- I've had access to both
the PS5 and Xbox Series X for a little over a week now, and in that time I've been testing all kinds of different stuff,
not only in terms of gaming but all the different various services and other special features they have. And I think now I have a pretty good feel on just covering pretty
much every aspect we can about both these systems, and help you figure out
which one is right for you. (upbeat music) To begin with, I wanna talk about the physical design of these systems. The size of them, how easy it is to set
up in different forms, all that kind of good stuff. Now, I'm not gonna focus too much on the looks of each system. I think this is very much a personal preference kind of thing. Personally, I do like the simplicity of the Series X a little more. But, obviously, what you
like more is up to you. What's a more objective thing though, is the difference in
size between the systems. In which case, the PS5 is
definitely the larger of the two. So it can be a little more
difficult to work with as far as incorporating
it into some setups. However, really where the PS5 ends up being a bigger issue for me, is that if you find
yourself in a situation where you need to
transport a console often, the larger size of the PS5
along with its awkward shape makes it a little precarious to transport. I actually feel a little
worried every time I have to. Whereas the Xbox feels
much more straightforward since it is basically just a block. One thing worth keeping
in mind for placement, especially in the case of the Series X, is location of the vents. For the PS5 it's kind of all
around the body of the system. So as long as there's
some space to breathe in any directions, you're
usually pretty good. But the Series X, all of it
is coming out of that top vent or out of the side if you
have it laying down sideways, in which case you
absolutely wanna make sure that does not get obstructed at all. Now, I am speaking of these systems in terms of their setup and tower mode, primarily because this
is definitely the angle that both systems are kind
of meant to be shown off in. You can tell this based on the orientation of the
PlayStation logo on PS5 and the orientation of the power button on the Xbox Series X. However, they do both support
sideways modes if you like. The Series X, I'm not too sold on. I don't really like
the way that one looks. For the PS5, I actually
found these sideways view really growing on me. And while I do like the look
of the Xbox Series X more so, I think PS5 pulls off the
kind of balance of tower mode or sideways mode really well. Whereas Series X, I basically
only want it in tower mode. I will say also that
if for whatever reason you like being able to
change the orientation of your system a lot more often, the Xbox Series X is very simple. You tilt it. Done. PS5, you do that to put
in a little extra effort of removing the stand and placing it in different
parts of the system. You have to screw it in for tower mode. For sideways mode, you just slot it in, and it sits fine on its own. Which can be a little bit tedious. But again, kind of like with finding the right place to set up the system, for most people, you're just gonna find the
one spot you wanna have it in, the one orientation you wanna leave it in, and then that's where it's gonna be for the conceivable future. And while we're on the subject of talking about the systems themselves, I also wanna address really quick as far as the sound
goes for both of these. Last generation, one of the big things that Xbox didn't have a benefit on was that it was a very quiet system, whereas the PS4 was
basically a jet engine. That's not really true anymore when it comes to the
PS5 versus the Series X. Again, the Series X is very dead quiet like the Xbox One X, whereas the PS5 is also very quiet for the most part. While I've been playing games on the higher graphics setting modes and playing over a long period of time I have noticed the fan have
to kick on every now and then just to push out a little extra heat. But even then, when the fan is going, while it is audible, it's nowhere near the levels that the PS4 was at, which is very refreshing. It is possible that this might change over prolonged periods of use, as dust and stuff builds up in the system. But at least, for now,
after a week of using both, the fan doesn't really
kick on all that often and when it does, it's
not that big of a deal. Now, as for the design of the controllers for both these systems, I have done a couple more
specific looks at this before. Once again, when it comes to the Xbox, the Series X controller is basically just a slightly modified, ever
so slightly upgraded version of the Xbox One X controller. Whereas the PlayStation 5 DualSense is a complete overhaul of the DualShock 4. There's a couple of
things that are similar in terms of buttons,
shapes, trigger shapes, location of the sticks, but the
