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Comment by eatonphil | Hacker News Reader

Is this standard practice to do in gaming consoles? That the manufacturer themselves does this teardown? I have never seen this sort of first party teardown for any console or laptop manufacturer. It's great to see that degree of confidence and transparency.

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There are a number of youtube channels that would (probably still will) tear down the PS5 as soon as they get one.

This way Sony gets to control the messaging. The person doing the work has disassembled a ps5 dozens of times, doesn't question any design decisions, or share any information that could be learned from the PCB that Sony doesn't want to publicize.

None of that even remotely matters. As soon as the Internet gets their hand on a physical PS5 and embargoes are gone you will see teardowns and 'controlled Sony messaging' won't help anyone.

Being first matters. I think a significant amount of people are only interested enough to watch one PS5 teardown.

I'm one of those people; I enjoy seeing teardowns of most new products, to see the tradeoffs inside.

I'm guessing Sony wants to get ahead of iFixit's snarky (but entertaining) teardowns, and the like.

Being first matters a lot for unboxings, teardowns, etc. (assuming you can also get a wide audience in that first post).

No kidding. This is going to be the first search result for, "PS5 teardown" after the release of the console. There's a lot of value in that when you think about what people would look for when they're considering buying a major purchase. Especially since I imagine the alternative as something to the effect of this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VarmzG1Y-og

Funny you mention it, because if you search “PS5 teardown” on YouTube right now, the original video is the 13th (!) result.

https://web.archive.org/web/20201007230301if_/https://www.yo...

This is the idea behind Intels review bans. Get the first videos of their chips without any AMD comparisons which means for the entire life of the chip those first reviews will still be the top of the search results.

But people might not watch the new teardowns if they've already seen this one.

It is interesting that companies adopt this totalitarian thinking as in Lenin's quote: "The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves." It looks like things are going towards total control, software and hardware lockdowns, massive data collection and making sure devices cannot be repaired independently only discarded.

Hasn't it always been like that with console manufacturers?

That's a load of loaded words. PS3, PS4 and PS5 all allow custom external storage which is already tons better than companies like Microsoft not to mention Apple. Of course a console has to be controlled from head to toe by the manufacturer. That's the whole point of it. Otherwise you can always build a custom PC.

I think Sony likes making beautifully engineered internal designs that they want to show off.

That was my first impression. It seems pretty brilliant to me—a design that looks so simple [and still works] cannot have been simple to engineer. And all said, it's just a video game box so I'm not sure I grasp the controversy.

And maybe a subconscious glitch on how Sony really feels about the external design. Weakest in the lineup history IMO. And I'm keeping the discussion polite :)

I have to admit, I gained a lot of respect for the console's industrial design team after seeing this teardown.

Really hoping they put all that into a case that actually looks like it belongs in a grown adult's living room for the next revision.

I felt the same - the interior looks so much sexier than the exterior.

The exterior case looks like it was designed by some random small ultra-low-cost Chinese company.

I think it looks by far the best. It's not random brick #4.

it's fugly.

I understand what you say but even bricks have more taste than this.

They did one for the PS4: https://www.wired.com/2013/11/playstation4-teardown-video/ (couldn't find a YT link), and one for the PS4 Pro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euBlNq5kda0

Sony has historically been receptive to certain classes of console modding. You could install hard drives and modems to the ps2, there was an official Linux kit for the PS2, replacing the hard drive with an SSD was common for PS3 and PS4, PS3 shipped with Linux support until it was used as a launching ground for breaking the system's DRM.

And PS5... has detachable sides.

Sides? Sides? $499 worth of sides? What are these sides? They cure cancer?

I think it also has an unused NVMe SSD Slot, which would be the equivalent of replacing the HDD in previous versions.

> I have never seen this sort of first party teardown for any console or laptop manufacturer

Dell has them at least for their "pro" lineup (e.g. [0]), same for Lenovo [1] or HP [2]. Said "pro" lineup is meant to be serviceable.

It is however the first time that I see a first-party console tear-down.

[0] https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_lapto...

[1] https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/t470s_ug_en.p... page 109 onwards

[2] http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04887250

I think they’re just proud of this design; and it definitely got me excited for my pre-order. The drawer to store the vertical stand’s screw...that’s good stuff.

xbox series x did a teardown 6 months ago as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxLeYN-t9nw

Via a third-party though.

I think it's because parties like Digital Foundry will do a tear down anyway so why not do it yourself so you can control the messaging.

I don’t think it’s Digital Foundry they’re scared of, but your point still stands.

The most interesting part to me with the manufactor doing it themself, is the manipulation and maintenance advices. Bonus point being the official name of each parts.

It sure is way more interesting than going through the handbook.

It's the same as a restaurant talking about their ingredients - will they have cut corners, of course, but if there's some good beef in the pie it makes sense to show it off.

It is not, but sony did it with the ps4 as well.

I guess there's inevitably going to be a tear-down video so might as well do it yourself to avoid any random embarrassment.

iFixit people must be little disappointed now

They still have plenty of room to talk about guides for fixing things and the repairability score

First generation to do this. Thew new Xbox also had a few you tubers to come to their office and do a teardown in video before console launches

Sony also did an official teardown of the PlayStation 4 Pro at launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euBlNq5kda0

I watched both videos now, and only in the PlayStation 4 you linked does he mention tamper proof stickers/markers that gets broken. Will there not be any for the PS5 and is Sony allowing people to pick it apart?

There's an anti-tamper sticker in the PS5, you can see them remove it in the teardown.

Maybe they can't talk about void seal now because void seal is now void in US. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/11/601582169...

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