PlayStation 5 review: more power, less noise, no loading screens and an amazing controller

• Controversy.PT works with PS5, but you won't be able to play it

• Xbox. Xbox Series X analysis: Microsoft takes a firm step without leaving its comfort zone

When you first turn on your

, everything seems normal: you have to connect it to the Internet, update it, transfer the save data and games from the PS4, etc.

But when you click on the icon of the small game that is installed on the console,

, then you realize that this is a new generation console.

It is

that the

has a quirky design that almost no one liked.

Earn a lot in person, I must say, and I understand that

has made a console that is almost half a meter high so that it ventilates very well and does not make noise or playing the most demanding video games, something that was a serious problem with PS4.

But take my advice: it doesn't matter how it looks when you start to

and that this silly-looking game makes you feel like a little kid with a new toy in your hands.

SSD almost eliminates loading screens

Because a few seconds after clicking on the icon of a game, you are playing.

I am not exaggerating the least:

, so much so that there is no equivalent on computers right now.

And no, Xbox Series X does not have one that fast either: the PS5 transmits data twice as fast, which at the moment does not mean much, but it may make a big difference in the future.

Thanks to this hard drive, you can change worlds in Astro's Playroom instantly.

You can die and

.

You can go from one game to another in just 10 seconds.

Heck, if I timed how long it took to turn on the console and access a game, in this case Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (which from now on I'll just call 'Spider-Man: Miles Morales) and it didn't come out of My amazement: 27 seconds from power-up until I was able to move around New York City.

With

, the wonder of the

is similar, but with

this feeling goes a little further.

The difference in speed is noticeable when you run a new game, although Xbox Series X has the Quick Resume tool to load the games also very quickly.

Although

does not have this mode of operation, it does not matter: the games run from scratch almost as fast.

PS5: faster, but less powerful than Xbox Series X

Do you like controversies?

Because this is the hot nail that sick fans of both consoles grapple to when arguing about them: while the

has a hard drive twice as fast as the

, this one has a somewhat faster processor, running at a rate fixed and a GPU with 11% more theoretical power.

Will the players notice these differences at all?

I think that the technological difference between hard drives is very important so that this does not end up noticing any difference, but at the time of use of both consoles, something that I have done and the twitterers of each company, no;

I have not noticed an amazing difference even in the graphic quality.

It is too early to make this comparison, anyway.

When the first big exclusives of both consoles and the first third-party games developed just for them are on the market, we will know how much there is different between the two.

For now, complicated.

The disk space problem

The

high-speed SSD hard drive

, but when

comes to shove, that's

.

It is quite low, given that a current game can weigh between 50GB and 100GB.

Sony has a solution for this: you can buy an external hard drive on your own and connect it via USB to the console to play PS4 games ...

With PS5 games, it would be best to

using an internal hard drive that can be installed in a dedicated expansion bay on the console.

The problem?

That won't be possible until Sony releases an update in the future, as PlayStation Chief Engineer Mark Cerny has confirmed to The Verge.

So until further notice, the PS5's hard drive space will be quite limited.

Even with this shit, being able to buy a hard drive from another company, and not an official one whose price may never be lowered, seems to me a better position.

I prefer what Sony has raised, with its delay in launching it, than what Microsoft has done.

My recommendation: if you have

, install the PS4 games there, which will load more or less the same as installed on the hard drive if they are not patched to take advantage of the extra power of PS5, something quite common right now.

And if you play

, well good luck: it will take up a third of the space on your

disk

.

My consolation is that it seems that the size required by PS5 games, despite having higher quality assets, is not that high.

, for example.

DualSense, the most revolutionary PlayStation controller

The sense of speed of SSD is soon replaced by the feel of the controller in the hands.

Finally, PlayStation has a controller that can compete in comfort and robustness with the official Xbox controller.

.

But the most important thing about the

is something that I did not expect: its vibration motors, or rather, the haptic motors.

At first, I thought it would be something more like the vibration of the iPhone, which is more precise and smooth, but that's it.

How wrong I was.

The

can mimic the feel of rain on your hands by perfectly mixing small vibrations and the sound of rain through the speaker.

The conjunction of sound and vibration is key, and you realize this when you play

.

The vibration is so precise that each surface change brings a different vibration to the controller, be it ceramic, sand, water or grass that Astro is stepping on.

The DualSense's haptic motor

also works in conjunction with the triggers, with incredible results.

Triggers may lock up and require you to put more pressure on them with your finger to shoot or grab or to break something in the game.

, too.

Of course, this ability of the DualSense depends largely on what the developers program in the game to make use of it.

If you want to push yourself,

.

If not, then it will be the same as always, what we have known for years.

I'm afraid that, barring the Sony exclusives, most studios will end up making basic use of DualSense, and that's a shame.

A new interface

The third novelty of PlayStation 5 is the interface, which

.

If Xbox is continuity in this sense, PlayStation is almost total rupture.

Except for the configuration menus, which are simply better organized;

and the management of chats, which is the same as in version 8.0 of PS4;

everything else has changed a lot on PS5.

While playing the game,

takes you to a submenu where there are the shortcuts to chats, remote control battery, options to broadcast, turn off the console ... practically everything important about the console for its operation is in this menu of the bottom of the screen.

Above this 'toolbar', there are the

, which are cards displayed very large where you are told how much you need to complete a trophy or which can include tips to overcome an area in which you stuck or to discover a collectible.

It's a way to make games easier for less skilled players, but the server has used it once to find an item.

And at the top of the interface, the typical collection of game and service icons, this time divided into two clear sections: the main one, with the

and the games installed on the console;

and secondary, with video consumer apps.

