Battle of the next-gen consoles

Going head to head for a holiday 2020 release, we take a look inside the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X

Take a look inside the powerful new Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X

Over the past 25 years Sony and Microsoft have pushed the boundaries in the latest gaming technology. From the launch of the first Playstation in 1994 and the first Xbox in 2001, both market-leading companies have driven the narrative when it comes to the future of game design. This winter will see the release of both their latest technological endeavours: the PS5 and Xbox Series X. With every new console generation that graces the market, new hardware developments are to be expected, and the way these consoles store data is just one of them. Both the Xbox Series X and Playstation 5 are making huge strides in storage with the introduction of fast solid-state drives (SSD) to replace each of their previous models’ hard disk drives (HDD). The SSD stores data, including entire games, which is loaded into the console’s random-access memory (RAM) and eventually displayed on your screen when you play. This data transfer is quicker because there are none of the mechanical moving parts seen in a HDD – the data stored on an SSD doesn’t become fragmented, which slows read times. For the PS5, data will be read 100-times faster than the PS4. This will mean faster loading times and will transform the way game developers create worlds, allowing ways that were not previously possible. As Sony and Microsoft prepare to drop the next generation of gaming consoles, we take a look inside the machines and uncover what you may expect to see from both the PS5 and Xbox Series X.