grip shape is very different and there are a whole
bunch of new features like haptic feedback
and adaptive triggers. Now, as far as the pure comfort
of these controllers go, I personally do like the shape
of the Series X controller a little bit more. Part of this is because my own
bias, I like offset sticks. If you like symmetrical sticks, then obviously, the
DualSense is gonna appeal a little more to you. As far as just the grip shape
of these both go though, they are both very comfortable. What really sets the
DualSense apart though is its additional new features. This is something that I
ranted about a lot recently in a video called "Why I Love the PS5". And really, one of the
biggest aspects of it is the new features on DualSense are just absolutely amazing. Not every single game at launch right now is taking full advantage of it. But especially, in something
like "Astro's Playroom" which is designed to really show off all these different features, it's just amazing the kind
of variety of feelings you can get from haptic feedback, and adaptive triggers are a revelation as far as having a new approach to how controls can feel in certain games. By comparison, the Xbox
Series X controller is still a very comfortable controller and does have some nifty new add-ons like a share button as well
as the redesigned D-pad. that I do like. But ultimately, it is a much
more baseline controller that, to be fair, you can also buy individual
ones for cheaper. Whereas the DualSense definitely
feels like a step forward in terms of something brand
new, which I really like. Also on the subject of controllers, something that's always been a big debate between Xbox and PlayStation that dates back to the
PS3 and the Xbox 360, is that, once again, the Xbox controller still relies on AA batteries, whereas the DualSense
relies on being recharged. I do think there is a merit to the Xbox controller
supporting batteries, but at this point, I
would really appreciate, if at least with the
system, when you buy it, it came with a Play and
Charge Kit automatically. I just think it's kind
of a default thing now that you should have a
rechargeable controller from the get-go. At the end of the day, these
are both great controllers but as far as special new features go and just being something
a little bit different, I do like the PlayStation
5 more in this regard. Of course, the physical
design of these systems and their controllers is just
a service level look at them. What's really important is how they are once they're up and running. Before diving into gameplay, I just wanna talk a little
bit the UI experience with both of these. I actually really enjoyed the UI for both but for entirely different reasons. The Series X UI, at first glance, looks very similar to the Xbox One. And in terms of the basic
idea of it, pretty much is. However, this is a much
more upgraded, customizable, and honestly, just flat out better UI. It's entirely handled in
a timeline style effect where you have your most
recent games at the top, and then below that are a
number of different sections that are totally customizable. Whether you wanna have some favorite games or media apps listed. The store, different
functions of the system. It's all stuff that you can
swap in and out as you like, which I really appreciate. On the flip side though, it does require a little bit
more attention on your part as far as figuring out what you want, taking the time to set it up. And it is a very busy looking interface. By comparison, the PS5
doesn't really give you that much in terms of UI customization. However, it is a very
clean, sleek looking design that is very beautiful to look at it. I really appreciate the concept of when you're highlighting
different games they each have their own little wallpaper and accompanying music. It's just a really cool vibe. And they will say that of the two UIs, I did find the PS5 to be the
more intuitive of the two. Primarily, because, again, there's not a whole lot
in terms of customization. It just simply has a very clean, nicely organized way of
approaching all the main content. Overall, I think these
are both really solid UIs. It really just comes down a little more to personal preference. PlayStation, very minimal, pretty, and it gets the kind of basics job done. If you like the idea of having
more refined control though, and you don't mind something that's maybe a little busier looking, Xbox is a really great design as well. I think it's worth noting too the PS5 has a lot of new interesting
things happening feature-wise as far as its UI goes. In particular, there
is the new card system, which gives you a kind
of an easy shorthand to see your progress in a
variety of different trophies, and the ability to look
up in-game help guides for certain situations,
which is heavily integrated into a lot of the first-party Sony titles. The PS5s pop-up menu also features this nice little handy switcher feature, which gives you a kind of a
