The PS5 and Xbox One X are still in the middle of a tumultuous transition period

Forget performance benchmarks. Next-gen consoles are defined by their minor features

We’re still very much in that liminal phase between generations, with no end in sight. Getting your hands on either machine requires engaging in keyboard-warrior battle royale, and likely will for some time. Last-gen games continue to receive next-gen facelifts. (To wit: Just this week, Sony announced a PS5 version of Ghost of Tsushima for a late-summer release.) Cast your gaze to the horizon, and you’ll see that plenty of games planned for release on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S will also come out on PS4 and Xbox One.

Last November, following years of speculation and hype, Microsoft released its next-gen consoles, the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Two days later, Sony followed up with a next-gen console of its own, the irresistibly memeable PlayStation 5. Both machines promised cutting-edge graphics and top-flight performance (and awesome games). But over the past six months, it’s clear the story around them is less about technical benchmarks and more about how each has handled the leap between console generations.

At the risk of turning the comments section on this piece into a fanboy cesspool, right now, the PS5 and the Xbox Series X are fundamentally the same machine. Both consoles cost $500. Both display 4K graphics. Both can run games at now-standard 60fps frame rates, with some able to hit 120fps, provided you have a compatible display. Though each features a handful of marquee exclusives, the slate of games just isn’t deep enough to make a significant difference at this stage. No matter what next-gen console you get, you’re getting a killer machine.

Just look at storage capacity. Okay, so, the Xbox Series X has a 1 TB solid-state drive (SSD) on paper, but that dips to about 800 GB when you account for the operating system and other system-essential files. The PS5, meanwhile, has an 825 GB SSD, which gives you 667 GB to use for your own purposes. In the grand scheme of things, is 130 GB that big a deal? We’re basically talking about the difference between having half a Call of Duty on your console or not.

But when you peek at the details, you’ll see how these systems diverge—a cascade of seemingly minor differences that, altogether, show how Xbox has handled this transitory period better than PlayStation. And how it’s better-positioned to ride out the rest of the phase.

Cracks emerge in the PS5’s storage capacity when you consider the mystifying “Other” category, which can occupy 10 percent (or more) of your SSD for no good reason. When you download a game, the “Games and Apps” storage allocation will increase. That makes sense. Download a massive pile of data to your console, and obviously your console will have less storage capacity. If you want to free up space, just delete the big file. You can wrap your head around how this works.

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• The PS5 and Xbox One X are still in the middle of a tumultuous transition period
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