The new Xbox and PlayStation have been very hard to get a hold of. But the wait is worth it.  Incredible graphics, much improved download speeds, and faster loading times are just to name a few improvements. 

     Freshman Zackary Israelite, an owner of the new PlayStation, the PS5, says that on a scale of one to ten, the jump from current to next gen was a seven. “It is a fresh start and nice after the current gen has been out for seven years but next gen is not necessary to have fun on a Playstation.”

     This raises the question, why do people want these next generation consoles so badly? 

     It usually comes down to familiarity or whether your friends have the same console. Gaming with other people is more enjoyable for most as it is hard for game developers to replicate what humans do in video games, making the NPC (non player characters) pedictable.

     The main difference between the two new generations is the way they have been built. The Xbox series S, is based on a digital set up with 3.6GHz (gigahertz) on the central processing unit (cpu) and 1.565 GHz on the graphics processing unit (gpu). The Xbox series X has a disc slot, 3.8GHz on the cpu, 1.825 GHz on the gpu, which has a large effect on the load times of games and apps. Along with that xbox.com states that the Series X has 3d spatial sound that is better sound quality that makes you feel like you are in the center of the game.

     Setting up the new generation console on a tv or monitor that can display these graphics at its peak can completely change a gaming experience from good to amazing. With the performance target for the series X set at 4k at only 60 frames and can go up to 120 frames per second. These frame rates are the same as the series S but just not in 4k. 4k means that there are more pixels on the screen. With a 4k resolution there should be about 8.3 million pixels which make the graphic look better and more realistic. While the higher the fps the smoother the game runs.

     Although the technology is quite amazing, the consoles itself can be quite expensive.The Xbox Series S costs $300 dollars while the Series X costs $500. The digital PS5 with no disc slot costs $500 dollar and if you want a disc slot for movies or games there is a $600 dollar version just for that.

   Another cool feature about both Xboxes is that they both have backward compatibility. That means if you have a game dating all the way back two generations of consoles to the Xbox 360 including the recent gen Xbox ones. This could pose a problem for Xbox series S users as a majority of games on the early day of Xbox ones and the whole time the 360’s were out most of the games bought were on discs not digital. So if you wanted to play for example Ncaa 14 on the Xbox 360 you can’t because there is no disc slot. Another problem with getting the series S is that you can’t have that many games as it only has 512GB (gigabytes) in storage while the series X has nearly double at one terabyte of storage which is 1,000 gigabytes.

     The two PS5’s don’t have that many differences. The main differences coming in the design of the consoles and the disc drive. The designs have almost no effect on the consoles actual performance.  The disc drive can be used for a bunch of things. It can be used as a Blu- ray drive for movies that can display up to 4k graphics. The disc drive, of course, can be used for games but not only PS5 games The PS5 is backwards compatible with a majority of PS4 games with more than 4,000 PS4 titles compatible with the PS5.

     The load times on the PS5 are great as playstation.com states that the PS5 has near instant load times of installed PS5 games. Israelite states “The instant load times are great because it takes away some of the boredom of sitting in loading screens.”

     Another great thing that the PS5 has is that the controllers have a built in mic and output for volume. This feature is great for talking while playing casual games that you don’t sound to do better in. But if playing a more sound intensive game like Call of Duty it can be challenging to win close combat without good sound quality. 

     Comparing the Xbox and Playstations overall they are very similar with slight differences per console. Some of the most important differences are the internal storage for the Series S is 512 gb on the Ps5 is 825 gb and on the Series x is 1 tb. 

     The other difference is the target performance which for the Series S is 1440p at 60 frames per second and up to 120 frames per second. The Series X is very similar but has 4k instead of 1440p. The Ps5’s target performance is 60 frames per second and up to 120 frames per second on 8k.

     Overall the 4 consoles over 2 companies are extremely similar and the console to get all comes down to personal preference. As the differences in the consoles are so close it would be hard to tell if the graphics are slightly better or worse and as long as the next-gen experience is fun and enjoyable it’s worth it.