Sony has updated the internal design of its PlayStation 5 consoles, and seemingly made the console more energy efficient as a result.
As reported by The Verge, YouTube user Austin Evans took apart the redesigned console and found that Sony had made some fairly significant changes. Despite not being a rebranded update (akin to the PlayStation 4 Slim), Sony has updated the PS5’s internals roughly once a year to make the machine more efficient (and presumably cheaper to produce).
The updated model’s motherboard has been reduced in size by about two inches, the cooling has been changed through an additional heat pipe at the back of a console and a smaller heatsink, and the SSD enclosure has also been changed slightly.
Though Sony may have had other reasons for updating the console, Evans claimed in his video that the new PS5 uses around 20 to 30 less watts while gaming and is therefore the most energy efficient version of the console so far.
The new model comes just as Sony increased the price of the PS5 in most major markets including the UK, Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada, and Mexico. “The global economic environment is a challenge that many of you around the world are no doubt experiencing,” the publisher said at the time.
Microsoft will not follow suit with its Xbox Series consoles, however, as the company confirmed it has no plans to increased prices despite its main competitor doing so. Despite the Switch also costing more to produce, Nintendo has also made clear it has no plans to increase prices to “avoid pricing people out”.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.