress of your mission, a set of trophies you can go after, or a list of in-game activities that you can jump right into.
For example, I was able to dive into a series of side missions and challenges right from the Activities menu in Spider-Man: Miles Morales without having to actually find them in-game, saving me time I’d have to otherwise spend swinging around Manhattan. You can also access the Activities menu right from your Game Library before you even boot up a game, meaning I was able to hop right into a specific level in Astro’s Playroom without having to deal with any menus.
As someone who doesn’t always have a ton of free time, the ability to jump to a specific chunk of a game at a system level isn’t just appreciated — it’s downright revolutionary. While it may seem like a minor concession to some, the Activities menu could end up changing the way we play games, and I’m really eager to see how developers take advantage of it in the coming years.
My biggest gripe with the PS5 on a software level is that, unlike the Xbox Series X and S, Sony’s console doesn’t seem to be able to suspend multiple titles at once. While Xbox’s Quick Resume feature lets you seamlessly jump between half-a-dozen games while picking up right where you left off in each one, the PS5 requires you to boot up each game from scratch.
What’s more frustrating is that the console doesn’t warn you when your existing game will close in favor of a new one, which could lead to you losing unsaved progress. While the PS5’s load times are so fast that the lack of Quick Resume isn’t a huge issue, it’s a bummer that Sony’s console doesn’t have an answer to one of the Series X’s most convenient features.
DualSense controller
The PS5 DualSense controller just might be the most next-gen thing about Sony’s new console. The gamepad’s haptic feedback, adaptive triggers and built-in speaker work together brilliantly, creating a level of tactile immersion I’ve simply never experienced while playing a game before.
The DualSense especially shines in Astro’s Playroom, a free, pre-installed title built specifically to showcase what Sony’s new controller can do. In this colorful 3D platformer, you can feel and hear the subtle impact of grains of sand while walking through a storm, or experience a smooth gliding sensation when skating over ice, just to name a few examples. Everything from pulling on a rope to gliding around in a jetpack generates an extremely detailed level of force feedback. It’s the kind of thing you truly need to feel to believe.
The adaptive triggers are especially impressive, as they can become harder to actuate based on what’s happening in-game. For example, the triggers gave much more resistance when I was controlling my character in a spring-loaded jumpsuit, accurately replicating the feeling of pushing down on a spring and releasing it. Games can even take advantage of the DualSense’s built-in microphone, as I had to blow on the controller to move a platform of ice in Astro’s Playroom.
Sackboy: A Big Adventure also makes impressive use of Sony’s controller, as I could feel a sudden sense of resistance when walking through tall grass thanks to some steady haptic patterns. I felt vibrations moving through specific parts of the controller during cutscenes, and enjoyed the soft taps that accompanied Sackboy flailing his feet around while floating in the air. And in the sword-based combat of Godfall, I felt the triggers tense up to add extra weight to the feeling of slicing up enemies of heavy attacks.
When playing Spider-Man: Miles Morales, I felt subtle, but extremely nuanced, vibrations during cutscenes, as the controller would perfectly match the clinking of glasses or the distant stomps of Rhino’s feet with tactile feedback. I also appreciated the slight feeling of resistance when using the triggers to web-swing through Manhattan, as well as the soft buzz of electricity that played out of the speaker every time I charged up Miles’ Venom attacks.
Sony’s new controller packs a built-in microphone, which allows you to chat with friends when you don’t have a gaming headset handy. And it totally works in a pinch. I had an entire voice chat with my colleague Marshall who was also on his DualSense, and we were able to hear each other just fine through the controller’s built-in speaker. You’ll still probably want to use a dedicated headset to hear your game and chat audio during a competitive Call of Duty match, but the fact that you can talk to friends on PS5 without needing a headset is a great touch.
The DualSense already shows some incredible potential, but it’s only as good as the games that take advantage of it. While games like Astro’s Playroom, Spider-Man, Godfall and Sackboy do some exciting things with Sony’s gamepad, I’m curious to see how many developers fully tap into the DualSense’s unique features as more PS5 games show up.
Beyond its advanced haptics, the DualSense fares pretty well as a standard controller. It’s significantly bigger than the DualShock 4 gamepad, with a hefty feel, and a design that seems to take a page out of the Xbox Wireless Controller in terms of ergonomics. While the DualSense’s meatier grip feels satisfying to hold, I wish it were just a bit more compact, and found my hands getting cramped when playing more intense action games like Godfall and Devil May Cry 5.
The good news is that the DualSense’s buttons and triggers feel great during everyday gameplay. I had no issues doing my usual Mortal Kombat 11 combos thanks to the controller’s smooth D-pad and snappy face buttons. The thumbsticks and triggers felt responsive and accurate when I gunned down Rebels in Battlefront II. The touchpad is much bigger this time around, and I like that the built-in lightbar wraps around the center rather than being hidden at the top, as on the DualShock 4.
(story credits tom’s guide)
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