Engadget: Four Reasons to Think Twice Before Buying a PlayStation 5

Tech site Engadget has published a piece on the drawbacks worth weighing before buying Sony's PlayStation 5 (PS5) video game console. The author argues this is not a good moment to buy, as consoles that have been on sale for more than five years now cost more than at launch. It is also unclear when the PlayStation 6 will arrive.

Games without discs

According to the article, Sony will stop releasing games on discs from 2028, so the PlayStation 6 will not support physical media. The author cites a FlatpanelsHD report that the UBP-X700/K will be the last 4K Blu-ray player Sony makes. As a result, players will lose the ability to lend games to friends or use in-store sales. For example, the "physical" edition of GTA VI will be just a code in a box.

Prices

The disc-drive PS5 launched in North America on 12 November 2020 at $499, and the digital version at $399. They now cost $649 and $599, which is 30 and 50 percent more. Sony has raised prices because memory and SSD storage have become more expensive. The more powerful PS5 Pro cost $699 in November 2024 and now costs $899, and it is hard to find. The optional disc drive still costs $79.

The Pro's processor

The PS5 Pro's graphics power is 16.7 teraflops, compared with 10.3 for the standard PS5, a 45 percent increase. However, both consoles use an AMD Zen 2 eight-core processor, and the Pro's is clocked at 3.85 GHz versus 3.5 GHz, roughly a 10 percent improvement. The author considers this the likely reason CPU-heavy games lack 90 fps modes. Sony is also bringing AI upscaling called QSSR to the standard PS5, narrowing the gap between the models.

Looks

The author finds the PS5 unattractive, which is a personal opinion.