list of your most often used or most recently used apps. You can quickly jump between
them, which is really great. However, in comparison to the Xbox, it does actually kind of
highlight one of the parts that I think Xbox has
a really cool lead-in, which is the concept of Quick Resume. Where you can be jumping
between multiple games and resume from the same point. At first glance, on the PS5, when you're used to
Quick Resume on the Xbox you would think that the switcher option would have that kind of thing as well. No, though, it does give you
a way to quickly access games but ultimately, if you launch one title and then try to switch back to another, it's going to keep having to fully relaunch the game each time. This is not a thing that
we can have multiple games in a suspended state. Speaking of games. This is obviously the main reason why any of you are thinking of
buying one of these systems. And so some of the big
questions are, of course, things like exclusive options in each one and how multi-platform games
compare on each system. Now, when we were getting
ready for this generation a very large part of the
conversation was that on paper, the Xbox Series X is a
much more powerful system. And based on the kinds
of studies we're seeing of different games, I'm definitely referencing
a lot from Digital Foundry who does really great in-depth
tech dives about games and comparing them on multiple platforms, it looks like a lot of
multi-platform games coming out right now are actually pretty close
in terms of performance. There are some specific
modes in situations where the Xbox is outperforming but not by that crazy of a margin. Now, it might be that as time goes on we see more games better
optimized for each system and there may be a more noticeable gap but, for now, it's really not that large. What really ends up being
a bigger benefit for Xbox isn't the difference in performance but in special video modes. Specifically the ability to
support variable refresh rate, which means that if you have
a TV that supports FreeSync, games that might usually
suffer from things like, say, screen tearing, which
happens a lot in some titles like "Assassin's Creed Valhalla", will have that smoothed
out and look much better, which is really nice. And the Series X also
features Dolby Vision, which has basically beefed
up, more powerful HDR. Now, these are features that you must have a proper TV to support them. So if you don't currently have
one that has those features it's kind of a moot point which system makes more sense for you. But if you are planning on
buying a new TV sometime soon, or you're planning on
upgrading in the near future, it's worth noting that those
kinds of special features are things that the Xbox
can take advantage of that at least, for now,
the PS5 does not have. Sony has said that they will be bringing variable refresh rates
support to the PS5 eventually, we just don't have a
date on that quite yet. One weird thing worth noting is that if you really like the idea of using a gaming monitor for
your system, rather than a TV, specifically the PS5 does
not support pushing out a 1440P signal, it's only 1080 or 4K. Whereas the Series X does allow you to do those different in-between resolutions. So for PS5, you're only gonna
be able to make use of 1080 on a 1440P monitor, unless it happens to be one of those ones that accepts a 4K signal
and downscales it, in which case, that's what's
gonna happen with your PS5. On the flip side of things though, while the Xbox is the
stronger of the two systems, I would argue that right
now, the PS5 has more games that are doing a great job of showcasing what next-gen can really look like. There are some great multi-platform
titles on both systems, but as of right now, Xbox is definitely a little light on the exclusives. We do have some coming soon. "The Medium" is going
to be in early December. We are getting "Halo
Infinite" sometime next year. But by comparison, PlayStation 5 already has a number of exclusives out, like "Spider-Man: Miles Morales", "Sackboy", "Demon's Souls". Multiple games that really look great while offering fluid frame rates and just honestly
showcase, I think, more so, what we expect next-gen
games to look like. Xbox is eventually going to
have more titles like that. Aside from loans we already know about, Microsoft has been very aggressive on gaining a lot of new
first-party companies. One of the biggest, of course,
most recently being Bethesda. So there's definitely gonna
be some more interesting exclusive talk down
the line for these two. But as of right now, the
conversation is very much what it was like for PS4 versus Xbox One, in which PlayStation
just has more right now. Speaking of last-gen systems, something that's been a
pretty big talking point for this generation,
