Pioneer SE review

Pioneer used CES 2016 to show off its flagship SE-Master1 headphones, which it hopes will be perfect sparring partners for its recently launched high-res audio player - the XDP-100R.

The headphones are packed with audio pedigree. They have been tuned at the famous Air recording to studios in London and are hand-crafted in Japan. Pioneer told me that they are currently making two units a day.

Look and feel

Looks-wise, the SE-Master1's are gorgeous. They chassis is built from aluminium and this is topped off with a ceramic coating. The idea here is that this makes the frame that bit more rigid - which is exactly what you want, as any movement from the cans on your head will dilute the dulcet tones.

To make them fit snug on the head, Pioneer has chosen to give the headphones two bands. One allows you to move the cups to the perfect height for your head, the other is a thinner tension rod. Again, this is to help with rigidity.

Performance

The SE-Master1s are extremely comfortable to wear. These are headphones for the home, so you want really be walking around in them but it felt fine wearing them while standing up. There is a definite weight to them but they never feel uncomfortable. Instead the leather coated memory foam cups cushion the ears well and make for a really nice, tight wear.

Powering the SE-Master1s are two 50mm driver units. And given we are now in the age of high-res audio, the headphones can handle music up to 85.000 Hz.

To try this out, we paired the headphones with Pioneer's high-res audio player, the XDP-100R, and played a number of MQA-mastered tracks.

The sound was superb - warm and all encompassing. There was real power behind the bass and not a note was lost at the higher levels.

Given these are 'phones that have been tuned at Air Studios, the quality was always going to be high and they certainly didn't disappoint.

With more and more audiophiles getting into high-res audio and the availability of new codecs like MQA becoming the norm, the next step to listening to this type of music is a decent pair of headphones.

Early Verdict

Pioneer's SE-Master1s aren't just decent, they are a level above - a piece of reference-grade kit that looks great and sounds fantastic.

With this sort of quality, there is some expense though. The SE-Master1 headphones are out now from $2,500. Which is money well spent, if you have that sort of cash lying around.

Nokia DC-16 review

As more smartphones are designed with non-replaceable batteries, the potential of getting through a day of heavy use by carrying a spare battery is going away. This has in turn created a market in external batteries. For instance, the first phone with a non-replaceable battery was the iPhone, which has an array of battery jackets. However, these are fixed to just one phone design. The alternative is external batteries that connect via cable. It's a less stylish solution, but guarantees that any of your devices can be topped up. That's where Nokia's new DC-16 external battery steps in.

The DC-16 is Nokia's latest external battery, and as you can see from the box below, it has been designed to complement the Lumia range of phones with the distinctive, Cyan, Magenta, Black, and White colour options. However, it will work with any device that charges via Micro USB.

The box simply contains the DC-16, the CA-189CD USB to Micro USB charging and data cable, plus user guide and warranty. The charging cable is an update of Nokia's CA-101D short USB cable which has shipped with devices over the last two years. If you're familiar with that cable, the CA-189CD is less than two inches longer, and the socket casings are made from a rubbery material which improves grip, but attracts dust like a magnet. As mentioned above, the DC-16 is available in the four Lumia colours, and the supplied cable will be of a matching colour.

The DC-16 follows a very simplistic design, and can be mathematically described as a squircle prism; i.e. the shape used in Symbian Anna iconography. At one end, there's a Type-A USB port from which other devices are charged (i.e. the output); the other end comprises of a charge level indicator and a Micro USB port with which the DC-16 is charged (i.e. the input). This simple design is actually quite ingenious as the device can both charge and be charged with the same cable, just by reversing the ends at which they're connected, as shown in the configurations below.

The DC-16's capacity is rated at 2200mAh, which is equivalent to less than two full charges of most smartphone batteries; it is also guaranteed for 500 charge cycles. Nokia say the output current is 950mA, which is quite high for a battery of this class. Anecdotally, it can quickly recharge our Lumia 800 to full (from empty). Time taken to charge the DC-16 itself will vary depending on your USB charger. If you're only charging from a PC, expect a long wait though. From a 1A wall charger, charging from flat can take up to 3 hours. While charging, the four green LEDs illuminate, with each going from flashing to constant in sequence to indicate the current charge level. For example, three constant lights with one flashing means the charge is between 75% and 100%.

