PS4 Vs Xbox One - Which to Buy?

With the initial frenzy and hype for the launch of these two consoles now died down and being widely available to buy once more, the big question put in front of you is, which do I buy? We aim to take a look at the pros and cons for both and give you an idea of where to put your money for the best gaming experience.

Sales to Date
Both consoles launched with all the usual hype, leading to demand much out weighing supply. This led to most people not being able to get their hands on a console until January 2014, which is now common place in tech launch days. Both Sony and Microsoft reported over one million units of their console being sold on launch day. This doesn't give much insight into who is doing best. That's a difference of only 300,000, so not a lot to compare here. Both companies, unsurprisingly, are predicting increased sales will continue for a time to come.

Price
That's quite a difference in starting prices, but what do you actually get for your money? Both come with the basics to get you started - console, power cable, HDMI cable, controller and a headset. The Xbox comes with the Kinect 2 bar; the PlayStation's alternative Camera is going to cost around £55. The question over both of these additional devices is will I use them? Only time will tell, but at least there is an option to buy at a later date with the PS4, whereas you have to pay the extra regardless with the Xbox.

Games
This does not look likely to change at the moment, with only the Xbox being able to boast Halo above anything the PlayStation will release.
Sony has identified this as an issue and has been affectively lending out the software to developers in the hope of more games being developed for their machine. Microsoft has not changed their policy on this and do not divulge the cost of their software. Sony's approach may prove a long term winner, but we will have to wait and see.

With the release in the US expected in the summer, everyone will have to wait and see how this will work.

The Console Itself
Both machines are of higher spec than their predecessors, as you would expect. Side by side they look familiar - same storage, both have Blu-Ray drives, both have Wi-Fi. However, the raw power of the PlayStation, combined with its superior graphics capabilities, put the Xbox behind the PlayStation. Only time will tell, but history does show that developers do not always take advantage of extra power.

Online Service
This required a monthly subscription and proved fairly successful.

User Interface
Both have their own unique setup and PlayStation users will argue they prefer their system and Xbox users will argue they prefer theirs. It really comes down to what the user prefers. The addition of Social Media uploading will appeal to some, but gamers will want to play the games and not necessarily want to post on their Social Media account about progress. Therefore, many people see this as a useless gimmick.

The Kinect 2 does give the Xbox an advantage here. The hands free and voice activation system are a large plus and it appears this is the way the technology is going. However, this is a games machine and modern televisions come with these types of features anyway. A games machine is what most people will want, so the additions will be seen as a gimmick, especially after the initial usage has worn off.

The Verdict
You have to say both machines are very evenly matched and both look excellent. Sony appears to have gone down the more direct gaming route and Microsoft have gone out to produce an all round machine. The initial teething problems of the Xbox may well have put some off, especially taking sales figures into account - albeit not by much.

This seems to be what Sony, with the PlayStation 4, has produced. The power, the thought behind development, the simplicity, it all gives the PlayStation 4 the advantage. That is not to take anything away from the Xbox One, which is shaping up to be an excellent machine, but there are too many "fussy" items which would put many off. With this in mind the PlayStation 4 comes out just on top.

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A question that prospective console purchasers will ask many times over the next few years is which is the better console, the Sony PlayStation 4 or the Microsoft Xbox One? PS4 v Xbox One - CPU

At the heart of any gaming console is its processor. The Xbox One runs at 1.75GHz, although it was original specified as 1.6GHz but increased before launch by Microsoft engineers. This principle also applies to PC versions of games because the CPU used is a PC derived x86 architecture whilst the graphics processing is also PC based.

Both consoles use an Accelerated Processing Unit (or APU) setup. This system has both the CPU and GPU (graphics processing unit) contained on one chip. These new-generation consoles use AMD's third generation lower power APU architecture.

Xbox One v PS4 - Graphics Processing
Both consoles use an AMD GPU based on the Radeon HD 7000 series of personnel computer graphics cards. On paper the PS4 graphics processor is 40 per cent more powerful with 1,152 shader processors allowing a throughput of 1.84 teraflops compared to the 768 shader processors of the Xbox One giving it a throughput of 1.31 teraflops. Xbox One v PlayStation 4 - RAM

The Sony console also edges the Xbox on Random Access Memory (RAM) specification, with the PlayStation4 using GDDR5 RAM, whilst the One has more conventional DDR3 memory. Both units have 8GB of RAM.

With eight core processors, a dedicated graphics chips and a huge 8GB of memory, the next generation consoles from Microsoft and Sony offer the hardware to put the previous generation PS3 and Xbox 360 to shame. Visit our PS4 v Xbox One page for more information on the battle between the two consoles.