Sony’s PS5 is going to be one chunky console. The system is tipped to weigh 10.54 pounds, which is notably heavier than the 6.17-pound launch PS4 and chunkier than the already heavy original Xbox One, which weighed in at 7 pounds.
These weights come from a listing on Amazon Germany for the PS5, as flagged by Reddit. And if the figures are right, the PS5 will not only sport a divisive design but also require a pretty solid surface or entertainment unit to be sat upon.
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Rather oddly, the listing gives the same weight for both the standard PS5 and the Digital Edition, the latter of which would be expected to be lighter as it won’t have a disk drive. That would indicate that we should take this weight leak with a good dollop of scepticism.
That being said, previous rumors have indicated that the PS5 will be a big and chunky console. In fact, the only modern console that’s heavier than it, according to these figures, is the original PS3, which weighed a hefty 11 pounds. The PS3 was such a chunky machine that Sony then released slimmed-down versions of it; it also did the same for the PS4, which weighed a rather trim 6.17 pounds at launch. So some 12 months or so after the PS5 launches, Sony could gauge reaction to its design and then release a slimmer version of the console.
However, it’s not hugely surprising that the PS5 will be a big games console. It’s going to come with plenty of advanced features, including support for ray-tracing, 3D Audio, very fast SSD storage for the rapid loading of games, and a serious hike in overall performance compared to its predecessor.
All that power means it will need to keep its silicon parts cool to prevent them from effectively melting down, and such cooling can take up a good bit of space and weigh a fair bit. After all, you don’t see many lightweight gaming PCs.
What will be interesting is to see how the PS5 measures up to the Xbox Series X in terms of weight. The rectangular monolithic design of Microsoft’s next-generation console looks a little more compact than the PS5, but it’s difficult to tell in photos. We’ll have to wait until the end of the year, when the new consoles launch, to find out more.
