Gaming
Sony shows off the PS5’s incredible repairability in new teardown video
A futuristic piece of hardware that isn't impossible to take apart? That alone is a selling point for us.
The inside of the soon-to-be-coveted PlayStation 5 is a mystery no more. Sony published a seven-minute teardown video of the next-gen console today, providing an in-depth look at the hardware gamers hope to get their hands on next month.
The teardown is completed by Yasuhiro Ootori, Sony’s head of mechanical design for the PS5. The video is entirely in Japanese, but the visuals are easy to follow — displaying the beauty of the console’s internal organs for the world.
Though it’s apparently quite effortless to open up the PS5 and remove its innards, Sony begins with a warning: this isn’t something users should be doing at home. There’s a risk of “exposure to laser radiation, electrical shock, or other injury,” for one thing.
The video makes clear just how serviceable the PS5 will be. That’s priceless for a next-gen console with this type of power and at this price point.
Careful now — The PS5’s strange design has already become the stuff of memes. Turns out that curvy white tower isn’t just for show — everything within its walls has been placed with the utmost care.
This starts with the housing itself: the entire back is an exhaust port, and there are two smaller air vents on the front of the console, too. The base comes off with just a simple screw, which can even be stored in a cute little rotating compartment in the base itself so you don’t lose it. The curvy white panels can slide off the console with just a quick lift of the bottom corner.
Everything inside the console has been placed with the utmost care. There’s no overcrowding here; no special toolkit is needed to reveal the console’s inner workings. That’s increasingly rare with modern hardware.
It’s oh so quiet — Sony focuses a significant section of the teardown to the mechanisms being used to keep the PS5 quiet. The company’s ensured all that powerful hardware won’t allow the console to double as a sound machine.
The drive unit, for example, is completely covered with a sheet metal case. It’s mounted in the PS5 with two — not one but two! — layers of insulators to reduce drive noise and vibration down to almost nothing. The console is also equipped with an incredibly modern heatsink and a liquid cooling system that sits between the heatsink and the SoC.
A+ for repairability — There’s always a question of repairability when it comes to future-forward hardware. What happens if this massive, incredibly complex device I just purchased stops working a few months down the line? No one wants to throw out a few hundred bucks without knowing there’s some longevity involved with the purchase.
Sony’s obviously taken this into consideration when crafting the PS5. Everything is easy to access. The memory, solid-state drive, and processor are all easy to access — Ootori does so in just a few swift movements. The Blu-ray drive and power supply slip right out with no problem at all.
Sony has spoken at length about the many grueling challenges associated with bringing the PS5’s hardware to fruition. Based on this video, at least, it looks like that attention to detail really paid off big time.
