Big review of Sony PlayStation 5 - Comparison with PS4, Release date, Specifications

⇡#Appearance

On the Internet you can now easily find the work of designers and 3D modelers - futuristic and interesting versions of a hypothetical PlayStation 4, how we imagined the new generation device to be before its official announcement. In reality, everything turned out to be much simpler - the console looks very conservative and is most similar to the PlayStation 2. A small black box (smaller than the PS3 Slim), without visible buttons and protrusions, feels better in a horizontal position. The case can also be placed vertically without any problems, but for this it is better to get an additional stand, which will be available later.

On the front there are a couple of USB ports and a disc tray, on the back there are HDMI, LAN and S/PDIF connectors, and a jack for connecting a PlayStation Camera. There are no analogue interfaces.

Playstation 2 (PS2)

Playstation 2 had high expectations, and it fully met them.
Playstation dominated the market for many years and did not encounter serious competition until the advent of the sixth generation of consoles. This era began in Japan in 1998 with the release of the Sega Dreamcast, the first console to use the Internet. It even had an integrated web browser. Sega's success looked promising, with sales of 500,000 units in North America in its first two weeks in September 1999.

While the Dreamcast did a lot to repair Sega's then-faded reputation, it wasn't enough—especially after Sony announced the Playstation 2 at the Tokyo Game Show later that month. Sales of the Dreamcast began to decline, and on March 30, 2001, Sega discontinued production of the model.

The Playstation 2 had high expectations and lived up to them, reaching 150 million units sold by February 2011, just 10 years and 11 months after its original release in Japan in March 2000. And the ability to play games made for the previous generation console on it made the transition smoother for fans of the first PS.

That's not to say the PS2 didn't have its flaws. The original set of games wasn't a huge hit. It had errors reading discs - sometimes so often that some customers even sued Sony. But as the only truly cool new console, it completely ruled the 2000 sales season. In addition, this set-top box could play DVDs.

Nintendo's cheaper GameCube, as well as Microsoft's original Xbox, did not arrive in North America until November 2001. Sony has lowered the price of the PS 2 to $199 to be the same as the GameCube. By 2002, Sony realized that online gaming, such as the explosive hit Xbox Halo, was a huge draw, and began to include AC adapters in their products. PS2 production continued until January 2013.

⇡#What's inside?

Those who like to build powerful computers every year and a half are unlikely to be impressed by the technical characteristics of the console. However, it should be noted here that the PlayStation 4, like any other game console, is a product for the widest audience, so it simply cannot cost several thousand dollars. And for a device that costs 500 conventional units (compare with similar system units), everything here is even very interesting:

Sony abandoned the unique processor architecture: the unusual Cell in the PlayStation 3 can hardly be called a successful experience in all respects - there were too many problems with porting games and development using non-standard means. PS4 is based on an AMD hybrid processor with x86-64 architecture, which, in addition to the computing cores, has a memory controller and a graphics core built into it.

Yes, in terms of architecture, the new console is not much different from a regular computer - and numerous developers, judging by the loud statements in the news, are only too happy about this. There is also a negative aspect: on the PlayStation 4 it is impossible to implement backward compatibility of games with the PS3 in hardware, but Sony plans to solve this problem in the (im)foreseeable future with the help of cloud services. It’s not for nothing that the Japanese bought Gaikai at one time.

Food for thought for those readers who are still skeptical about the technical data of the set-top box. The predecessor had only 512 MB of RAM, which even by the standards of 2006 seemed a rather modest figure. At the same time, the PS3 had Uncharted, God of War 3, Beyond: Two Souls, The Last of Us and other incredibly beautiful exclusives that simply would not run on a computer with similar characteristics. Therefore, yes - it’s all about optimizing games for specific hardware, and you shouldn’t even try to compare the contents of the console with the contents of your system unit.

