PS4 review - Is Sony winning the console war?

In the seven years since the introduction of the PlayStation 3, we've seen our gaming consoles transform into living-room hubs through constant evolution and software updates. Those updates weren't always smooth – though on PS3, they were always happening – but it's easy to see just how far the platform has come. Meanwhile, the designers of the PlayStation 4 were taking notes and designing a console that, feature by feature, sought to address the failings of its predecessor. The PS3 was notoriously difficult to program for, thanks to its proprietary silicon. So the PS4 was built to be developer-friendly, with a familiar, PC-like architecture. The PS3 was announced with a bizarre, boomerang-shaped controller, and launched with the rumble-free Sixaxis controller before settling into the never-great DualShock 3 controller. So the PS4 comes with the DualShock 4, inarguably the best controller Sony's ever made. And the PS3 launched at an abnormally high price point, costing $200 more than its competition. So the PS4 carries a far more aggressive price, asking $100 less than the competition this time around.

While Sony in 2006 was focused on driving adoption of the Blu-ray standard, envisioning another home media boom that never quite materialized, Sony in 2013 has no such distractions. The PS4 isn't built to sell 3D TVs, or Blu-ray discs or any other corporate mandate. It's a gaming console, a clear message that Sony has been quick to repeat.

That focus has resulted in a console that's better positioned than the PlayStation 3 was in 2006 to compete in an expanding turf war for the living room. But that same focus has also kept Sony from taking the kinds of chances that make generational leaps so exciting.

THE CONSOLE: Hardware and design

The PS4 is an pretty sleek piece of kit. It's raked angles plus a mix of matt and gloss finishes look far classier than you might expect for a plastic-shelled games console. A recessed central gully contains the slot-loading disc drive and twin front USB3 ports, while a line bisecting the console the other way integrates the power and eject controls and a strip light that lets you know the console's power and notification status.

We really like the look, but we'd prefer proper buttons that click in when you touch them, rather than the touch-sensitive controls. Even after 18 months we still get confused about which is which sometime and eject a disc instead of just turning on the console.

Around the back is the HDMI output, Ethernet port, S/PDIF output and an AUX port for the PlayStation Camera peripheral. Power is provided by plugging in a typical figure-eight power lead and it draws from 80W idling, up to 140W in-game, but just 3W when in its Rest Mode. 

Rest Mode is essentially a very clever standby mode for the console, during which it can charge controllers, download system and game updates, and even keep your games in a Suspend mode. This means you be playing a game, pause it, put the console in Rest Mode and it will save your game state. Then when you power it back up, you can start playing just where you left off almost instantaneously. It's a brilliant feature (also available on Xbox One) that works with any game that doesn't require you be online, such as Destiny.

Placed horizontally it's practically silent when idling, which is good for Blu-ray playback or streaming TV. However, it does pick up considerably when playing a game, and even more so when navigating the main menu while a game ran in the background. It's notably louder than the Xbox One and you'll want to keep it as far away from you as possible when gaming. Position it upright and the fan noise increases further still, so best to keep it lying down somewhere with good air flow.

PS4 SPECS

Inside the console Sony has used similar components to Microsoft, with a powerful AMD chip at its heart. For the PS4 this single integrated chip contains both an eight-core CPU and a GPU with 18 compute units. That's 50% more compute units than the Xbox One, providing a significant advantage in graphical horsepower, which can also be turned to use in special effects and advanced physics simulation if preferred.

The PS4's memory system consists of a single large pool of 8GB of super-fast GDDR5 memory - more than we've seen on even the most expensive PC graphics cards. The Xbox One by comparison uses the same amount of slower DDR3 memory, with a super-fast 32MB cache to help make up the difference.

18 months in, we're confident in saying that the PS4's simpler memory architecture and superior GPU has proved the better choice. In multiplatform games, the PS4 consistently outperforms the Xbox One, with either smoother frame rates or higher resolutions onscreen. Most commonly PS4 games run at a Full HD 1,920x1,080, while Xbox One games go for a 1,600x900 resolution. It's not a huge visual disparity but you can see it, and we're now confident it's an advantage that the Xbox One won't close.

PS4 – Controllers and Accessories

If we ignore the distressing way that the rubber ring is wearing off the analogue sticks on our original PS3 pad, the Dual Shock 4 remains a fantastic controller. The sticks are now precise enough for the most demanding FPS veteran, the bumpers and triggers feel perfectly moulded, and every button seems to sit in the most natural place. The built-in headset socket is still a godsend, allowing you to plug in some headphones for quiet gaming without any hassle or expense.

In a way, some of the pad’s gimmicks now seem like relics of Sony’s thinking when the PS Vita launched. The built-in speaker has had some moments to shine in GTA 5 and Alien: Isolation, but most of the time it’s just a menace that blares out when you’re trying to play games quietly at night. It’s hard to remember the last time we used the central touchpad for anything bar accessing a menu or scrolling around a map. The flashing, colour-changing sensor bar looks cool, but currently feels as under-used as the PlayStation Camera – currently the most unutilised motion control accessory I’ve ever had in the house.

If you’re going to mock the camera, or the old Move motion controllers, be warned: the PS4 might yet have the last laugh. Both have a part to play in Sony’s PlayStation VR (aka Project Morpheus) virtual reality add-on, due to launch next year, and the addition of VR to the PS4 platform could be telling when next Christmas rolls around. We’ve been impressed with what we’ve seen so far, though there are warning signs that the initial pricing may be prohibitively high.

One feature we love on the DualShock 4 is its microphone port. As well as being used to add a chat headset for multiplayer games (a basic one comes bundled), you can also output full stereo audio from the PS4 (game, movie, TV catch-up, anything) through it. It's brilliant for late night sessions with headphones without disturbing anyone else or running cables across your living room. There's a crisp mono speaker too for up-close sound effects and you can talk back thanks to a microphone.

Verdict

It’s tempting to see the PS4 as a ‘jam tomorrow’ console, with the Xbox One delivering jam today. However, there’s more than enough third-party jam to make you glad you bought one now, while tomorrow’s jam does look very, very tasty indeed.

Sony still has work to do convincing us that it can still knock out big, amazing experiences that you can’t find anywhere else, but we’re quietly confident that it can pull it off, either through games or through pioneering console-based VR.

Microsoft might have dominated this year’s gaming landscape, but Sony still has the hardware and the games to dominate the next.