Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/10/28/just-how-large-is-the-playstation-5.html
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That’s no moon; it’s a space station.
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Size aside, what’s disappointing is that Sony usually has excellent hardware design. Even on their phones they somehow make black slabs look good. This is just so tacky.
Maybe it’s supposed to be 90s-retro?
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It’s PlayStation envy.
I know how big MY PlayStation is, but after seeing that – now, I just feel a little inadequate.
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It’s a computer, what do people expect from the near cutting edge of performance?
It’s not like it’s designed to be user serviceable. You can’t add in a water cooler when it’s getting too hot. It’s got to be built to handle 99.9% of situations out of the box.
I mean we could make you a tiny PS2 thanks to chip process improvements. When the PS8 comes out why would you want a small PS5 (unless it’s handheld or something mobile).
Can you imagine how much dust and grime will collect in all the gaps that you will never be able to get out?
Is it just me; or does that look like what would happen if you asked Zaha Hadid to make something “aggressively unstackable”?
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Actual use of the available volume. At least to my eye what is striking about the design isn’t that it’s big; but how much of its nominal volume is actually unused area enforced by curved surfaces of non-obvious purpose.
If it were just a basic rectangular prism, as is typical for computers, it would either be rather smaller or have a lot more surface area for intake and exhaust.
As it is there are large chunks of space(front left and rear right corners on the top; at least the three visible corners on the bottom) that are rendered unusable and effectively ‘filled’ thanks to all the swooshing around it does; but separated from any actual role in airflow, heatsink, or components by a decently thick looking slab of plastic.
I suspect that Sony’s thermal engineering people probably have things under control(if potentially noisier than they need to be); but the striking bit when examining it as a computer is actually just how much effort seems to have gone into a combination of non-functional volume enforced by the odd shape and non-functional area devoted to expanses of shiny plastic. There are definitely vents; but it looks like it’s ashamed of them.
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You can operate it horizontally, right? If I get one, I’m likely going to get an old metal case from a computer and drop it inside. I like metal blocks for most electronics. Let the hardware speak for itself.
Or is this larger than spec/standard server cases?
The PS5 design looks like a shoe.
What’s funny about hardware design, is to get something simple, shaped like a rectangle, and with no colors/swooshes/goofy-color actually costs a lot MORE, even though the implementation of “nothing but a box” costs so much less. The less design something has the more expensive. Sony used to be pretty great at this. I’m thinking black boxes like Denon, or Bang & Olufsen, Sansui, etc.
Looking forward to the PS5 Slim to hopefully correct this odd blunder. PS5 looks like a robot’s femur.
This is excellent hardware design. It’s designed to be thermally efficient and they even gave thought to noise and dust.
Sony went so far as to do a complete ifixit-style teardown themselves to show this off:
If a big case means that the device lives longer because it doesn’t overheat and get choked up with dust, I am 100% all for it. Additionally, those covers snap off easily and cleanly, I totally expect a secondary market for replacement covers!
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Microsoft, meanwhile, has made a -
Well, they put it right there in the name didn’t they? A box.
Still too large to fit in most living room furniture, unfortunately, but the laws of thermodynamics are unyielding.
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So much better looking with those white helmet wings clipped off!
Modification to appearance I would do on day one of bringing it home:
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I saw that, i thought the cooling fan was big but the heatsink is massive! You can have a compact form factor or efficient thermal design but not both. And modern consoles sound like a jet engine on take-off.
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My PC case, Fractal Node 202, is about the same size as this but essentially a box with fans in it. It sounds like a dyson when a game gets that 1080 moving.
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Yet somehow the Xbox manages to be more compact despite having basically the same hardware. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It looks like someone left it on the front dash of a car roasting in the sun.
Not sure the ocean-optional thermal vent scallop they’re shipping in 202x will be able to gloam properly without the caul. You want it to develop and loathe media with you, don’t you?
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