Sony has slashed the price of PlayStation 4 by as much as half worldwide

Miscellaneous 09.16.2020 | 0

The less any electronic device costs, the more people will be able to afford it for obvious reasons. This, of course, is not even remotely surprising, because hardly anyone wants to once again spend their money on something on which they can easily and simply save it without unnecessary complications. Back at the end of 2013, the current generation of game consoles went on sale all over the globe, and one of these was a model such as the Sony PlayStation 4. It received powerful technical equipment, a modern appearance and other features, due to which it succeeded extremely well. sold for many years to come. However, time has taken its toll and it has become outdated.

This game console, even if it is still sold on store shelves as the latest, is already very outdated by modern standards. At the same time, what is most interesting is that Sony continues to sell PS4 at approximately the same price at which it was sold at the start of sales many years ago. In practice, this means that just as everyone was offered to buy this console for $400, they are doing it now, even though it’s already 2020. However, fewer people are willing to pay that much for this outdated console, so demand for it is rapidly declining, but the manufacturer must keep the PlayStation 4 up to date at least until the end of 2021, and possibly longer.

Against the backdrop of this state of affairs, in order to maintain demand for the PS4, very soon, perhaps at the end of September, Sony will hold a special event, during which it will tell a lot of new things about its future game console, and at the same time, in addition, will announce that it will now be possible to buy a PlayStation 4 on much more favorable terms than before. Well-known insider Michael Pachter reported that this would happen. According to him, the Japanese corporation will halve the price of its branded console, due to which it will drop in price to $200 dollars, becoming much cheaper and more accessible than ever before this very moment. Such an event, without any doubt, is guaranteed to pleasantly please all users.

With a price tag of $200, which is obvious, there are many who want to buy this game console, especially since video games will almost certainly also become cheaper, and at the same time, various accessories. Due to this, all those who have long been considering the idea of ​​​​buying a Sony PlayStation 4 game console will finally be able to fulfill their long-time dream without unnecessary difficulties and difficulties, especially since many amazing exclusive ones have been released for the PS4 over almost seven years of its presence on the market. games, including God of War (2018), Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Bloodborne, Dreams, Marvel's Spider-Man, The Last of Us: Remastered, The Last of US: Part II, inFamous: Second Son, Gran Turismo Sport, “Killzone: Captured by Dusk”, The Order: 1886, Days Gone, Driveclub and many others.

Earlier it turned out that the Sony PlayStation 5 game console will force all users to throw the PlayStation 4 out of the window.

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⇡#Gamepad

Sony has always taken a very conservative approach to the design of gamepads - the DualShock 3 looked not much different from the controller of the first PlayStation. But the DualShock 4 is a huge step forward; The device is simply incredibly comfortable and feels good in the hands. It seems that the engineers have calculated the ideal weight and the most correct arrangement of buttons and sticks, which is suitable for palms of any size.

The basic concept remains the same, although there are several important innovations. Firstly, a touch area has appeared in the center of the top panel, although the degree of its functionality is still in question. For example, in Killzone: Shadow Fall you can use the touchpad to give commands to your drone partner (and this is not very convenient); in other games, developers will probably put some “stroking” puzzles or QTE scenes on this touch area.

Secondly, a Share button has appeared, allowing you to upload “live” video from games and broadcast through streaming services. This button, like the symmetrically located Options button, is not very convenient to press - it is too tight and requires some effort.

Thirdly, on the front side of the case there is an LED indicator with four color modes. The manufacturer intended this so that the gamepad could be identified by color if, for example, several people are playing. Although Sony left the decision to the discretion of the developers - in the same Killzone, the color of the diode indicates the character’s health status.

The controller also houses a headset slot and speaker; gyroscopes, accelerometer, vibration motors - everything, of course, is also in place.

A non-removable 1000 mAh battery provides only 7-8 hours of gaming without recharging; this can fairly be called a weak indicator - for comparison: the DualShock 3 lasted 30 hours. It looks like you'll have to sit on the wire forever.

