PlayStation Explains Why the PS5 is Huge - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 September 2020 / 9,165 Views
Last week Sony Interactive Entertainment unveiled their next generation console, the PlayStation 5. While they showcased the console, they did not provide exact dimensions for the console. Fans using the disc drive and USB have been able to get a rough idea for the size of the console, and it isn't small.
One of the renders (shown below) shows how much larger the PS5 is compared to the launch PS4, and how it is even larger than the PS3.
Matt MacLaurin, the vice president of UX Design at PlayStation, via his LinkedIn page discussed why the PS5 has to be so large and it comes to the power of the console and the ability to keep the console from overheating.
"I’m really impressed by this design – however, in today’s times, people seek portability and convenience. The performance in the PS4 was amazing. Why make the new product bigger and bulkier?," asks one fan.
"Thermals," explained MacLaurin. "This gen is little supercomputers. While the 7nm process delivers amazing heat performance for the power, the power is very extreme."
"This tech is still so fresh it throws a lot of heat so we need room to dissipate," he added in another reply.
"As we say in the industry, 'this design has a strong opinion,' so it’s okay if not everyone loves it," said MacLaurin. Customization with special editions will be beyond anything seen before. Someone mocked up a wooden one on Reddit and it look[ed] crazy good."
The PlayStation 5 will launch in Holiday 2020. The exact release date and price point have yet to be revealed.
Thanks VG247.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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If the console will be almost silent then I don't care too much about the size.
Exactly, people complained about noise and heat so they put in a better cooling solution to hopefully solve both which made the console bigger.
Agreed, I also don't care how it looks, i care about the games
Size is part of how the console looks. I said i don't care about that, so stop being a little bitch. If you didn't like my comment, you didn't have to read it.
Myself I don't even care much about noise. As long as the console is reliable and have the games I want I have no problem.
Note: khotboat was moderated.Keep it civil.
Only alongside the PS3 Phat do I realise how mammoth this console is.
Okay the PS5 looks extremely ugly laid down.. When standing up, it looks light years better. Also it seems it was designed to be a Tower.
Yeah, but it definitely needs to be able to lay down for practicality’s sake.
Sony will do what they always do and release a slim version later on.
Don't use the super computing angle again Sony.
It doesn't have Petaflops worth of compute or Terabytes worth of Ram or Petabytes worth of storage. A console will never be a "super computer".
Seems they may have taken some of the lessons they learned with the Playstation 4 in order to take the cooling a step up, which is a good thing as thermals, noise and reliability should all be improved.
I'm gonna need a bigger shelf...
If its silent and stays cool I really don't care how big it is. People act like they're going to be playing this thing on the train.
Am I the only one that thinks maybe its that size,not because of the heat issues of ps4 ( I doubt it was a big issue considering my original base ps4 is quiet). I'm thinking maybe because of the system cpu always running at max clock frequency, to prevent overheating and getting 10 teraflops, they needed the unique cooling solution and bigger design.
Don't have to explain Sony, i have a strange fetish for big console. :)
I feel like so much of negative response never bothers to clarify or justify it's terms, and doesn't get beyond circular logic. People keep saying it's "big". AFAIK it doesn't seem more than 10% difference volumetrically. I'm not sure why Sony's design is mysterious or needs special explanation yet MS doesn't... when the volume is similar, and presumably the airflow as well.
Do we say a python is "bigger" than an elephant? Not really, because "big" doesn't normally refer to "just one single dimension" where a python may be longer than an elephant.
As far as problems "fitting" random living room spaces, the Xbox design seems likely to have just as much problems if not more, it can't fit in as narrow of vertical spaces, and on it's side will have trouble fitting in shelves with limited height as well. Those issues were discussed when it was revealed, yet now when it's the point of comparison VS Playstation they are "forgotten". In my experience if you are mounting it vertically, height isn't a constraint, and the size doesn't seem a problem on most shelves around TVs either (although Xbox's thickness may be on some shelves designed for DVD players).
All in all doesn't seem like major issue for either of them, but hey, if we gotta have bickerspam, we gotta have it...
Could have used the time to also give the dimensions. If it can be used sideways without extra expenses it will fit no problem.
Hopefully the Dualsense won't be the size of the Xbox Duke.
TLDR: Our cooling solution is crap.
Wait what? Surely if it was tiny you could argue it's not good?
I have a colossal air cooler in my PC that's ridiculous in size, and it does it's job very well, I genuinely don't understand your logic here, man
Are you venting or can you explain why it is crap ?
The volumetric posted here was 10% difference
And you know how the cooling of the PS5 was designed because?
Complains about the PS5 cooling system while having no idea what it is... Thumbs up.
Yep, 8 thumbs up sum for it, but we got 4 thumbs down sum for contesting his assumption. VGC is a funny place.
Hey seems like on volume XSX and PS5 are about the same, it is just that Xbox choose a more cubic approach so it seems more compact.
They are not equal on Volume, the PS5 is around 30 percent bigger than the XSX.
That would be an example of entitlement. Buy or don’t buy. Choices are simple.
You really need them to explain why they didn't take portability into account? Its simple the console is meant to be portable. That's not one of their main objectives and never was. They need to focus on cooling as much as possible because of the design setup they have. So there was no reason to think about portability if a portable console is what you're looking for take a look and see if the Xbox series X is small enough or even better a nintendo switch. That's my favorite portable console by far.
I agree with you on they not answering what they enumerated themselves on this. But we had another report that was more direct. They wanted bolder and daring design for PS5 and also that looked in the future. That is the reason for the design choice, and now on this report you have the reason for the size.
What exactly is wrong with the design? Looks too much like a conventional console, rather than a massive brick that will be more difficult to place? As time goes on the methods of cooling hardware, while still being cost effective, are requiring bigger solutions. People wanted a quiet, yet powerful console? Well here it is.
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