Congratulations to those fortunate enough to secure a PS5 this year. Due to Covid-19 getting your hands on one has been nothing short of an consumer arms race. With very impressive specs, a sleek design, and a whole slew of other new and exciting features, I’ll break down everything you need to know about Sony’s latest next-gen console.

Right off the bat Sony is offering two variants. A Digital Edition PS5 for $399.99 and a 4K Blu-Ray Edition for $499.99. The obvious difference between them being price and lack of a disc-drive.

Performance wise Sony has opted for an AMD Zen 2 CPU along with a custom AMD RDNA 2 GPU boasting 10.28 TFLOP’s and 16GB DDR6 RAM. As for storage you won’t be needing an external drive so soon with an 825GB custom SSD. While it’s not a massive amount of space it’s enough at least for Call of Duty : Warzone to be happy. Sony’s custom NVME HD is something a bit magical itself as Sony went above and beyond to ensure it’s requirements were met in delivering players a seamless, lag-free, near-zero load time experience.

Although you won’t be able to increase the storage initially, Sony is already working on plans to address this in the future as noted by Sony’s lead system architect Mark Cerny.

The PS5 overall has a very sleek design. There is no shortage of stylish vents to ensure all those beefy components have breathing room, and the vertical stand makes it very pleasing to look at from nearly every angle.

On the PS5’s face there are two USB ports – One A, one C. On the back you have two USB-A (3.0), an HDMI, and Ethernet. In addition to the wireless 802.11AX Wi-Fi.

Full Technical Specs –

ALL NEW DUAL SENSE CONTROLLER

No question about it, the new PS5 controller is very good looking. It’s comfortable. Utilizes a USB-C port. Naturally wireless. Most impressive though is the all new DualSense feature. In short, DualSense is two new features which completely change the way you interact and respond to your gaming environment.

By providing enhanced controller rumble vibrations to feel anything from weapon recoil to tires over gravel. Adaptive triggers offer a new immersive way to provide force-feedback similarly to pushing the brakes in a real car or increasing the amount of tension on a bow. There’s also a built-in microphone and headset jack on the controller. Many of the other features are carried over from it’s predecessor but all-in-all this new controller design technology will change the way you play and experience games. In a good way no doubt.

PULSE 3D HEADSET

Sony’s Pulse 3D wireless headset is amazing. It’s not Bose or Bang and Olufsen amazing, but for the price and tech packed in there it’s a must have item. I’m tempted to wear one of these out in the real world though I’d rather not give away the fact I have a PS5 for obvious reasons.

All the audio controls you will need are planted conveniently on the headset. It sports a USB-C port, dual noise-cancelling microphone, and it’s relatively light weight. Includes a wireless adaptor that connects to one of the PS5’s USB ports. This can also be used on Windows PC or Mac in addition to PS4. Not to mention it’s extremely comfortable. After several hours playing Godfall I nearly forgot it was there.

Overall the PS5 looks and feels great thus far and is shaping up quite nicely. The new UI takes a bit of a learning curve to adjust but that’s expected with all things new. There are however some small, and I do mean small nuanced issues.

Setup for example – If you are migrating from PS4 and planning to trade it in or sell to a friend or third-party site. You might not want to get rid of it so soon. During setup to transfer your PS4 game save data your PS5 will need to be on the same network as your PS4. Otherwise you will redownload your PS4 games from PSN and voila zero save data. To my surprise after installing FFVII Remake and firing up this brand new console eager to check out the performance only to find “New Game”, the only option available.

Sony has ensured backwards compatibility for most PS4 games and that “99% of the 4,000+ games available on PS4 will be playable on PS5.” Sony has also promised that the PS5’s “Game Boost” will help to increase frame rates on some of the predecessors titles. That sounds good and all but Sony also says that there may be some PS4 games that “may exhibit errors or unexpected behavior” on PS5. Now this isn’t exactly a deal breaker by any means but it’s just something to keep in mind the next time you ask yourself “Why does my PS4 game not work as well on PS5?”

There are also reports of PS5’s bricking and corrupting due to external HD’s with PS4 / PS5 game save data. I’m sure this will be corrected in an update but still I would hate to be in a position of enjoying my new console only for it to turn into a fancy coaster due to game save data on an external HD. As with all new products there’s a margin of fault and at the moment it doesn’t appear as if the majority are experiencing this.

Still. If you find yourself in a position to pick one up. Do it. You won’t regret it! The future is here and it is quite nice!