is also how each system is approaching backwards compatibility. And this is an area that
overall I think Xbox has a pretty strong advantage in. Backwards compatibility is
something they're already very heavily focusing with the Xbox One. Having a very large
library of Xbox 360 titles that worked for it and a handful of big hit
original Xbox titles as well. All those games work on the Xbox Series X as well as the complete Xbox One catalog. By comparison, the PS5
supports just the PS4. And even then, there are some stipulations to how some of this works. There are titles that maybe
come with a bit of a warning of, "Hey, this one real run but
there might be some issues." And there are a small
number of games, honestly, none of which super matter very hard, that just don't work on a PS5 at all. Something I think is
really worth pointing out for Xbox as well, is that
not only does it have a very large and extensive back catalog of backwards compatible titles but it's even gone the next
step of actually offering more ways of enhancing the
experience of those games, by offering a new feature called Auto HDR which adds HDR effects to
backwards compatible titles where, you know, HDR didn't exist yet. There are some games where
this might end up being a little more miss than hit. Some games will have it
automatically disabled. But for a large number of titles, they are getting these
Auto HDR enhancements and look a lot more colorful
and just flat out better. Also, if you're coming from the standpoint of having owned a previous
system going into the next one, I also think Xbox did do a better job of handling bringing
your old library over. You can freely install games
onto your Xbox Series X and any progress you've
made on the Xbox One is just automatically downloaded because that's how they
handle cloud saves. It's a very seamless system
that doesn't really require a whole lot of thought on your part. PS5, on the other hand, you
do have to go out of your way to make sure you download cloud saves. You might have to
double-check to make sure you were actually even uploading them on your PS4 in the first place. There's just a couple extra
hoops you have to jump through to make sure you bring all your data over from the previous generation. Whereas Xbox basically removed
all thought about that. One other little annoying aspect too is that when it comes to
cross-generation titles, going from PS4 to PS5, save data transfer is
not an automatic thing. It is a game by game basis. So some titles like
"Spider-Man Remastered" have had that functionality added in, but it is not a for sure thing
on all cross-platform titles. Whereas with Xbox, once again, your saves are automatically
shared between those versions. The advantage Xbox has for
backwards compatibility also extends to their
approach to accessories. Basically, any accessory
that worked on the Xbox One is going to work on the Xbox
Series X or S totally fine. PlayStation, on the other hand,
is a little more selective. In particular, the DualShock 4, and really any PS4 Pro
controller for that matter, only work when playing
backwards compatible titles on the PS5. You cannot play PS5 games unless you are using
the brand new DualSense or some other more specialty situations. If you wanna use the DualShock 4, only gonna work on PS4 stuff. Where this gets really interesting
and kind of funny to me, is that backwards compatibility has been extended to
more specialized options like, say, a fight stick,
or a racing wheel, headsets, a lot of these things are working. And in fact, while the PS5 is stopping me from using a PS4 to play, say,
"Spider-Man: Miles Morales", It's totally okay with
me trying to play it with a PS4 fight stick. Sure. Ultimately, if your main
concern is playing games from the last generation of
systems with PS4 and Xbox One, most of the games that you're
actually gonna care about or even try to grab are
gonna run perfectly fine on both these systems. In general, there's a lot
more going on for Xbox. But ultimately if your goal
is just play the big hits, you're gonna have a very
similar experience here. While we're talking about game library, another thing that's an
important thing to look at for both these systems, are their additional membership services. Now, in the case of Xbox, they've
recently put a lot of work into kind of overhauling and replacing the previous Xbox Gold with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Which not only offers all
the benefits of things like being able to play games online, getting a couple of
free games every month. But the biggest thing is, of course, the constantly rotating list
of games that you can play just totally for free as
part of the membership. PlayStation, by comparison,
still is running PS Plus, which offers all the normal benefits like being able to play
online, all that good stuff, free games every month. They are not offering any kind of actual game pass service just yet. But as a way to get