In general, and although I still find it difficult to get used to how it works, it is a much superior interface than the PlayStation 4, since you need to press fewer buttons to do things.

Games ... are not abundant either

As with Xbox Series X, PS5 comes to the market with few games of its own

, that is, with games that must demonstrate the graphics and performance capabilities of the new console.

Astro's Playroom is a very elaborate demo and a great introduction to the device.

SpiderMan: Miles-Morales is an improved version of a PS4 game.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure is a simple spin-off.

And

, while it looks wonderful and seems to further exploit the potential of the PS5, is a remake of a PS3 game.

Lying down is not exactly pretty ...

The start of this generation does not have big names that make it feel like there is an incredible graphic leap compared to the previous one ... but it

.

The era of great graphic advances is a thing of the past and now it advances in detail and in performance.

And the 3D sound of PS5?

Good question, because I have asked myself it too.

None of the games that I have been able to test are compatible with

.

And even if they were, I don't have a compatible headset.

There are too many unknowns surrounding how this technology that Sony promises to be revolutionary will work.

After testing how well the DualSense works, I am more looking forward to how the 3D Tempest works, but I still have many reservations.

That is why all these games that I mention work like a charm.

has minimal loading times and runs at

with hardly any loss of graphic quality.

And if you activate the 4K / 30fps

mode

, the result is amazing too because, when you put next to the PS4 Spider-Man, it looks like a game that is not well lit.

These performance improvements also carried over to PS4 games, which even without being improved through updates, worked better on PS5.

The loading times for Bloodborne, which unfortunately continues to perform poorly, were dramatically shorter.

.

God of War, too.

Destiny 2 now loads menus instantly and barely has loading time between planets.

And so on a very long etcetera.

As in Xbox Series X, the cables will be seen less than in the previous generation

If you had pending accounts with a game of the PS4 and Xbox One generation, it is clear that their new versions, PS5 and Xbox Series X, will allow you not only to play them, but to do so in much better conditions.

For the first time,

and will allow many people to resell their old consoles to pay for new ones or to have one less junk at home.

A new furniture for TV ... and also a TV

I am not ashamed to admit that, taking advantage of the fact that I have moved house and that the new consoles were launched, I have bought a new furniture for the television thinking that the Xbox Series X would enter, something simple;

and the PS5, something more difficult.

Sony has designed a huge, very large console

with squishy spoilers that surround the black body of the console and that not everyone will like.

while the PS5 breaks many of the aesthetic rules that had determined its predecessors.

Unfortunately, the furniture has not arrived yet ...

Although the console can be placed horizontally and vertically using the base included in the box, lying down is horrible.

It seems like a device designed to stand up ... but of course, it is almost half a meter:

.

That does not go anywhere and I understand that this is going to annoy people a lot.

In return, the size of the console

, which means that it is

.

But it is possible that, if you place it under the TV, it will cover half of the screen.

PS5 games that run at 120hz

• Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

• Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition

• Dirt 5

• Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom

• Rainbow six siege

Speaking of televisions:

, which allows 4K resolutions at 120hz refresh rates as long as the game is designed to work that way.

If you plan to buy a new TV in the future, be careful that it is compatible with HDMI 2.1, because it is important.

It is a real shame

, as Xbox Series X does. The market for monitors at that resolution is very interesting and could have been a middle ground for players who do not play on television, but rather in the same place where they have their computer.

Why has Sony decided that PS5 will only work in 720p, 1080p and 4K natively?

No idea.

If you are going to play on a PS5 monitor, you are going to have to wait for the 4K monitors with HDMI 2.1 to launch and pay a lot of money for them, as they are still a novelty.

PS5 does look like a new console

In this first moment of the generation, with

, the lack of great games;

I think I prefer the PlayStation 5 for one simple reason: it looks like a real new video game console.

This is good and bad, watch out, and I admit that other players may see it just the other way around than me.

Xbox Series X is continuous and

.

That looks cool to me.

You can be very lazy and prefer your competition.

Nothing happens.

What comes in the box of PS5?

• PS5 console (digital or with disc, as you choose)

• DualSense remote

• HDMI 2.1 cable

• Power cord

• Support to put it vertically or lying down (the one in the photo)

• Manuals and guarantees

But as I said in yesterday's review of Xbox Series X, the perfect console for you is the one that suits your needs.

?

Both game consoles are so similar that, in the end, you can only be guided by these few differentiating facts.

What makes PS5 stand out is that

than ever when you play, not only because of the control, but because of the sensations it transmits with the vibration.

After the months, we will know if

;

or if the PS5's much faster hard drives play a role in how third-party games run, but for the moment, I can only say that both are outstanding machines that deliver on the promises that both Sony and Microsoft had made:

.

I have my reservations regarding the compatibility of SSDs to expand the internal space, something that Xbox Series X does much better;

and about 3D sound technology, but for now,

Full PS5 Specifications

Drop down

• CPU: AMD Zen 2 8-core 3.5 GHz (variable frequency)

• GPU: AMD RDNA 2 with 10.28 TFLOPs, 36 CUs at 2.23 GHz (variable frequency)

• RAM: 16 GB GDDR6 / 256-bit 448 GB / s.

• Video output: HDMI 2.1, resolutions up to 8K / 60fps (in video) or up to 4K / 120fps (in games)

• Optical drive: 4K UHD Blu-ray.

• Internal storage: 825GB proprietary SSD hard drive.

• Connectivity: USB 3.1 and USB-C 3.2 (front);

  USB 3.1 x2 (rear)

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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