Gear

The Sony PS5 is Here (Sort Of) and Totally Worth It

The next-gen gaming console is this year's most coveted gift.

by Donna Freydkin
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
The coveted Sony Playstation PS5 set against an aqua background

We’ve been here before. In 1983, Cabbage Patch dolls hit peak desirability. Shoppers rioted for them, toy store employees were approached with bribes, children everywhere wanted one so bad it hurt — all to no avail. Only the true obsessives, the ones with the right connections who were in the right place at the right time, succeeded.

This year’s Cabbage Patch doll is the Sony PS5, the new gaming console that came out in November and was immediately impossible to get. Retailers keep promising to restock the Playstation 5, especially for Black Friday, but the thing remains elusive. To wit: Walmart announced a restock last week, but at 3pm, shoppers reloaded their pages to find all the promised consoles gone within three seconds. Sigh.

Which brings us to the most burning question: Is the PS5 worth it? Well, if you can score one, then yes. Make that a hell yes. It brings gaming to the next level, to use something of a cliché, and given that we’re all spending the foreseeable future stuck indoors, it’s a worthy investment and upgrade. It’s sleeker, faster, and more powerful. In fact, the PS4 feels clunky and dated next to the PS5. It’s like a new Tesla, parked alongside that trusty old Honda you drove all through college.

The PS5 has a ton of stuff going for it. It loads fast. The graphics are so clear and immersive that you feel like you’re in the game, not just playing it. The sound quality is crisp and all-encompassing. It’s easy to set up. And perhaps most importantly, it has an awesome new wireless controller with haptic feedback, dynamic adaptive triggers, and a built-in microphone. That’s all a fancy way of saying that it’s hyper-responsive and seamless to use, and feels natural in your hands.

In terms of games, the PS4 supports a lot of the new PS5 games. But eventually, developers will create exclusive PS5 games, so the console will become ever more coveted.

A few quibbles: This thing is big — something to consider if you’re short on space. It’s more expensive than the PS4. And there’s the storage issue. It comes preloaded with 825 GB of storage, which you’ll max out after downloading about 10 games. You can buy extra storage, sure, but the operative word is “buy.” Get ready to spend extra.

That being said, between its eye-popping clarity and fast load times, not to mention that badass controller, this thing is worth every penny. May the force be with you as you try and find one.

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