Sony has recently updated the PlayStation 5 after not even a year on the market: the “new” weighs less, but there is no cause for celebration
300 grams less, the weight of the PlayStation 5 in its updated version. A reduction that many could interpret as a positive novelty, if only because in a product from almost four kilos every gram less is welcome, since it is not a console easy to carry around those few times that you remove it from the living room.
So the famous youtuber Austin Evans wanted to see us clear, disassembling both the latest PlayStation 5 that the previous version, making a curious discovery. Curious is certainly the fact that Sony has decided to change the design less than a year of presence on the market, moreover rather intermittent: the last console was first announced in January 2020, then it was made official design during the summer of last year to be then marketed in November 2020. Unfortunately, due to the chip crisis that resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic, finding a PlayStation 5 has been and still is a very complicated mission, and before the console is even widely available to the public Sony has stepped in to change the design.
New heat dissipation system
The modification, and the relative weight reduction, concerns both the PS5 Digital Edition and the standard one, and both, therefore with or without the possibility to insert the discs with the games, have been spotted in the USA, Japan and Australia. Evans, who has investigated the reasons for the weight reduction, has investigated the Digital Edition, that is the one without the Blu Ray player, and for the moment there are no similar analyses regarding the version with the player.
However the reasons for the weight reduction should be the same, even if before drawing conclusions it is good to wait for confirmations. Evans’ discovery, as anticipated, is not extremely positive. Sony has intervened in fact changing only what is inside the PlayStation 5, so the updated model and the previous one are not distinguishable from the outside. The change is to the heat dissipation system, which now has reduced dimensions and a lower weight.
Up to 5 degrees more than the previous one
Every electronic device with a certain power, whether a console, a desktop computer or a laptop, needs a system that dissipates the heat that accumulates inside the product during use, which must then be disposed of through a series of metal plates and one or more fans, also called “heatsinks”. The reduction of these components determines, intuitively, a lower efficiency of the same, then higher operating temperatures.
From theory to practice, because Evans then measured the temperatures reached during use by the “old” and the new model, which operates on average at 3-5 degrees higher. The youtuber hasn’t noticed any practical repercussions, so slowdowns or reboots in the worst cases, so Sony’s modification at the moment seems to be painless. But the question many are asking is whether the higher temperatures can cause problems over time, although a smaller heatsink also collects less dust and makes less noise.
It is said that the reason for this innovation would be to reduce production costs.