Look carefully at the indicator end, and you'll find an embossed battery icon beneath the Micro USB port. This pinpoints a button, concealed by a flexible surface, which (while not recharging) switches on the LEDs to indicate the current charge level; e.g. four LEDs means the charge level is between 75% and 100%, and so on. The LEDs only stay on for 10 seconds so as to not waste energy.

The DC-16 has a trick up its sleeve ­– you can connect the charger in-line (in series) with your phone. In this configuration, the battery will charge up first, and then allow current to flow and recharge the phone. I love this, but there are a few caveats to keep in mind, none of which are deal breakers. Firstly, the charge level on the DC-16 can repeatedly drop just enough to make it shut off current to the phone, and then switch on again, and off again, etc. If your phone is configured to emit a sound when it begins charging, this repetition can become annoying. Even so, if you're on the road and only have a single USB port to charge from, this flexibility is ideal, as long as you put your phone on silent! Secondly, if you're trickle charging from your PC, don't expect to be able to transfer data via the DC-16 – there's no through-data connection. Then again, in this configuration you already have two charging cables, so just use two separate USB ports on your computer instead.

The DC-16 retails for £30, or slightly less if you shop around carefully. It's difficult not to compare this to the Proporta TurboChargers, all of which offer higher capacities and a better ratio of capacity to cost. Also, Proporta's TurboCharger 7000 has more than double the potential output current, allowing for faster charging, depending on device. However, the strength of the DC-16, and why I would buy one for myself, is that it can easily slip in a pocket beside your phone. This compactness, combined with its clever design, make for a product I enjoy having in my tech-kit.

Tracer Stream BT review

The Tile is a tiny plastic widget that never gets lost. In theory anyway. It talks to your iPhone via low-power Bluetooth and lets you track the Tile itself, and anything the Tile is attached to.

I’ve been using one for the last couple of weeks, and it works just fine. But so far it doesn’t seem to be much more useful than one of those keychain finders that beeps when you whistle. Why? Because to be truly useful, the Tile needs to reach a critical mass of users.

The Tile works like this: Let’s imagine you have one attached to your keys (because I do). Using low-power Bluetooth, the Tile stays in constant communication with your iPhone, periodically pinging the iPhone to let it know it’s still nearby. The iPhone remembers this, along with the location where it happened.

Thus, if you leave your bag somewhere, then realize it when you get home, you can look up your Tile and see its last known location. If the bag was in the bar, you can go fetch it. If it was in a cab, well, good luck.

The killer feature of the Tile is that it can be tracked by any iPhone with the Tile app, not just yours. If your Tile is on the move, other iPhones will pick up its signal and ping the Tile servers, which will update the position in your Tile app.

And finally, when you get close, you can use the app to tell the Tile to beep at you, letting you track it to the pocket of a jacket or the exact sofa cushion it’s hiding under.

That’s the theory anyway. In practice, you’re going to need to live in San Francisco for it to work. I’m using a test unit, which is to say the Tile hasn’t yet shipped. Which is also to say that I am probably the only person in Leipzig, Germany, using the Tile app.

But even with my own iPhone, the Tile doesn’t always work. Sometimes I get home and the app tells me my keys are still in the bar where I just had dinner, when they clearly are not. Still, the little beeper function works fine, and this last map glitch is apparently just a problem with the map on your iPhone not updating properly – the actual location is correct ion the Tile servers, and the bug should be fixed before the release.

The Tile is – like the iPhone – sealed. You can’t change the battery (I tried to get inside, and you can see the damage in some of the photos – you can’t get in there without smashing the whole thing open). The idea is that you buy a new one every year. That’s fine, especially if they come down from the current $20-per-unit price. But if you have a whole stack of Tiles (for instance, if you opted fore the $180 12-pack) then things start to get expensive. Then again, maybe you can hack it?

The other problem is that you need both Bluetooth and location services enabled on your iPhone. The location tracker blips on and off, powering up when the app is open and from time to time in the background. The Bluetooth is low-power, so it shouldn’t drain your iPhone too much, but the location seemed to drain my battery even faster than usual, to the point that I switched it off, rendering the location-tracking functions of the Tile mostly useless.
Also, the Tile remains constantly connected to the Bluetooth, which has – for me – blocked the automatic connection of other low-power Bluetooth devices. For instance, I have a speaker that usually connects to the iPhone as soon as I hit the play/pause button on the speaker. When the Tile is connected, though, I have to manually connect to the speaker in the iPhone’s Bluetooth preferences.

