The PS5 and Xbox Series X are both incredibly powerful next-gen consoles, each packing the ability to load games in an instant, deliver smooth framerates at 4K and make older games run even better. But while Sony's new console has plenty of exclusive features that make it feel distinctively next-gen, it's missing one of the most brilliant things about the Xbox Series X.
Both the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S have a feature called Quick Resume, which allows you to suspend a handful of games at once and pick up exactly where you left off in each one. This allows you seamlessly jump between your campaign progress in, say, Gears 5, Ori and the Will of the Wisps and Forza Horizon 4 at will, without having to reboot each game every time you want to switch. It's a huge boon for gamers who tend to play tons of different things at once.
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Unfortunately, the PS5 doesn't yet have an answer to Quick Resume. The PS5 interface does have a handy "Switcher" tab that lets you browse and load your most recently used games and apps, but once you switch to a new game on PS5, you'll be booting it up from scratch. That's not a huge deal — especially when PS5 games load so fast — but it will break your momentum a bit when switching from swinging through Spider-Man: Miles Morales to taking down demons in Devil May Cry 5.
What's more frustrating is that, unlike the PS4, Sony's console doesn't warn you that your current game will be closed when you open up a new one. This could lead to losing a bit of in-game progress if you're not the type to save often.
To be fair, the PS5 does plenty of things that the Xbox Series X doesn't. It's incredibly inventive DualSense controller offers a level of haptic feedback that's never been done before on a console, and makes the standard Xbox Series X controller seem boring by comparison. Sony's system also makes clever use of its SSD, allowing you to dive right into specific chunks of games via the Activities menu.
Still, Quick Resume is a handy and innovative next-gen upgrade for folks that like to juggle lots of games at once, and for the time being, is one of Xbox Series X's big advantages over the PS5. Fortunately, this feature seems like the kind of thing that could come to Sony's console down the line as a software update, so here's hoping.
