The PlayStation 4 is the other next generation console released to tempt you before Christmas. Released slightly before the Xbox One, Sony’s offering is more focused on games than the Xbox and has no goal other than to deliver the best games possible for your money.
The PlayStation 4 design is evolution rather than revolution. It shares many design cues with the PlayStation 3 and we’re happy with that. It’s slim, sleek and doesn’t take up much space. The asymmetrical design has a distinctly sloped profile. The front shows a slot-loading Blu-Ray drive and two USB ports for controllers. Other than that it’s featureless. Once you turn it on, a blue line illuminates on top. The design is minimalist, industrial even, but that’s what we want. No distractions, just the promise of power.
That power is delivered by some impressive PlayStation 4 hardware. Like the Xbox One, the PlayStation 4 has gone mainstream with its component choices. It uses the same AMD Jaguar processor as the Xbox, clocked at a slightly slower 1.6GHz. It also features a Radeon 7000-series GPU and 8Gb of GDDR5 RAM. The PS4 also has a 500Gb hard drive which can be upgraded to solid state without voiding the warranty for a little extra performance.
Sony doesn’t have Kinect – instead, it has the PlayStation camera, for which you have to pay extra. It’s nowhere near as usable or as powerful as Kinect and there are hardly any games that use it as yet, so it’s utility is limited.
The OS behind the PlayStation 4 is bespoke. It’s also powerful, intuitive and a nice place to be. The UI plays soothing music, is responsive and logically laid out, and gets you where you need to go without any fuss. It’s similar to that of the PlayStation 3, so will be completely familiar to upgraders.
The PlayStation Network is still front and centre and navigation is much more games-focused than the Xbox One UI.
PlayStation has always been about games and the PlayStation 4 is no different. While there are attempts to bring music and video onto the console, this is secondary to the gaming experience. It’s just a shame that the launch line-up wasn’t a little better as right now, the Xbox One has far more games to play and things to do. Once more games are released and launch day glitches are patched out, the battle will really begin.
Jesmond Darmanin is a technology enthusiast who has his own blog at www.itnewsblog.com.