Internet of things

In the past year, we’ve seen Bluetooth trackers like the Tile bloom. At least two or three times a week I get an email about yet another tracker. Then we have lifelogging cameras and fitness trackers, one of which is already mainstream, and the other may soon go that way.

But is there any point? I can totally see the advantage of health monitoring. In fact, iWatch-type gadgets could be a big boost to human longevity (in the well-off, at least). But right now, all the other cruft is just that – cruft. You have to charge batteries (or order new units annually), you have to do something with the footage from your always-on lifelogging camera. You have to curate your GPS tracks, sync your fitness tracker and check every damn pocket of your pants twice, so you don’t wash hundreds or thousands of dollars’ worth of gear.

I love tech, and I especially love how it is seeping into every corner of life instead of sitting on the nerdy periphery. But I don’t like babysitting that tech. The only devices I regularly use that don’t need rebooting or updating or charging are my Casio calculator watch and … and that’s it. Everything else requires brain cycles for me to use. The Kindle is almost there (it pretty much never crashes or runs out of power), and of course all my home appliances just work.

This makes me wonder whether our smart devices are actually so smart. After all, these smart gadgets are the ones that require the most mollycoddling to keep them working. My watch can take a dip or a whack and it keeps on going, for 10 frikkin’ years. My kettle boils, my washing machine washes and my non-Wi-Fi-enabled light bulbs switch on and off. They take care of themselves, and in that sense they might be smarter than the “smart” gadgets I constantly have to tend.

It seems clear to me that Apple is trying to push its products in this direction, but there’s a long way left to go. The Tile is a step toward this, with its set-and-forget nature, but it’s still a novelty for nerds. And don’t get me started on pretty much all other consumer electronics, from hostile, user-hating camera UIs (hi Sony!) to Bluetooth speakers (and worse – AirPlay speakers) whose connections are as temperamental and highly strung as the musicians whose music they (eventually) play.

People are hungry for technology, but not the kind much of the tech industry is making. They’re treating us all as early-adopting geeks who are happy to spend time tapping a WPA password into their light bulbs. All we really want are devices that – like our appliances – just work.

Tile by Tile ($20 list)
The good: Tiny, tough, easy to use.
The bad: Expensive in multiples, requires a lot of your iPhone’s resources, too reliant on the network effect for most useful features.
The verdict: Not bad, but little more than a semi-reliable novelty.

PS Vita review

The PS Vita is the most powerful, dazzling and impressive handheld games console ever built.

It packs not one but two quad-core processors, a sparkling 5-inch touchscreen OLED display, dual analogue stick controls and games that go way beyond what any other portable device is currently capable of.

That includes the Nintendo 3DS, which may wield 3D optics as its trump card, but nonetheless simply cannot compete with the Vita in terms of graphical fidelity. What the PlayStation Vita offers is more akin to a home console experience on the move, and that puts it in an elite class of one.

Of course, whether or not there is a big market for such a device is an interesting question, and we're in the process of getting some early answers. A sluggish start in Japan has been followed by some less-than-stellar sales figures in the first weeks of its International launch. It doesn't come as much of a surprise.

After all, it's a luxury item launching post-Christmas into a Western world ravaged by financial floundering, and further hindered by Sony's desperate need to make money at a time when the strength of the Yen makes exported Japanese products very expensive.

Take a look at PS Vita gameplay footage, the new interface and touch controls in our video:

But we'll get to that a little later, and as far as this PlayStation Vita review goes, we're looking at the product as a stand alone piece of hardware, how it stacks up against the competition and whether or not it offers value for money.

The basics

In many ways, despite the new name, the PlayStation Vita is another revision of the Sony PSP legacy with plenty of much needed evolution on top.

The same basic form factor returns and it doesn't look too different from its predecessors. But this is a wolf in sheep's clothing. A beast among men. A veritable fire-breathing monster compared to those long-dead PSPs in the sky.

The curvy oval shape returns, and measures 7.2-inches (18.3cm) from end to end. So it's the biggest Sony handheld ever, with a height of 3.3-inches (8.4cm) and a thickness of 0.73 (1.9cm).

Sony's reasoning has clearly been: if we're going to make the world's most powerful handheld console, we might as well make it the best it can possibly be. That involves packing industry-leading visuals, hence the 5-inch OLED screen which on its own is as big as the entire PSP Go console was.

We think the enlarged size is a worthwhile compromise, and this Wi-Fi only model weighs in at just 260g which is 20g lighter than the original, smaller PSP 1000. So when you pick it up you'll react to its apparent lightness.

