Friday, July 9, 2021

8 Months Later With XBOX Series X vs Playstation 5

  

I own both consoles and I've been fortunate to be able to test them both. I want to start off by saying that I am not any sort of Fanboy that just likes one console and hates the other. I am judging them with unbiased, honest opinions. I have favoured Playstation over XBOX in the past but that doesn't stop me from enjoying both.

Right now, I have owned the XBOX Series X since its launch, back in November 2020. I have owned a Playstation 5 Digital Edition since the beginning of March and had some troubles getting it since November 2020. I've had about 8 months with the new XBOX and about 5 months with the new Playstation.

Here are some quick comparisons of the specifications that I grabbed from IGN.


Since I've had the XBOX Series X longer, I'll start with its pros and cons.

 XBOX SX Pros: 

    * It includes a 4K Bluray drive, and does not have the option to come without one. This made it even easier to decide to get a PS5 Digital Edition without one. I don't need two 4K Bluray movie players.

    * It has a CPU that is about 8% more processing speed and power over the PS5.

    * It has about 15% more total computing TFLOP performance over the PS5.

    * It's SSD architecture is very fast. It sometimes beats the PS5 loading times in certain games and sometimes only falls short by just a few seconds behind the PS5 which is negligible.

    * It has more usable SSD storage space than the SSD inside the PS5.

    * It's form factor and architecture are much more compact, but still allowing it to breath and have excellent airflow.

    * It is absolutely silent. I haven't heard the fans at all.

    * It has a new controller that has haptic feedback triggers that is similar to the PS5's DualSense controller. The rest of the controller is the traditional rumble.

    * It has available expandable storage, with extreme performance as fast as the internal SSD. I ended up buying a 1TB expansion after getting access to Game Pass Ultimate.

    * Games and cloud saves are automatically updated from the cloud. No need to fuss around with uploading or downloading even with older versions.

    * Out of every game I've played, I've had solid, consistent, smooth, performance and I haven't had a single crash, or error message.

    * The Game Pass Ultimate subscription is absolutely mind boggling and packed with savings. For the full price of a single game, you can buy about four months subscription and get over 100 games. There are even promotions to get free months of Game Pass Ultimate. 

    * It is amazing for cross-platform games and has extreme fidelity. The performance, sharpness, and smoothness of games is on par with the expensive $3000 dollar modern gaming PCs.

 

XBOX SX Cons: 

    * The interface is not as nice looking as the PS5's but is at least customizable.

    * It has far less first party Game titles and exclusive games than Playstation.

    * It is hard to get at retail stores and online because of abusive scalpers and shop bots.

   

Playstation 5 Pros: 

    * It has an option for a unit including a 4K bluray drive, or the Digital Edition without a 4K bluray drive and with a reduced price. 

    * It has a massive library of backwards compatible PS4 Games.

    * It has excellent first party Game titles and exclusives and far more than XBOX SX. The exclusive game titles are absolutely stunning.

    * It's SSD architecture is very fast. It can beat the loading times of XBOX SX in many game titles.

    * It's form factor makes it look like a work of art. The flowing curvature and distinct look make it stand out literally.

       * It has a new controller that amazes. The PS5 DualSense controller features full haptic rumbles and haptic feedback triggers. The DualSense is very ergonomic and is probably the most comfortable game controller I've ever held.

       * Games that are backwards compatible sometimes get a next-generation enhancement to boosted frame rate, and higher resolution for a look that is almost like a remaster.

    * It is amazing for cross-platform games and has extreme fidelity. The performance, sharpness, and smoothness of games is on par with the expensive $3000 dollar modern gaming PCs.

 

Playstation 5 Cons:  

    * It's form factor is way too big. It is massive.

    * It's overall performance is lower than the XBOX SX and anywhere between 15% to 20% less.

    * I experienced stick-drift on my right thumbstick on the DualSense controller within only two months of use. Luckily I have a second backup DualSense controller that my wife bought for me before I even owned a PS5.

    * It's storage is smaller and only expandable via USB. I've had several errors with the 1TB external USB hard drive that I connected to one of its ports. It annoyingly comes on almost every time I power on the PS5.

    * I've had many errors playing many third party games not made by Sony studios. Crashes to main menu and error messages are common.

    * cross generation saves can be troublesome. Getting an old PS4 game save file to work for the same game on PS5 can require extra steps which are bothersome.

    * It is nearly impossible to get at retail stores and online because of abusive scalpers and shop bots.

 

Conclusion:

In my opinion, the XBOX Series X is pulling ahead as the winner so far during this first year of the console wars. It has more Pros, and less Cons. With that said, I have actually played the PS5 more extensively than the XBOX Series X as well because I enjoy the exclusives more, but with all the negative points, I think that XBOX SX will give people a lot less headaches.