In addition, it should be noted that the PlayStation 4 does not support predecessor gamepads and other third-party peripherals; the only exception is the PS Move motion controller.

Despite a number of shortcomings (small battery, awkward clicks on Share and Options, controversial touchpad), the DualShock 4 is the best controller made by Sony. And one of the most convenient gamepads in general is one of those that we held in our hands.

⇡#Turning on the console and operating system

When the PS4 first started, it requested an update - it took only 15 minutes, although before that there was a problem with Wi-Fi: the console did not want to make friends with one of the routers. The problem is purely individual, but the PS3 also had a number of difficulties with wireless home networks - some games refused to work over the Internet until the router with port forwarding was properly (and, I must say, not entirely obvious) configured.

The logic for the arrangement of objects on the home screen has changed (although not much), but the most important thing here is that the operating system has become truly multitasking - you can “minimize” the game and go wander in the browser or in the PlayStation Store. True, it’s still impossible to run two games at the same time - even a “big” one from the disk and some downloadable trifle, which is a pity.

Another nice thing is that the PS4 can quickly enter sleep mode and “wake up” relatively quickly (in about 10 seconds). However, games that are paused now still close automatically, which somewhat contradicts the very idea of ​​​​instant activation of the device - Sony promised to fix this by releasing a corresponding patch. But in sleep mode, the console can already download content and recharge gamepads.

But the PS Store is still the same slow. Long loading of pictures, annoying freezes when switching between sections - in general, nothing has changed. But finally the download queue is working properly - the ability to set a large amount of content for download, which will be saved to the local disk in the background - even if you are playing at the same time. And by the way, the download speed from PSN is still very pleasing - but, probably, the only thing is that at the time of testing the full-scale launch of the system in Europe had not yet taken place, and the servers were relatively free.

The user profile is more convenient and functional - the PSN account is easily linked to Facebook and Twitter, and the statistics of prizes, saved content and everything else are displayed very clearly. There is also an indispensable browser, but, in general, there is nothing to tell about it.

The device is very quiet, but noticeably heats up at the back - the manufacturer previously indicated that the console should not be placed close to the wall. Games are installed almost entirely on the hard drive, so there are almost no calls to optical media - this, of course, adds speed and desired silence. Although the data volumes of individual games are impressive - up to 50 gigabytes, so active users will run out of free space very quickly. They also wrote terrible things on the Internet about hours-long installation of games - in our case, nothing like that happened; The 41GB Killzone: Shadow Fall installed in about half an hour.

Don't forget that PlayStation 4 is not only a game console, but also a media player. The device plays movies from DVD and Blu-Ray discs and works with popular Western services, most of which, unfortunately, are not available in Russia. There is no DLNA support at launch, and it is unknown whether it will appear in the future.

What are the PlayStation 4 revisions?

The PlayStation 4 has three models: regular (FAT), Slim and Pro. Each of these models has several revisions. Externally, different revisions of the same model do not differ in any way, or these differences are so minimal that only a person knowledgeable in this matter can recognize them. The whole difference lies in the internal filling of the console, usually these are improvements aimed at power consumption, cooling, weight, etc. There are no differences in performance. All this means that it is advisable to buy a newer revision, but there is no point in specially chasing it or overpaying much.

Decoding the PlayStation 4 model number

CUH-1208A model as an example . CUH - Sony factory designation, used in various equipment, do not pay attention to this 1 - the first digit tells us about the console model; 1 - FAT, 2 - Slim, 7 - Pro 2 - the second digit is the revision number, in this example the two means the third revision, because the countdown starts from zero, not from one 08 - the last two digits are the console region, 08 is the most common in Russia A - hard drive capacity; A - 500 GB, B - 1 TB

PlayStation 4 revisions (FAT)

The most common models in Russia: CUH-1008A, CUH-1108A, CUH-1208A.

CUH-11 compared to CUH-10 has become 50 grams lighter, the cooling system and motherboard have been slightly changed. Improved Wi-Fi antenna unit design to reduce interference.

