PlayStation 5 Console (PS5)

MAY 11, 2023+ Controller design is sleek ... smaller buttons. Easier to hit what you want.+ Share, Options and PS buttons have a profile. No more groping for them. (Hate the flush PS4 buttons.)+ The on-screen keyboard is greatly improved. Much easier & faster.+ And finally ... the graphics. *chef's kiss* It's like I have a new TV. Not exaggerating. Vibrant & crisp. I wasn't prepared for how beautiful games look. Didn't touch TV settings. Just plugged in the PS5 and voila! Games that I always had trouble with reading text are a thing of the past. Everything on screen is crystal clear.Had the PS5 shipped in Amazon packing for obvious reasons but was uneasy based on comments. Was sitting outside waiting when the driver arrived and placed the box next to me. The tape was mostly pulled away from the top flaps. One side of the box was torn and the PS5 box was clearly visible. My heart sank. Happily, I received a pristine PS5. The Sony box doesn't have a mark or dent on it. The seal was intact and everything inside was untouched. (Sadly, the literature is in Spanish & French only. Oops!) The console booted normally and plays discs perfectly. Encountered none of the issues others recently described.This is truly money well spent. If you game a lot and want a better experience but haven't managed to pull the trigger, I say go for it! I'm so happy with this console. It's absolutely better than PS4 and not just a little bit. I've been very happy with my PS4 and didn't expect wonders but the PS5 is a significant step up.==============================================================================TIPSIf your brand new PS5 isn't reading discs, don't panic. The optical scanner is on the outside of the slot, meaning that you must face the label in towards the console. For most people, it's counterintuitive. I unwittingly put the first disc in backwards and thought I had a console with a bad reader. Nope. It works fine. (Read June 6, 2023 update below regarding optical reader!)The UI on the PS5 is NOT like PS4. If you can't seem to get to the main menu, which they call the Control Center, hit the PS button twice. (some screens only require that you press it once)Do not put your PS5 on a base with 'cooling fans' in it. The PS5 pulls air in at the top and vents at the bottom. Bases with fans blow the hot air up and overheat the console. PS5 definitely does not run as hot as PS4. As long as there's breathing space around the PS5, it should be fine.Crashing - It's not constant but there's no way around it, especially if you're playing games that were originally created for PC. While PS5 is better than PS4 at rendering graphics, no PlayStation has the chops to render graphics like PCs with high end GPUs. The only PS games that have ever crashed on me are PC games that were ported to PlayStation. Happily, I've never lost data due to crashes.===================================================================Update June 6, 2023:Today one of my CD games (Stray) tried to update. The console kept throwing an error code (CE-10005-6) that it couldn't read the disc. It's a new disc with no scratches or fingerprints. Moreover, the PS5 read this disc/installed the game the day I received the console. I knew it wasn't a disc issue so I laid the console on its side. Lo and behold, this time the PS5 read the disc. Reader issue.

The PS5 was supremely hard to come by thanks to supply chain shortages and scalpers, but once I found one (I was NOT going to pay scalper prices), I didn't regret buying it. The PS5 is a VERY nice upgrade from the PS4 Slim, and a quite a good upgrade from the PS4 Pro (thanks, Sony for not putting a 4K DVD player in the PS4 Pro).The performance is quite refreshing, on par and sometimes exceeding (in unscientific tests) the XBox Series X. Neither console is a slouch, to be sure, and I almost exclusively use consoles because I don't do Windows as an OS. (It's anathema on my PCs). Both consoles are great, but I've always been a fan of the Playstation, since it was the first console I bought new. It was a tossup between the Saturn and the PS1. I chose the PS1 for Tekken. :) The rest is Sony fanboy history...I LOVE the controller, though I wish it had a better mechanism to replace the battery. The triggers are neat with their haptic feedback, especially in racing games that support that feature (or Cyberpunk 2077 when driving or riding motorcycles). The console is quiet, like the Series X. It also has a good aesthetic, though I always set my consoles horizontally (except my Series S, which I have hooked up beside my PC.)My only complaints are the size and the included stand (that serves double duty for horizontal/vertical). I know the PS5 is huge because of the cooling and whatnot, but the Series X is tiny compared to the PS5. I think Microsoft hit it out of the park in terms of squeezing that much power into that tiny a case. Sony doesn't need to out-miniaturize Microsoft, but I would've liked a better horizontal stand. That's a couple of minor complaints, to be sure.Sony fanboy or not, you will get GREAT use out of this console on your newly minted 4k TV. (Or your old cheap one like mine.) The new UI is simple and effective (and not laggy like the PS3), and the game selection is top notch. I just can't see myself playing JRPGs on my XBox. :)Once you put internal storage in the system (much easier and cheaper than the XBox, which discourages changing the internals and Microsoft went with that proprietary giant USB style storage stick) the PS5 is ready for every game you can throw at it... including older ones. :)Get it. You won't be disappointed. :)

Okay first off f&$@ scalpers and secondlyThis thing was awesome as long time PlayStation fans but this generation felt more like the generation of 4k and just showing off graphics than any form of new innovating games.Felt more the like the upgrade generation but other than that it purrs like and over elated kitten and runs well,One drawback is that the f$&@ing controllers still have stick drift after a year and a half of use really!? 70 bucks plus taxes for additional controllers and they still can’t get it right!?But other than that it’s been an awesome console……..especially for this who want to jailbreak it 😉