Why I love the design of the PS5

(Image credit: Future)

Hey! Gamer! Chill out! Your hot take may be sizzling, but I think the PS5 console design looks cool.

After years of sticking black boxes under my TV, I’m more than ready for something that has a bit more flair to it. With its white plastic wraparound shell and curvy design, the PlayStation 5 looks like a science-fiction movie prop, complete with glowing blue highlights that give it an icy personality.

If the Xbox Series X is Pixar’s Wall-E, the PS5 is his robot lady friend E.V.E, the roadster to Xbox’s Humvee. Both look good in their own way, both serve to lure in slightly different audiences and I think, interestingly, both speak to the direction their different ideologies towards consoles are going in.

The Xbox Series X is a bigger, beefier black box. It shouts grunt and power. An Xbox + an Xbox = better Xbox. If you want more Xbox, the Xbox Series X is more Xboxy. And that’s absolutely fine! It’s what Microsoft wants you to think – it’s not so much a step away from Xbox’s past as it is the latest chunky evolution of it, the One X on ‘roids. 

xbox series x price pre-orders deals bundles

(Image credit: Microsoft)

As Microsoft itself has said in the marketing, it’s ‘the most powerful console ever’, and it looks as muscled as that title demands. Its design language follows Microsoft’s plan to make the idea of console ‘generations’ moot this time around, a generation-less generation, with new games working on older hardware and being enhanced if you pick them up on the incoming machine. 

The Xbox Series X isn’t so much the ‘next’ Xbox as it is ‘another’ Xbox, right down to its continuation of the black box design; but it’s the one you’re going to want if you demand the absolute most powerful beast of an Xbox you can find. 

(Image credit: Sony)

Future nostalgia

Sony has taken a different approach. It’s stated that it still believes in the power of distinct generations – it’s pushing titles exclusive to the PS5 generation (if not exclusive to PS5) primarily, and hasn’t made anywhere near the progress Microsoft has made with backwards compatibility efforts. 

And that future-gazing desire is reflected in the design. The PS5 looks nothing like the PlayStation 4, or the PlayStation 3, or even the PlayStation 2. In fact, its color scheme and curved elements have more in common with the original PlayStation than any recent iteration.

That’s an interesting thought, tying in not only to what products the hardware designers of today were brought up on, but also what the promise of a new console used to mean. A SNES, for instance, looked vastly different from a NES, and its design was playful, a reflection of the gameplay experiences it would offer. The PlayStation 1 entered a gaming space where consoles were still seen alongside toys, and ground-breakingly bridged the gap in its industrial design between playful box and more adult-oriented consumer electronics device. 

The PS5 sees Sony come full circle – here is a games console that verges on cliche in its attempt to look futuristic, one that your younger self would have screamed for, in a modern age where consoles are increasingly being compared to more conventional-looking PC hardware. The PS5 design looks forward, while playing to an imagined nostalgia you may have sketched on the back of your school books. That’s very attractive for the now-older gaming audience (or at least in terms of grown-ups having more disposable income than kids, and more likely to be the cash-flushed early adopters of sure-to-be-expensive wave one hardware).

In fact, I read a tweet (that I’ve now lost to the annals of my Twitter timeline) that said the PS5 looks like what a 15 year-old would have scribbled as their hopes for a PS3 design back in 2005. And that’s probably pretty accurate, given a Sony designer now in their thirties would have been about that age then. 

But it goes to show that the kids eventually become the gatekeepers of taste, and I’m all for what they’ve grown up to produce this time around. Me and the PS5, we’re in sync. And, in turn, I expect I’ll be duly horrified by what the kids of today conjure up for the PS6 and PS7 of tomorrow.

  • PS5: everything you need to know
Gerald Lynch

Gerald is Editor-in-Chief of iMore.com. Previously he was the Executive Editor for TechRadar, taking care of the site's home cinema, gaming, smart home, entertainment and audio output. He loves gaming, but don't expect him to play with you unless your console is hooked up to a 4K HDR screen and a 7.1 surround system. Before TechRadar, Gerald was Editor of Gizmodo UK. He is also the author of 'Get Technology: Upgrade Your Future', published by Aurum Press.

Latest in PS5
Astro Bot PS5 bundle
Sony officially announces new Astro Bot PS5 bundles and they're available from PlayStation Direct right now for bargain prices we can barely believe
The artwork for The Last of Us Limited Edition DualSense controller
Where to pre-order and buy The Last of Us Limited Edition DualSense controller today - UK pre-orders are live but stock has sold out already
PS5 Midnight Black Collection
PS5 Midnight Black collection pre-orders are live now - stock readily available
The Helldivers 2 Limited Edition DualSense artwork showing off the controller
Where to buy the Helldivers 2 Limited Edition DualSense: stock is now live in the US and the UK
PS5 console deal
Hurry! UK shoppers can still get a discounted PS5 at PlayStation Direct, but there's only a few hours left of the sale
A PS5 console on a green background with black and purple cyber monday deals text.
The Cyber Monday PS5 deals are officially over, but there are a bunch of my favorite discounts still running on PS5 and PS5 Pro games and gear
Latest in News
Google Pixel 8a in aloe green showing
Google Pixel 9a benchmark link teases the performance of the upcoming mid-ranger
Quordle on a smartphone held in a hand
Quordle hints and answers for Monday, March 17 (game #1148)
NYT Strands homescreen on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background
NYT Strands hints and answers for Monday, March 17 (game #379)
NYT Connections homescreen on a phone, on a purple background
NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, March 17 (game #645)
Apple iPhone 16 Pro HANDS ON
Leaked iPhone 17 dummy units may have given us our best look yet at all four models
A super close up image of the Google Gemini app in the Play Store
It's official: Google Assistant will be retired for phones this year, with Gemini taking over