7 years after the PS3, Sony has redesigned the new console for the next 7 years. This represents Sony's best guess of what we are going to do on our TVs for the next decade and how we are going to do it. But more than anything, its a $399 love letter to gamers everywhere. You read on to know more.
Introduction
Sony has learned a lot from last gen console device which was essentially a bulky, expensive super computer. The PS4 is just about the half the width of the PS3 and also considerably lighter. Its even thinner than Sony's Ultrathin PS3 which is an amazing feat. The console ditches the iconic curves of its predecessor for a parallelogram design with sharp sloping edges. Its really nice looking standing out without being too gaudy. Its certainly prettier than what we have seen from Microsoft's XBOX One. The front has 3xUSB 3.0 ports, the slot loading optical disk drive and power/eject button sliced right through the middle of the PS4. On the back of the console is surprisingly small set of ports - Optical Audio Out, HDMI, Ethernet and a proprietary port for the PlayStation Camera. There is no power break, everything is inside the console. Just makes everything smaller and simpler. If you already own a PS3, you can actually use the same cables to hook it up and just drop the box in its near existing setup.
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Hardware
Inside the PS4 there are some seriously powerful silicon. It has a custom processor with 8 AMD Jaguar cores and next gen Radeon GPU. Its based on the X86 Architecture which is fairly ubiquitous but also means the PS4 isn't backward compatible. That means you won't be able to play any PS3 games on this console. It has 8GB RAM and 500GB Hard Drive and 6-Speed BLU-RAY drive. For the most part its incredibly powerful and plenty of head room to last for the next 7 years. But there are a couple of odd oversights, PS4 doesn't support 802.11 a/c Wi-fi or 5Ghz band, both of which would have allowed for a more reliable and faster internet connection and clearly its the future. Its just weird thing to leave out.
Controller
The look and feel of the console are nice but its the controller that you will holding all day. Its called the Dual-Shock 4 and its easily the best controller ever made. Its look fairly like the Dual-Shock 3 but it has a longer much more comfortable grips with better space, concave analog sticks, more comfortable clicks on the back and couple of awkward buttons in the middle. The Duak-Shock 4 also has a light bar at the back which the system can use to identify the controllers along with the touch pad in the middle for some things but won't necessarily replace a mouse. There's even a speaker in the controller plus a headphone jack. That means you can use it for voice chat and you can also plug in an old pair of headphones.
Software
The first thing you will see when you first set up your PS4 is a blue screen with Sony's soft music and moving backgrounds plus a list of everything you've ever done on your console. It shows all the games you've played in reverse chronological order with your library at the very end of the list. At first it makes you want to get to the games you want to play very easily but as the list expands, it becomes cubersome and that too really fast. Click in to any game you've installed or played and you will see the most recent activity in that game, where you were in that game, what your friends have achieved in that game. Social Networking is really tightly packed into the OS and it makes playing along side your friends a lot more fun. Flick the analog stick up and you are taken into the primary menu. That's where you see your Profile, Friends, Notifications and Friend requests appear real quick. There a lot of menus that you can go through but the user interface is really slick and easy to navigate. Its the speed that makes most of the difference when switching between apps and games. Social features are free which means you don't have to pay to interact with your friends but if you want the PlayStation Plus service you will have to pay $49.99 a year to join others. With the subscription you get discounts on games, free games and its really worth it.
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Native Apps
There are few media apps that come along with the PS4 from Netflix and Hulu to crack up all the NBA game time mostly good apps. Sony likes to talk about how popular the PS3 was for Netflix but the apps are clealy not the point of the consoles.
Gaming Experience
Ofcourse watching people play games is gonna get a lot better when the actual games themselves get better. Most of the PS4 launch titles look great, detailed and impressive than ever but most of them look better. There's not much in the meaningful different gameplay here. Few games like Need For Speed Rivals even run into frame rate issues but it looks great when it works well but it doesn't always work well and that kinda worries that this is the console that is gonna have plenty of power left to spare for the next decade. Knack is one of the biggest exclusives for the PS4 and the game is a lot of fun. Games like BattleField 4 or Call Of Duty don't really that much different from the previous gen PS3 and while KillZone Shadow Fall is beautiful, its just a basic shooter. But that's not the thing about launch games, they are almoost never good and the PS4 is certain to get good games.
The ability to stream games from your PS Vita is remarkable and works really well even if its not really optimized for the small screen. The PlayStation Camera for now is incredibly basic like voice controls and its does a nice job of identifying you but there's no really game support or use as of right now so that could come soon though. The PlayStation App for Android and iOS is basically your alternative to on screen keyboard.
The ability to stream games from your PS Vita is remarkable and works really well even if its not really optimized for the small screen. The PlayStation Camera for now is incredibly basic like voice controls and its does a nice job of identifying you but there's no really game support or use as of right now so that could come soon though. The PlayStation App for Android and iOS is basically your alternative to on screen keyboard.
Conclusion
In general the PS4 is all about potential. Its a faster, simpler console with a great new design and a great new controller. It has a few fun games lined up but its getting longer as we speak. Sony fixed what a lot ailed the PS3 but its clearly only at the beginning of its journey here. If you don't have your heart set out on buying a console right now, the only logical choice is to wait. We haven't seen what the XBOX One can really do yet and even the PS4 has a lot of growing left to do. But its clear that Sony has built a clear, fast console that's gonna make gamers very happy and there's little doubt that this $399 device will do just that. My only question - how long is it gonna take.
Author : Nadeem Ansari
Designation: Senior Editor
Bio: A gadget freak who can't make a day without his tiny little toys and is constantly trying to keep himself up to date with the latest events in tech history. Loves to read and write articles.
Bio: A gadget freak who can't make a day without his tiny little toys and is constantly trying to keep himself up to date with the latest events in tech history. Loves to read and write articles.