On the table

The front of the console is a smorgasbord of hardware delights.

To the left of the screen you'll find the classic Sony D-Pad, a left analogue stick, a left speaker and the PS Home button.

To the right you'll find your classic PlayStation triangle, circle, square and X buttons, as well as a right analogue stick, right speaker, a 0.3MP front-facing camera and the Start and Select buttons you're most likely very familiar with already.

On the top side of the Vita are left and right shoulder buttons - there are no trigger buttons like you'd find on a PS3 Dualshock controller. Between the shoulders you'll find the on/off button, volume controls, the PS Vita Card slot (which we'll discuss in a moment) and a terminal to plug in any number of as-yet non-existent peripherals.

The base of the console houses the proprietary USB connector for charging and connecting to PS3 etc, as well as the headphone/microphone adapter and the Memory Card slot.

And finally, the rear of the PS Vita is home to the brand-new rear Touch Pad, a rear 0.3MP camera and a microphone.

Price

At launch the PS Vita will set back UK gamers around £209.99 (RRP £229.99), while the 3G version will launch a little later for £259.99 (£279.99). At the time of writing, the cheapest deal for the PS Vita is £197 at ASDA, while Amazon have matched that price.

There are bundle deals if you shop around, and these include different combinations of PC Sivta with memory cards and games.

xbox one review

XBOX ONE – TWO YEARS ON

2015 has seen Microsoft’s turnaround continue. What launched two years ago as an awkward mess of a console, too focused on establishing the Xbox brand as Microsoft’s living room Trojan Horse, is now a brilliant, competitive games machine with a growing library of equally brilliant games.

There are signs that the gaming public is responding, too, with the Xbox One outselling the PS4 in some key territories, including the US, during April and October of this year. With a line-up that takes in new Halo and Forza titles, plus a timed exclusive Tomb Raider now and new Fable and Gears of War instalments to come, the Xbox One is ideally positioned to have a very merry Christmas. The only question is how long the joy will last.

We began the current console cycle seeing the PS4 as dominant and the Xbox One as DOA. Now the general thinking is that the Xbox One has the best current games line-up, but the PS4 has the greater potential for the future. There’s some truth to this, but it shouldn’t be over-emphasised. Microsoft is still helping developers find new ways of eking more out of the Xbox One’s comparatively underpowered hardware, and the console still has some great-looking games ahead.

XBOX ONE – HARDWARE

One thing hasn’t changed about Microsoft’s console, and that it’s still a big old beast. In fact it’s a bruiser of spectacular proportions, built to handle heat better and work more reliably than the old Xbox 360 did, but looking huge next to the comparatively svelte PlayStation 4. At 333mm x 276mm x 78mm, it’s actually larger than some gaming PCs and the huge external power brick is – frankly – taking the piss. The Xbox One does seem more reliable than its predecessor, with no reports of widespread faults or dying consoles. It’s also quieter than you might expect, though not quite as quiet as the latest model Type-C PS4.

Eventually AMD will release a revised, less power hungry processor and Microsoft will house it in a smaller, more elegant case, just as it did with the Xbox 360 Slim. For now, the best you can hope for is one of the more attractive or eye-catching special edition consoles, though these tend to sell out fast.

The Xbox One beats the PS4 on connectivity, with two USB 3.0 ports on the rear and another at the side, Ethernet and optical audio sockets plus an HDMI input, an HDMI output and a dedicated power and USB connection for the ill-fated Kinect 2 motion sensor. You may need those USB 3.0 sockets, too, because beyond gaming peripherals like guitar controller adaptors and toys-to-life portals, you can also use them to boost your console’s onboard storage.

The 500GB of the original Xbox One fills up fast, while even the newer 1TB consoles won’t give you enough free space for ever. But where the PS4 demands that you switch out its hard disk to increase capacity, the Xbox One lets you connect a USB 3.0 hard drive to get more space. It’s a quick, affordable and easy upgrade, and actually seems to boost loading speeds in many cases.

The Xbox One and PS4 run on very similar hardware, but where Sony did everything it could to pack as much horsepower in its machine as possible – even switching from 4GB to 8GB of shared RAM at the last minute – Microsoft played things safe. The Xbox One’s AMD x86 APU has the same eight CPU cores as the PS4’s, and even runs them at a slightly higher speed (1.75Ghz to 1.6Ghz). However, there are only 12 GCN computing units on the GPU side of things, where the PS4 has 18, while the Xbox One uses 2133Mhz DDR3 RAM instead of the PS4’s lightning-fast 5500MHz GDDR5. 32MB of embedded high-speed ESRAM helps a little, but the PS4 still leaves the Microsoft console outgunned.