The CUH-12 has received significant changes compared to the two previous versions. Improvements have affected almost all components including the motherboard and power supply. The console body became completely matte, and the buttons on it were replaced with more reliable ones. The console has become more reliable and less noisy.

PlayStation 4 Slim revisions

The most common models in Russia: CUH-2108A, CUH-2108B, CUH-2208B.

According to the manufacturer, the CUH-2208B did not receive any new components, weight and power consumption remained the same.

The newest revision of Slim at the moment is 2208B

PlayStation 4 Pro revisions

The most common models in Russia: CUH-7008B, CUH-7108B, CUH-7208B.

No significant differences have been identified between the CUH-70 and CUH-71; the changes are aimed at reducing the cost of production.

The CUH-72 received minor hardware changes that slightly improve energy efficiency and slightly reduce noise when the console is running. The only external difference is the changed input for the power cable.

There is a widespread rumor that the latest revision is much quieter than the previous ones. This is not so, you can see for yourself by watching this video comparing two different coolers.

The newest Pro revision at the moment is 7208B

⇡#Social functions and Share button

The Share button lets you do three things: take screenshots, save videos, and stream your game to Twitch or Ustream.

Screenshots are saved by long pressing Share - you can then find them in your profile, in the folder of the corresponding game, and then upload them to Facebook or Twitter. As for recording “live” game video, by default the last 15 minutes of gameplay are saved (developers may prohibit copying, for example, story videos or some episodes), but the user has the ability to double-click Share to indicate the exact moment when recording began. The video is currently exported only to Facebook with very compromise compression - a 15-minute file in conditional HD weighs about 300 megabytes. An example of a recording of a somewhat inept game in Killzone: Shadow Fall by the author of this article can be seen here (the first minute is loading there, so feel free to skip to the middle).

Streaming on Twitch or Ustream is a potentially interesting option for a certain audience; Now it’s difficult to underestimate the popularity of let’s plays and online broadcasts of various competitions. And if you connect a camera to the PS4, then during the stream you can demonstrate your own live reaction to what is happening - all this will probably be in great demand in the near future.

⇡#Game Library

It’s worth saying right away that the technological leap that once occurred during the transition from PlayStation 2 to PlayStation 3 is not present this time. Games on PlayStation 4 look the same as similar PC versions with graphics settings set to “high” (not even “ultra”) - no 4K resolution, no photorealistic graphics. It’s good that most projects now have honest Full HD resolution and 60 frames per second. However, there are also unpleasant exceptions - for example, Battlefield 4 runs in 960p mode.

In general, all this seems like a necessary upgrade from the last generation: “blurry” textures, 720p resolution and occasional stutters on the PS3 and Xbox 360 have really set the teeth on edge; especially when there are noticeably more visually pleasing Windows versions at hand. Today, the situation on all platforms has leveled off again, and in the coming years, consoles will most likely take the lead - developers will master fresh technologies, and exclusive games will once again amaze the imagination.

Now everything is as usual: the launch of a new system - but there are almost no games. There are now only two “big” exclusives on the PlayStation 4: the beautiful, but rather boring shooter Killzone: Shadow Fall (a review of which will be published a little later) and the platformer Knack, which was unfavorably received by the Western press. From the moment of launch, Russian players will also have access to the free MMO aviation simulator War Thunder.

There are also next-gen versions of FIFA 14 and NBA 2K14 (which are also available on Xbox One) and familiar multi-platform projects: Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Need for Speed: Rivals, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and so on. Need I say that the above is visually no different from the versions on personal computers?

Closer to spring it should become more interesting: the promising action game inFamous: Second Son, the racing simulator #Driveclub and a lot of other multi-platform games await us. However, the real reasons to buy a PlayStation 4, most likely, will not appear until next fall. A year ago, we published a review of the Nintendo Wii U and wrote about the same thing - twelve months later, a lot of really good projects appeared on the platform. Apparently, a similar story will happen with the new device from Sony. In the meantime, the PlayStation 4 is selling well simply because of its novelty and huge army of fans.

