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Are you debating buying a PS5? Before you shell out on the latest PlayStation, you might want to take a look at the PS5 specs and features to decide on which PS5 to buy, or whether the PS5 is right for you in the first place!

We'll be walking through all the nitty gritty details, including the best features of the PS5 and whether it's worth switching to the digital-only version. Keep reading to find out all you need to know before deciding on a PS5.

Plus, we don't just sell refurbished consoles… there's so much other tech you can buy too. Shop refurbished phones for way less than new or buy a refurbished iPhone today.

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In this blog:

• Sony PlayStation 5: at a glance
• PS5 specs and features
  • Design
  • Interface
  • Specs
  • Games
• PS5 vs PS5 Digital Edition

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Sony PlayStation 5: at a glance

It's been over two years since Sony released the PlayStation 5, yet it's still one of the most popular and sought-after consoles on the market. The majority of those years were spent battling other gamers at the checkout and praying for stock updates. Now though, it's a little easier to get your hands on a PS5, so if you're been looking to buy one for a while, now's the time!

Compared to the PS4, the PS5 is leaps and bounds ahead, offering more powerful specs and an upgraded design. Like the previous models, the PS5 doubles up as a media centre supporting many streaming apps and players such as Netflix, YouTube and more.

There are two PS5 models to choose from: the regular PS5 and the PS5 Digital Edition. While the Digital Edition is considerably cheaper than the regular model, users will be limited to digital games as the console doesn't come with a disc drive.

PS5 specs and features

Design

 

Both the PS5 and the PS5 Digital Edition stand vertically or can be laid horizontally, and sports the same black and white futuristic design to match the new DualSense controller.

If you've got a limited amount of space, the PS5 might not be the best console choice. The new design makes this model the largest PlayStation console to date, although the Digital Edition is slightly smaller for those who are desperate for an upgrade but have limited space.

The new DualSense controller is the biggest change of all when it comes to SP5 specs, offering haptic feedback, adaptive triggers and a built-in microphone array. Plus, you can now charge your controllers via the USB-C charging port.

Interface

The interface has seen a few welcome upgrades too. When first booting the console, you'll land on the new home screen which now features dedicated and separate Media and Games pages.

In the Control Centre, you'll find recent screenshots, news from PlayStation and friends' activities. You'll now be able to join voice chats, view other users' streams or join their game directly.

One of the new cool PS5 features is the Activities section which has been added to the menu. It's a set of cards that can display progress, provide gamers with tips, shortcut users to particular levels or adventures within a game and much more!

Specs

One of the biggest reasons to upgrade from the PS4 is the impressive PS5 specs. You'll find an upgraded CPU in the form of the AMD Zen 2, which features eight cores at 3.5GHz to improve performance when playing.

The PS5 also boasts a custom AMD RDNA 2 GPU, that when coupled with the upgraded CPU, will allow the PS5 to utilize ray tracing acceleration. For those not familiar with this feature, it will provide enhanced lighting within games by mimicking the way light behaves in an environment, making the graphics seem more realistic.

Here's a complete list of the PS5 specs compared to the previous PS4 model:

 

	PlayStation 5	PlayStation 4
CPU	8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.5GHz with SMT (variable frequency)	8x Jaguar Cores at 1.6GHz
GPU	10.28 TFLOPs, 36 CUs at 2.23GHz (Custom RDNA 2 architecture)	1.84 TFLOPs, 18 CUs at 800MHz (Custom GCN architecture)
RAM	16GB GDDR6/256-bit	8GB GDDR5/256-bit
Internal storage	Custom 825GB SSD	500GB HDD
Expandable storage	NVMe SSD slot	Replaceable internal HDD
External storage	USB HDD support	USB HDD support
IO Throughput	5.5GB/s (Raw), Typical 8-9GB/s (Compressed)	Approx 50-100MB/s (dependent on data location on HDD)
Memory Bandwidth	448GB/s	176GB/s
Optical Drive	4K UHD Blu-Ray Drive	Blu-ray Drive

 

Games

Arguably one of the best features of the PS5 is of course the new games that come out with it!

The PS5 is backwards compatible with almost all of the PS4's games library, so you won't need to worry about losing your current games when making the upgrade.

Unfortunately, if you have older games from the PS3, PS2 or PS1, you likely won't be able to play them on the PS5 unless those games were previously ported to the PS4 or are available on the PlayStation Now streaming service.

PS5 vs PS5 Digital Edition

 

There are two PS5 models to choose from, one of which is considerably cheaper than the other, so you may be wondering what the difference is and if it's worth choosing the more expensive model.

The only real difference between the two models is that the Digital Edition doesn't have an optical drive, meaning it can't play discs. For those who choose a PS5 Digital Edition, you won't be able to play any physical games or watch any DVDs or Blurays on your console.

In terms of internal PS5 specs, the two models are almost identical. Other than the missing optical drive, the PS5 Digital Edition has everything that the regular PS5 offers, minus the price tag. Since the PS5 Digital Edition has no optical drive, it's slightly smaller than the regular PS5 console too, which is worth noting if you've got limited space.

When it comes to PS5 vs PS5 Digital Edition, if you prefer digital games and don't intend to buy or play physical games or films on your PS5, then the Digital Edition will do you fine. If you prefer to buy physical games or you've already got a vast library of game and film discs, it might be worth spending the extra money on the regular PS5 instead.

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Upgrade your PlayStation console the musicMagpie way by choosing a refurbished PS5 instead of buying new – you'll get the same great console for less! Plus, you can trade in your old console and sell games to make some extra cash.