Teardown Reveals Shocking Reason Why the Revised PS5 is Lighter

Last week it was confirmed that Sony had, somewhat quietly, revised the design of its PS5 console. While most of the changes seemed to largely fall within the remits of being minor or ‘quality of life’ improvements, however, there was one particular aspect of it that raised the biggest question. With the new systems being 300 grams lighter than the original, what had changed here? Was it important? And perhaps most notably, would it affect performance? – Well, following a report via NeoWin, a teardown of one of the new PS5 systems has been made and we may have our answer. Albeit, it’s not a particularly encouraging one for those of you who haven’t yet managed to snag one of the consoles!

PS5 Revised Designed – Lighter, And For A (Bad?) Reason!

So, the ‘new’ PS5 is 300 grams lighter, what’s the big whoop about that? Surely it’s just Sony using some lighter components right? Maybe some different materials have been used with its case? – Well, following a teardown and direct comparison between the two versions, it’s actually a lot more concerning than that.

Put simply, it would appear that the revised PS5 has a notably smaller heat sink/radiator. Although impossible to tell for certain from the pictures, it would appear that the revised design’s cooling solution is at least 15%, and maybe even as much as 30%, smaller.

So, with this in mind, how does it affect performance? Well, as per the research, the bad news is that this newly revised design does appear to run hotter than the original model. Admittedly, not by a huge margin, but in terms of cooling, it clearly shows that Sony has likely compromised on the original (and honestly excellent) cooling design.

With hotter temperatures though, does it run louder? Well, seemingly not. It seems that either a tweak in the settings or a modified fan design now has the console running ever so slightly quieter.

What Do We Think?

Compared to the PS4 (which often sounded like a Harrier jet attempting VTOL), the ‘original’ PS5 had a vast improvement in terms of its overall acoustic levels. While lower noise output is always good though, I don’t think it is overly encouraging to see that as part of this newly revised design, Sony has been willing to let the system temperature creep up a little. A factor almost certainly indicated in this smaller heat sink design.

Put simply, despite being slightly lighter, and slightly quieter, the original PS5 model does appear to be the better of the two. One can only presume that this ‘revised’ design, rather than finding small margins of improvement, has merely been created to make it more cost-effective to Sony.

And with this in mind, perhaps it’s not surprising after all that Sony never made any sort of formal announcement surrounding this because, in all honestly, these changes do not appear to be, on the whole, for the better. So if you already have a PS5, all I can say is that you should consider yourself lucky. Not just for already snagging one, but for seemingly having the superior version!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!