Having officially unveiled the design of the PlayStation 5 at its
recent ‘Future of Gaming’ event, Sony has also unveiled several upcoming PS5
games. Now that we have all the specs as well as the design of both the
PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X, barring price and release date, this is
the time we should make a deeper plunge into its specifications!
Both Sony and Microsoft’s upcoming consoles can be placed vertically
or horizontally. However, the Xbox Series X has a more symmetrical design as
compared to the PS5’s rectangular form factor. While the PlayStation 5 looks
better from a gaming standpoint, the Xbox Series X will surely blend more
easily into someone’s home entertainment setup.
Then comes the size factor. Both these consoles are much bigger than
any of their predecessors. The primary reason for the size of the two consoles
is cooling. Both gaming consoles are capable of 4K gaming at 120fps, real-time
ray tracing, and 8K gaming, and to achieve such levels of performance, the
machine will require adequate cooling to ensure no CPU and GPU throttling!
The Xbox Series X has a slight advantage on the CPU front with
higher clock speeds. The Xbox’s GPU also features more Compute Units and
TFLOPs, which in theory should give it an edge in performance. However, Sony’s
SSD is one of the biggest highlights of the PS5, and one should expect faster
load and boot times. So both the consoles are going to be power packed!
And about the backward compatibility, this is an area where
Microsoft holds a considerable advantage. The Xbox Series X will feature
backward compatibility with all previous generation titles, dating back to the
original Xbox. The PlayStation 5 will only support most of the 4,000+ PS4
titles.
The Xbox Series X controllers feature minor changes in ergonomics, a
new share button, a USB-C connection and a disc-like hybrid D-pad. Sony, on the
other hand, ditches its redesigned DualSense controller. Apart from the
two-tone design and bulkier form factors, there are quite a few noteworthy
additions on the PS5 controller. DualSense has a built-in mic, headphone jack,
a revamped ‘Share’ button, improved haptics, adaptive L2 and R2 triggers and
the USB-C connection. Do the PS4 controllers work on PS5? That is yet to be
ascertained, but Microsoft has already confirmed that older Xbox One
controllers will also work on the Xbox Series X.
