PS5 PlayStation 5 Sony 1
Image: Austin Evans

There’s a new PS5 in town, and early analysis suggests it’s lighter and more energy efficient than its predecessors – perfect for the impending energy crisis. In fact, a brand new teardown from YouTuber Austin Evans reveals that the innards have been completely revamped: Sony is using a smaller motherboard, alternative cooling, and has even changed the SSD enclosure.

In fact, while the exterior of the unit remains identical, the internals have been completely transformed, with the motherboard specifically two-inches smaller than its predecessor. The heatsink, which has already been shrunk once, is now even smaller – making the original machine’s look like a veritable monster in comparison.

One downside is that the CMOS battery has been tucked away, so this could potentially cause issues decades down the line should you have an old device in need of a replacement. But the upshot is that the unit pulls around 20-30 watts less than its predecessors while gaming, making it much more energy efficient. It makes roughly the same amount of noise and operates at a comparable temperature, too.

It’s customary for console manufacturers to optimise hardware design over time, of course, but the caveat in this instance is that the new unit is rolling out alongside a price increase in most parts of the world. There’s no question that Sony has made these adjustments to cut down on costs, but it’s clearly not keen on passing those savings on to consumers.

[source youtube.com, via theverge.com]