Last week, we got an idea of how big the PS5 could be compared to other consoles, but if that’s still a little too abstract for you, then how about a picture of it being held by an adult man?
The picture above the very words you’re reading right now is said to have come from a factory production line churning out Sony’s new PS5 ahead of its Holiday 2020 launch date. It emerged on the ResetEra forums where there’s much debate over the legitimacy of it – though it’s worth highlighting that one verified industry insider believes that it’s real.
And with the heavy caveat that we have no idea how tall any of the men in the picture are, the console size seems pretty much what we expected it to be: on the large side. We already knew this, because certain elements – USB ports, the size of discs, etc. – are standardized, and it’s therefore pretty trivial to compare consoles based on that information alone. As it happens, this makes the PS5 considerably larger than the chunky first-generation PS3.
For us, that’s not exactly a deal breaker: if Sony had the intention of it being a handheld hybrid like the Nintendo Switch, clearly this would be a problem. For something that lives under the TV, only occasionally touched to fiddle with USB leads, it hardly seems like the end of the world, provided your TV stand or entertainment center can handle the bulk.
Indeed its size may actually be a strength. We’ve all seen the pictures of the original science fiction-style devkit and exactly how much space it set aside for cooling. A larger footprint means more space for ventilation, and hopefully that means the PS5 won’t need to get too loud when its fans kick into top gear.
And there’s hope here, too, by the way. Twitter user Dreamcastguy mocked up exactly how big the PS5 will be compared to the Xbox One X and Switch Lite. When asked if this will mean it properly vents heat, he replied: “Have heard from one source that the PS5 is ‘nearly silent at all times’.”
Speaking as the owner of a PS4 Pro which seems to have subbed out its innards for a jet engine, I can only hope that this is confirmed when the PS5 launches later this year.