Don’t forget about PlayStation Plus - the subscription to the service is the same for all platforms (PS3, PS4, PS Vita), and every month it offers something free and interesting. For the new generation console, you can now download for free the good sidescroll shooter Resogun and the third-person arcade game Contrast; they also promise to distribute #Driveclub starting in the spring.

Playstation 4 (PS4)

Playstation 4 is perhaps the top-end console today.
The eighth generation era is already in full swing. It started in 2012 when Nintendo released the Wii U. But today the main competitors in the market are the Xbox One and Playstation 4. It is unlikely to sell 150 million copies, as the PS2 did. After all, you now have to compete not only with consoles from other manufacturers, but also with a stream of portable gaming devices (such as the Playstation Vita from Sony themselves), as well as smartphones and tablets, which also support dynamic, spectacular games.

Both PS4 and Xbox One debuted first in North America, with initial prices of $399 and $499, respectively. Both consoles are equipped with AMD chips for the processor and graphics, both have 500 gigabyte hard drives, Gigabit Ethernet and Wi-Fi, 4K video support, etc. By now, the memory capacity of Sony consoles has increased significantly. Games from previous generations of consoles are not comparable to what is happening now. Horizon Zero Dawn for example - this game truly sets new standards.

Horizon Zero Dawn is a true next-generation game with stunning graphics

There are plenty of reasons to buy one of these consoles, even if you don't play games. For example, the fact that they both support Blu-ray discs, provide access to major streaming services such as Netflix , Hulu and Amazon Instant Video, and also allow you to buy and sell content yourself.

Most likely, the “arms race” in the world of consoles will continue in the future. It's hard to imagine that the games of the future will be even better and more exciting, but practice shows that most likely they will be able to. When the superhero fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us was released in 2013, no one would have thought that the graphics and dynamics in this kind of games could rise to a higher level, but the appearance of the first trailers for Injustice 2 , which is due to be released in May of this year, showed that it is possible. So we can't even begin to predict how cool the toys will be for the Playstation 5 if it ever appears.

⇡#PS Vita and second screen

PlayStation 4 literally gives the portable console a second life - PS Vita can be used as a gamepad, a second screen, and even broadcast the game live to the device. Almost fantastic sensations: the technologically advanced Battlefield 4 is launched on a mobile gadget by pressing a couple of buttons - with Vita you can not look away from the game both in the room of deep thoughts and during a smoke break on the balcony.

Streaming works accurately and without brakes - the hardware video decoder compresses the video to the required resolution, and the broadcast itself is carried out via a Wi-Fi connection. The only complaint is about the interface for the TV, which looks bad on the PS Vita (especially with a scaled picture) - the inscriptions and other elements seem too small.

The extended screen works similarly to the Wii U Gamepad - part of the interface, such as the game map, inventory, and so on, is transferred to the PS Vita (or to a smartphone with the PlayStation App installed).

⇡#Conclusions

Launching a new gaming system is always a challenging time. Content plays the main role, but games are still in short supply, and other entertainment services have either not yet been launched or are irrelevant for our country. Nevertheless, the technological potential of the PlayStation 4 will certainly allow the implementation of many interesting gaming projects.

In general, the new game console is, in a sense, a correct upgrade of the PlayStation 3. Moderate technical characteristics, thanks to which we received the long-deserved Full HD and 60 frames/s; clear focus of the system on social and media services; convenient and versatile gamepad. In general, Sony's ideology regarding the PlayStation 4 can be called conservative.

Yes, PS4 is a regular gaming console in the classical sense of the term. The Japanese company works for its usual audience according to a long-proven scheme; in this sense, nothing has changed since the first PlayStation. We’ll find out what the users themselves and the changed market think about this in a few years.