you started on the PS5, they do have PS Plus
greatest hits selection or a number of some of the
biggest games from the PS4 are just totally free for you to download and experience on the PS5. A great way to get started
If you didn't own a PS4 and you wanna play some catch
up on some of those titles. PlayStation does also offer a separate subscription
service you can get called PlayStation Now,
which doesn't allow you to download games for free like Game Pass but does give you the ability to stream play a library of older titles. Something that both
these systems now offer that was previously a PS4 function, is the ability to play
your systems remotely using a phone or tablet. Again, also as part of Game Pass if you use an Android device, you can also play Game Pass
games through there as well. Ultimately, the remote
play feels very similar for both of these, as
far as just being able to smoothly play games as long
as you're connected to wifi and you have a pretty
good internet connection. The only really major important difference I think that's worth
bringing up with these two is that PlayStation is very selective with what controllers you can use. It supports on-screen touch controls, as well as the ability to use a DualSense or DualShock 4 controller. While the Xbox doesn't
have on-screen controls but does allow you to use a
much larger way of controllers, especially if you're an Android user. There's a whole bunch of different branded options out there. There's a whole bunch of different styles. So if you don't necessarily wanna use a traditional Xbox controller, you got more choices out there. On the other hand, while
the PS5 is restrictive, ultimately, you're gonna
have access to a DualSense because it came with your system. And if you don't have any
controller on hand at all you can still use remote play thanks to the on-screen touch controls. Now, of course, if
you're planning on buying a lot of games for these two systems, something else that's very
important to keep in mind is storage space. Both of these systems
have now moved on to SSDs allowing for much faster loading speeds. It's one of the big
upgrades of this generation. But a trade-off of that is that it's a much more
expensive component of the system and has limited the max space
that they're launching with. The Xbox Series X starting
with one terabyte, which is really more like 802
gigabytes of useful space. Whereas the PS5 is starting
with 825 gigabytes, which is really 667 gigs of usable space. It's also worth noting the PS5 SSD does have a higher transfer
speed than the Xbox's. Though Microsoft would argue
that one of the new aspects of their systems Velocity Architecture does a better job of
optimizing and making use of the speed their SSD has, ultimately resulting in still
very fast loading times. In practice, most games
are loading up faster on the PS5 compared to the Series X, with a couple of
exceptions here and there. Though the difference is small enough that it's honestly not that appreciable. As for expanding the storage, Xbox requires that you buy a proprietary memory card
design they're selling, which right now, there's only one option that comes from Seagate, but more are gonna be released eventually. Whereas PlayStation, you can just buy regular MVME SSD storage, however, you do have to make sure it meets a certain minimum speed requirement. And it's not quite as simple to include. Rather than just simply
plugging in the back you do have to open the PS5 up and slot it into an expansion port. It's also important to
note that while we know how you can expand storage on the PS5, it's actually something
you can't do just yet. This is gonna be patched
in later on down the line. Hopefully, sometime soon. Big takeaway here, Xbox's
solution is very convenient while PlayStation's is
a little more annoying to actually install and use, does give you a much greater freedom in terms of what you can buy and install. Keep in mind that when we're talking about expandable storage with
things like the Seagate card or the internal expansion for the PS5, this is specifically
for the kind of storage that is necessary to play
PS4 and Xbox Series X games. When it comes to Xbox One and PS4 games, you can run those off of a
traditional external drive. And that's honestly what
I heavily recommend doing if you plan to bring a lot forward. That way you can keep
all the internal storage nice and free and open for
all the next-gen content that's coming out. Aside from gaming, there are, of course, other special features and
uses these systems both offer. When it comes to media streaming apps, right now, there are a
lot more available on Xbox compared to PS5. Part of this is likely
because of the PS5's new OS. So we'll likely see some
apps get added over time that are currently missing. One noticeable one being HBO Max. Also like with gaming, one of the additional
