Xbox Series S vs PS5 Digital Edition. (Express Photo)Sony and Microsoft have recently launched their all-digital versions of the latest generation consoles, the PS5 Digital Edition and Xbox Series S. While both consoles are priced on an affordable side, there are a ton of differences a between the two consoles. We compare the two disk-less consoles on the basis of price, features and games selection.
Sony PS5 Digital Edition vs Xbox Series S: Price
Both Sony and Microsoft have revealed the prices of their next-generation consoles in India. The Sony PlayStation is priced at Rs 39,990 in the country, where it will be one of the most expensive across the globe. Comparatively, the Xbox Series S is also one of the most expensive around the globe in India, priced at Rs 34,990. In the US, the PS5 is priced at $399.99 (approximately Rs 29,554) and the Xbox Series S is priced at $299.99 (approximately Rs 22,155).
Xbox Series S is much more affordable than the PS5 across the globe. This is due to the fact that the PS5 provides you with better specifications across the board.
Sony PS5 Digital Edition vs Xbox Series S: Design
PlayStation 5 is powered by an octa-core custom AMD Ryzen Zen 2 processor with variable speeds of up to 3.5GHz. (Image: Sony)
Sony PlayStation 5 Digital Edition looks exactly the same as its big brother the PlayStation 5, just without the disc drive bay. It has a futuristic vibe to it with the floating panels, blue accent lines, the black mid-bay and more. Whereas, the Xbox Series S looks extremely similar to the older generation Xbox One S. It is one of the smallest gaming consoles Microsoft has ever made, thus making it extremely portable. The console has an Xbox One S look and features a circular black coloured fan grill on the top as a distinguishing factor.
Sony PS5 Digital Edition vs Xbox Series S: Specifications
Coming to the specifications, the PS5 is a winner, given the fact that it is the identical twin to the fully specced out PS5. The Xbox Series S meanwhile is a toned-down variant of the Xbox Series X.
The PlayStation 5 is powered by an octa-core custom AMD Ryzen Zen 2 processor with variable speeds of up to 3.5GHz, paired with a custom GPU with 10.3 teraflops of power and a variable frequency of 2.23GHz. The device comes with 16GB of GDDR6 RAM and an 825GB NVMe SSD storage drive. The powerful device can put out up to 8K resolution and 120fps frame rates.
Unlike the PS5 Digital Edition, the Xbox Series S comes with a 1440p resolution with 4K upscaling, similar to the Xbox One S. It features a lower-powered octa-core custom 7nm processor made by AMD that can put out power of up to 3.6GHz or 3.4GHz with SMT. On the graphics side, the device comes with a custom GPU, which puts out 4 teraflops of power at 1.550GHz. The device can stream video at 1440p with 4K upscaling at up to a refresh rate of 120Hz. The device comes with 10GB of GDDR6 RAM and a 512GB NVMe SSD drive for storage.
(Image: Microsoft)
We do feel that the PS5 Digital Edition has an upper hand over the Xbox Series S in terms of raw power, but that does not mean that the latter console is not worth considering. In fact, the Xbox Series S still come with next-gen features like ray-tracing, super-fast load times and 120Hz refresh rate support, all of which are also present on the PS5 Digital Edition.
Sony PS5 Digital Edition vs Xbox Series S: Controllers
Controllers of both the consoles are now much more similar looking, with a fat and large footprint. The Xbox controller is quite similar to the last-gen controller, with a similar layout. The PS5 controller on the other hand, uses the company’s new DualSense technology and has a larger footprint but a similar flow to the PS4’s DualShock 4 controller.
Sony PS5 Digital Edition vs Xbox Series S: Games
When it comes to games, it is more about what genre you like, instead of which game has the best reviews or how better are the graphics from the other available games. So this is a subjective area and totally depends on you. This does not mean that the decision will be easy, considering the fact that both the companies have announced a slew of gaming titles that will be launched alongside the consoles.
Sony PlayStation 5 will launch alongside Demon’s Souls, Destruction Allstars, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Sackboy A Big Adventure, Astro’s Playroom, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition, Fortnite, Just Dance 2021, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Observer: System Redux.
Xbox Series S just like the PlayStation 5 will launch alongside a slew of launch day games including Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Watch Dogs: Legion, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Gears Tactics, and Tetris Effect: Connected and more.
Both consoles will come with backwards compatibility, to support video games from the previous generation consoles.