If you’re worried that your recently purchased PS5 or soon to be delivered PS5 via the August 2021 restock would be subject to Sony reportedly cheaping out on heatsinks and other cooling necessities, don’t be. These new units with the mode number CFI-1102A are currently only on sale in Japan and Australia at the moment.
Furthermore, sources in the supply chain tell IGN India that the last PS5 import was around June while multiple IGN India readers tell us that their consoles had a May import sticker. The new units with poorer cooling hit Australia first. That was a week ago. It’s unlikely that India would get this PS5 version so soon given that it isn’t that big a market for Sony.
Does This New PS5 With Small Heatsink Matter for Indian Buyers?
If we go by how Sony traditionally gets its consoles to India, even major hardware revisions don’t make it on time let alone minor ones. We’ve seen this in the past with the PS4 Slim launching six months after the rest of the world and the PS4 Pro gamma chassis version releasing nearly a year and a half after the rest of the world.
So what does this mean for you? If you bought a PS5 at launch or up until the latest August restock, you should be fine. If this is still the case with future restocks though, remains to be seen. Though history is in the favour of Indian consumers, for once. And if you’re in the dark with what this is all about, we got you covered.
New PS5 Heatsink Controversy Explained
Popular YouTuber Austin Evans got his hands on the revised PS5 version from Japan recently and noticed that the console runs hotter by a few degrees. Opening it up, he discovered what seems to be Sony skimping on cooling with a smaller heatsink and no copper backplate compared to the launch version PS5. Incidentally, this comes at a time when Sony has revealed that it’s selling the PS5 for a profit. You can check out the video for yourself right here.
This New PS5 Isn’t a Problem, For Now
Fact of the matter is, manufacturers usually cut down and revise the materials they use to make their consoles over their lifespan to save costs and make them a bit more efficient in terms of power consumption. So a minor revision like this with a roughly three degree temperature increase is most likely within Sony’s operable limits. Down the line though, it’ll be interesting to see how this impacts the console with long-term use.
Reason being: Sony doesn’t have the best track record with its hardware. The PS3 era was plagued with units suffering from overheating GPUs while the PS4 and PS4 Pro consoles had an obscene amount of fan noise that made playing games painful without headphones.
How to Tell If You Have the New PS5 With a Smaller Heatsink
The easiest way to check is to see the model number, if your PS5 has CFI-1102A or CFI-1100B then it will have the smaller heatsink. In addition to this, these units ship with a base screw that you won’t need a screw driver to use if you want to prop your PS5 up with the included stand.
For the latest gaming news and reviews, follow IGN India on Twitter and Facebook. For the latest gaming videos, follow us on Instagram.
Be the first to comment