Review: Sony PlayStation 5 is a next-generation games console
The PS5 essentially brings the PC gaming experience to living rooms, alongside the simplicity and ease of access to a console.
There’s been lots of excitement around the upcoming Sony PlayStation 5 gaming console – to the point where the launch day consoles sold out online across the world within minutes.
Sony has been playing its cards relatively close to its chest in the pre-launch period when it comes to revealing the features and experiences the PlayStation 5 will offer. I have now had the chance to fully review the PS5 and I can confirm it is indeed the truly next-generation console Sony promised.
There are two versions of the PlayStation 5: the “standard” version, which includes an optical disc drive/4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray player (RRP $749), and an “all-digital” version which is otherwise identical but lacks the disc drive (RRP $599).
The review unit provided by Sony has the disc drive and the first thing that’s apparent is how large it is. It’s 39cm x 8cm x 26cm and weighs 4.5kg. It’s a lot of console, both in size and potential.
From a design perspective, it looks like something you’d expect to see in a sci-fi movie, with sleek white panels, contrasting black central unit, and a curving style to the plates.
It’s stylish and would fit well in modern living rooms, but its size means finding space for it might be a challenge for some people, although the unit can be set up horizontally or vertically to help with this. It also puts out a lot of heat from its rear, so wherever it goes will need plenty of ventilation.
The PlayStation 5 is powered by an AMD Ryzen Zen 2 eight-core processor, with 16GB RAM and a AMD Radeon RDNA 2-based graphics processing unit with ray-tracing capabilities which can output at native 4K resolution and upscale to 8K resolution. In other words, there’s a lot under the bonnet.
The unit has an 825GB solid state drive (SSD) which means the launch and boot-up time is incredibly fast – from a cold boot (unit totally switched off) to login screen was a mere 23 seconds . Launching games is similarly rapid; it took an average of 30 seconds to go from launch to title screen across the range of games I tested.
The new PlayStation 5 DualSense wireless controller is a particular highlight, not just because of its spaceship aesthetic but because it comes with some genuinely innovative features, notably the haptic feedback (which goes far beyond the standard vibration of most controllers) and the resistance-adjustable triggers, along with a microphone. It’s very comfortable to hold and ergonomic as well, and it charges its internal battery via a USB-C cable.
It’s worth noting PlayStation 4 controllers (including some of the aftermarket controllers) will work for playing PlayStation 4 games on the PlayStation 5. I tested it with a standard PS4 controller as well as an Astro C40 TR controller and they both worked without any hassles at all – but they will not work with dedicated PS5 games at present.
The next-generation controller is joined by a range of official peripherals, including an HD camera, media remote and headset, but I have not had the chance to review any of those yet.
One of the challenges I have faced in reviewing the new console is a lack of PS5 specific games. I’ve only had access to two designed-for-PlayStation 5 games – Astro’s Playroom and Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Both games looked amazing and played really well and gave an excellent insight into what we can expect, once the new generation of games gets properly underway. It would have been nice to have a few other titles available at launch too.
The other games I have played are previous-generation titles such as Ghost of Tsushima and God of War and Uncharted: Lost Legacy, all of which look amazing but it’s not “trade in your PS4 and buy a PS5 right away” levels of amazing.
Having said that, it was very obvious by the end of the previous generation that the PlayStation 4 was at the absolute limit of what it could handle. When playing the most recent games, the unit’s fans going into overdrive like a 747 on takeoff was a running joke among gamers. The PlayStation 5 has no issues at all with that.
Whether it was running Ghost of Tsushima (the last PS4-exclusive game to be released) or an older classic like Uncharted 4, the PlayStation 5 is whisper-quiet and doesn’t miss a beat.
It is clear the PlayStation 5 is a significant leap forward in gaming technology and is a powerful and capable gaming platform. It essentially brings the PC gaming experience (high resolution, smooth frame rates) to living rooms, alongside the simplicity and ease of access to a console.
One disappointing factor was that there was no automatic importing of saved games. I could download games I already owned from the PlayStation store, but if I wanted to pick up where I left off with them, I would have to re-plug in my PlayStation 4, copy the saved game files onto a USB stick or external storage drive, unplug the PlayStation 4, plug the PlayStation 5 back in, then manually copy the saved game files onto the system.
This is in stark contrast to the cloud based system Microsoft offers in the Xbox Series X and Series S; saved games are stored online and automatically download to the console when the games are transferred to the new system.
The PlayStation 5 can play most of the PlayStation 4 games – and certainly all the popular ones. PlayStation 4 games kept on disc work normally once copied to the PlayStation 5 SSD. I tested this with several titles including Assassin’s Creed: Origins and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
My initial thought is that the PlayStation 5’s big advantage is its unique controller. It has the potential to (if you will excuse the tired cliche) be a game changer, provided developers take full advantage of what it offers (the PS4 controller, for example, had a speaker built into it that was rarely used).
The PlayStation 5 is powerful next-generation console, but it will be some time before we see it flexing its muscles and showing us its full capabilities. I have no doubt we’ll see amazing games coming to the platform once game developers start building games purely with the PS5 in mind.
Sony has a well-deserved reputation for making stellar exclusive games and when you combine that talent with the hardware capabilities of the PlayStation 5, there’s a lot to be excited about and look forward to.
The Sony PlayStation 5 launches in Australia on Thursday, November 12, 2020.
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