The PS5 will be Sony's most powerful gaming console yet. Here's everything you need to know.

The PS5 is only months away, and new details on Sony console are emergin at a rapid clip. In a June 11 showcase event, we learned all about the PS5 game, but the conference culminated in a surprise reveal of the PS5 system itself. We now know that the system will be an black-and-white boxes with rounded angles and fins on the top. We also know that it will share a color scheme with the similarly black-and-white DualSense Controller.

Beyond that, all the information we know about the PS5 specs are the same as before. It will still feature a custom 825 GB SSD that can load games incredibly quickly, as well as a 10.3 teraflop AMD RDNA 2 GPU for rendering vivid, lifelike graphics. Most games will run at 4K resolution with speeds of 60 frames per second, but the system can theoretically handle resolutions up to 8K and frame rates up to 120 fps.

We have not yet learned a price or release date for the PS5, although we included all the information we know about those two topics later in this guide.

Latest PS5 news (updated July 9)

  • According to a Digital Foundry analysis, it may not be reasonable to expect every PS5 game to hit 4K resolution at 60 frames per second. Newer games may have to target 30 fps instead.
  • The PS5 Digital Edition might be the exact console that the gaming world needs right now, and Tom's Guide has broken down the reasons why.
  • The PS5's price and release date are still up in the air, but there are other important questions that Sony could answer as well. Tom's Guide has made a list.

PS5 cheat sheet: What you need to know

  • What it is: Sony's newest console, the fifth non-portable PlayStation
  • Release date: Holiday 2020
  • Price: TBD
  • Key features: 4K games at 60 fps, up to 8K resolution, up to 120 frames per second, ray tracing, fast-loading SSD
  • Key games: Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Horizon II: Zero West, Gran Turismo 7, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart
  • Specs: 8-core 3.5 GHz AMD Zen 2 CPU, 10.3 teraflop AMD RDNA 2 GPU, 16 GB GDDR6 memory, 825 GB custom SSD

PS5 release date

Sony has announced that the PS5 will launch during the holiday 2020 season. This means it will likely come out within a few weeks of its competitor, the Xbox Series X. Anything past that, for the moment, is simply speculation. For context: The PS4 hit shelves on November 15, 2013.

According to a leak, the exact PS5 launch date might be November 20. A prolific source on Twitter claimed that the DualSense controller, by itself, was slated to come out on November 20, and cost $60. It stands to reason that the controller would come out on the same day as the console itself, in order to facilitate multiplayer games. (Each PS5 will come with one DualSense controller, of course.)

PS5 price

Like its release date, the PS5's price is shrouded in mystery. So far, all we have to go on is that the PS4 cost $400 and $450 when it first came out — a price that undercut the competing Xbox One by $100 $150. Sony may not pull the same trick again, though, as Microsoft is in a better position to undercut its competitor this time around.

Sony itself has promised that the console will be a "the best possible value proposition," while acknowledging that value does not correlate directly to price. As such, we can expect the PS5 to be somewhat expensive. As before, $500 seems like a safe number; if it's less than that, gamers may be pleasantly surprised. And if it's more than that, at least Sony has tempered our expectations first.

Be extremely wary of any PS5 price leaks that you see online, however. As a rule, they're all fake. If you find speculation about console price fun, then by all means, keep an eye on the myriad leaks going around the Internet. But otherwise, Sony will reveal the PS5 price through its official channels, probably sooner rather than later. Unless you hear it from Sony, it's almost certainly not real.



PS5 controller

In April 2020, Sony officially took the wraps of DualSense: a radically redesigned PlayStation controller that will accompany the PS5. While DualSense has a familiar button layout and brings back the touchpad from the DualShock 4, its two-toned black-and-white design looks nothing like any PlayStation controller before it.

As Sony confirmed before, DualSense will have haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, which will provide realistic, tactile rumble to simulate the feel of, say, driving through mud or firing a bow and arrow. The controller's Share button has been replaced by a new Create button, which Sony says will provide even more ways to capture and share your favorite gameplay moments. 

DualSense also has a built-in microphone, which will let you chat with friends without needing to dig your gaming headset out. The controller's light bar now surrounds the touchpad, which lets you better see the glow emanating out of it and complements the white design nicely.the white design nicely.