Hiya!

I was all set to talk about Disney+ and how I was planning to subscribe to the streaming service on its first day. I was raring to get it because, although it’s light on Marvel stuff and is going to be like that for a while, Disney+ was going to have a lot of animated Disney films like The Little Mermaid and Hercules when in launches. Too bad I was beaten to the punch as someone here already wrote about practically the same thing! I thought I was the Disney person on the site!

Okay, not that I’m mad or anything but this did get my creative juices flowing. I do fancy myself the “Disney” writer on this site but that doesn’t mean that I’m the only one who has exclusive rights to write about the topic. Everyone does have the option to write about Disney, not just me. That certainly goes both ways. I’m also not banned from writing about tech stuff, even though that isn’t in my wheelhouse. There is something, though, I wanted to talk about since I did a significant amount of research on it but was hesitant to do so since it isn’t my forte.

That topic are my thoughts on the rumored PlayStation 5 and its appearance.

It’s ugly… but it does look like Sony was doing the best it can for it to function at optimal levels.

I say it’s the “rumored” appearance of the PlayStation 5 as it’s based on Sony patent for an “electronic device.” While there was a developer who has confirmed that this is the look of the dev kit they received, that doesn’t mean that this is the look of the actual console when it gets released in the future. Just wanted to say all of that because there is still a chance that it’s not what the final consumer product will look like.

Anyway, my initial thoughts on how this rumored PlayStation 5 looks is… ugh! Its overall aesthetic quality is not good to look at. The rounded edges and “gills” on its side would make it seem like it’s a cheap looking digital TV set box that’s trying to look fancy. The worst thing is the obviously huge “V” looking lump on the top of the PS5! What the heck is that? Is it because it’s the 5th version of the PlayStation so they wanted to stamp a large roman number 5 on it?

Another thing I have to comment on are the placement of the buttons. I appreciate that all the controls and the USB ports are located on the front of the system for easy access. I do hate that they look like they’re going to be touch sensitive instead of something you have to press down on. I just like the tactile feel of clicking in a button because it’s more satisfying. Also, besides maybe the power button, all the buttons are located on the bottom portion of the front of the system. What, you didn’t have enough space above it where the honking V-mountain is? Why not put some of the buttons inside the valley in-between the V-mountains?

You may have noticed that my biggest complaint I have regarding the PS5 look deals with the V-mountain. It is hard to ignore but, even though it’s there, the folks at Sony didn’t do anything with that real estate! I mean, there’s this enormous piece of unused space in the middle and this could’ve been devoted to the console buttons. It would’ve made a lot more sense than to have everything right above the disc slot. On that note, I do have to show my appreciation to Sony for designing the PS5 with physical media in mind. Call me an old fart (even though I’m in my mid-20s) but I have a stronger preference over buying discs vs. digital media.

As much as I have criticized the look of the PlayStation 5 and the V-mountain (if “V-mountain” becomes a thing, remember, you heard it here first), I can’t help but think there’s a reason for it. There is a small chance that Sony designers did make the bonehead choice of intentionally doing this to make the PS5 look “cool” and “high-tech” looking. If this was their intention, I say they failed. However, I think the design is more for necessity to prevent the darn thing from exploding.

Okay, that may be an exaggeration but it’s pretty close to the truth. It’s supposed to be twice as powerful as the current PlayStation 4. It also will be able to display 8K resolution video and produce 3D sound. Yeah, that sounds like “next-gen” buzzwords but, if it’s all true, then it’s going to be super powerful. All of this will equate to a really beefy processor and graphics unit, which will undoubtedly produce a lot of heat. It’s, for all purposes, supposed to be a huge leap forward in the realm of console gaming.

All of that extra heat would have to go somewhere and, while some of us have never seen the internal guts of your video game consoles, the heat are generally dispersed throughout the system via air vents and heat sinks. Heat sinks are those large metal thingies that are usually pasted onto the processors themselves. They just absorb the heat (since metal is a good conductor of energy) into itself. Those heat sinks are usually fashioned into fin-like structures so there’s more surface area to cool.

Why am I talking all about heat sinks and science-y stuff? Because I believe that’s what underneath the V-mountain! If you open up the PlayStation 5, you’re, in all likelihood, going to find two large, honking heat sinks taking up the entire area! The crevasse in the middle is going to be where the fans will suck up the cooler air while the “gills” on the side are going to blow out the hot air. They couldn’t give it a boxy look because the needed the V-mountain to not only house the two heat sinks, but to guarantee enough air to circulate through and around those metal things.

This means that the ugly design is a concession Sony had to make to ensure that the PlayStation 5 dissipates heat in the most efficient way. Unfortunately, this means that a lot of the upper part of the system can’t be used for internal hardware as its all devoted to cooling the system. While I may not like it, I have to hand it to Sony for, at least, trying to make lemons out of lemonade. They were handed a task to make something ugly into something presentable and, while I believe they failed, they still made the attempt.

Okay, now can I go back to writing about Disney? All that tech talk is giving me a headache!

What do you think of the rumored PlayStation 5 look? Let me know in the comments section below!