benefits for the Xbox Series X is that Dolby Vision support. Again, Dolby Vision is
a TV specific feature. So if your TV doesn't support that not something you necessarily
have to worry about. When it comes to the sharing
aspects of these systems both of them offer ways of recording short clips of gameplay, as well as taking screenshots. However, there is a little more
the PS5 is capable of doing as far as sharing larger
pieces of content. Whereas the Xbox has some
nice convenient features. On the PS5 side of things, you can record much longer
segments of gameplay going as long as possibly an hour with the correct kind
of resolution settings. The Xbox Series X by comparison
caps out at three minutes. And the PS5, of course, has
a new interesting feature in that you can directly share your screen with other PS5 users so they
can see what you're playing at the same time, which is really neat. Xbox doesn't have these features but one convenient
thing I do like about it is the simplicity in sharing
things that you record. For instance, if you take a screenshot or a short clip of gameplay on the PS5, you can only share that using
specific social media networks supported by it, otherwise you have to use an actual thumb drive to bring it over and take it
to something else like a PC. On Xbox, what you record is gonna be uploaded to the Xbox app and you can then access
that screenshot and use it however you want, which is really nice. Of course, all of this has been focusing on the top-line versions of these systems. there are cheaper versions
available as well. The PS5 has the PS5 all-digital,
which is 100 bucks off, and just gets rid of the
disk drive, that's it. Whereas the Xbox has the Xbox Series S which does have some performance drops. Part of the original promise of this was that it would still perform the same outside of resolution. But we're seeing with third-party games that isn't entirely true. For instance, "Assassin's Creed Valhalla" is 60 frames on Series X, but only 30 frames on the Series S. However, the Series S is also
by far the cheapest system out of all the current-gen ones. So if you're just looking for a cheap way to get into
gaming, it's a great choice. I will say that if
you're willing to give up on physical games and go all-digital, the PS5 all-digital, is the
best value out of all of these. Giving you the performance
of the top-line systems at the lower price point. Not as low as the Series S but considering everything
else you're gaining totally worth it. So, as you can see, there's
a lot of things to consider as far as what each system
is currently doing well with features they each
offer, the games you can play. And ultimately, honestly, I think comes down to the fact that these are both really fun systems and there isn't necessarily
a wrong way to go. It really bothers me when someone tries to
simplify this argument as, "Oh, well this one's
just flat out better." And that's just, honestly, not the case, especially with this generation. You might care about different
specific things than I do which might affect your decision. But the main takeaway for
me has really been the fact that the Xbox Series X has
a number of great features and performance that just makes
it the go-to choice for me for a lot of multi-platform games. Not really because of the
performance difference or higher specs, but because of a number of
very useful nice features, like Dolby Vision support variable refresh rate
support, and Quick Resume. Meanwhile, while the PS5
does fall a little bit behind on a couple of different features, honestly, it has some of the most interesting, unique things to me that really get me excited about next-gen. Including some great exclusive titles that you can play right now. And more than anything, honestly,
the DualSense controller offering new forms of
immersion in gameplay is the most exciting aspect
of this generation for me. Funny enough, despite all
the differences of changes and these systems bring,
I kind of find myself really just falling back to what I did with the Xbox One X and PS4. The Xbox is my home for
multi-platform games and having a large digital
library, making use of Game Pass. Whereas the PS5 is where I'm going for really targeted experiences, especially with their exclusive titles that I'm very excited for. Now, all of this is also
very subject to change. This is the opening launch
time for both these systems. There are software updates that
can happen for both of them. There are new games coming
out for both of them. Like we mentioned earlier,
Xbox has a lot of new studios so who knows what can happen with that in the next couple of years. So we are definitely gonna
revisit this six months from now, a year from now, stuff is definitely gonna
be constantly in flux. But the main thing right now, I don't think there's a wrong choice here. Pick up the one that
matches your needs best and have fun.