This isn’t just an ‘in theory’ sort of thing. Third-party games running on both platforms consistently run more smoothly, with more effects or at higher resolutions on the Sony system. Games like Metal Gear Solid V or Call of Duty: Black Ops III, which run at a full HD 1080p on the PS4, frequently run at 900p or 720p on the Xbox One. In some cases, developers are using clever dynamic resolution systems to squeeze down the horizontal resolution even further, degrading image quality (albeit very subtly) to keep frame rates up.

The effects are noticeable but not necessarily that hideously noticeable, and the good news is that Microsoft is doing its utmost to help developers squeeze more out of the Xbox One hardware and narrow the gap. What’s more, this year’s big exclusives don’t exactly look inferior or half-baked, and you can double that for next year’s titles, such as Quantum Break. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s much-huped and almost-as-much-mocked talk of leveraging cloud-based processing power is beginning to bear fruit. It’s already being used in Forza Motorsport 6 and Halo 5, and it’ll power destructible cities in next year’s Crackdown reboot.

XBOX ONE – CONTROLLER AND KINECT

Some people seem to think that the DualShock 4 is the best console controller out there, but we think that these people should take a deep breath and get a grip. The Xbox One’s standard controller is superior in nearly every way, with better ergonomics, a cleaner button layout, tighter, more responsive analogue sticks and a better D-Pad too. Given the choice between the PS4’s gimmicky touchpad and the Xbox One’s dual impulse triggers, which give you a brilliant rumble feedback when you’re firing off rounds or hitting the accelerator, we’d take the impulse triggers every time.

Microsoft has also now released its Xbox One Elite Controller, with incredible levels of customisation and configuration and an even higher-quality, pro-gamer feel. At £120 It’s just too expensive for most users, however, so only well-heeled hardcore gamers need apply.

In the bad old days of the Xbox One launch every review had to have an obligatory paragraph on Kinect. This year we’ll just explain why that paragraph is missing: because Kinect is effectively dead in the water. Nobody seems to be developing any games for it, and even Microsoft seems to have consigned it a voice control role, as if the high-tech 3D depth camera stuff was somehow an unnecessary add-on to the built-in array microphone.

ps4 review

Sony's Playstation 4 is without doubt the front-runner in today's battle of the consoles. At the last count it had shipped well over 36 million PS4s around the world, with the competing Xbox One from Microsoft has only been able to shift around 20 million consoles.

We can pretty much call this generation of the console war as over - Microsoft has stopped reporting on its own console sales.

But with stellar showings at E3 2015 and Gamescom 2015 Microsoft is doing everything it can to create a bit of a renaissance this year.

Though 2016 sees Sony looking to deliver on the platform exclusive promises that we didn't see last year. And our Nathan Drake looks set to drop one of the most eagerly awaited titles of 2016.

• The State of the Gaming Union Address - PlayStation.

What Microsoft hasn't got though is updated hardware and that's something the chunky, VCR-looking Xbox One needs to change.

Sony has.

The new PS4 hardware update, however, has been pretty low-key and is currently only available in 500GB trim. The current 1TB consoles out in the wild are all still running the older CUH-1100 series hardware - something to keep an eye out for if you're looking to pick up a new Playstation 4 this year.

This CUH-1200 series of consoles has had some pretty major refinements to its build, even if it isn't the anticipated 'slim' version that some were expecting.

What's new?

There are a few cosmetic changes to the design. For a start the two-tone finish of the original PS4 is gone, replaced by a complete matte black finish.

Something that's going to be more divisive though is the way Sony has replaced the touch-sensitive power and eject buttons with actual physical press-buttons. Being able to register when they've been depressed is sometimes preferable, but I never had a problem with the original's touchy-feely buttons before.

And these slightly wobbly, hollow-sounding buttons definitely feel a little cheaper.

But it's the internal components which have seen the biggest changes.

The actual motherboard itself is smaller and there are fewer memory chips arrayed around the AMD APU at the PS4's heart. That doesn't mean there's any less GDDR5 memory in the new CUH-1200 series consoles, Sony has simply used higher density Samsung 8Gb chips so it doesn't need to use as many of the 4Gb memory chips it previously used.

Sony has also used a re-designed Blu-ray drive inside it. Which probably goes to explain why you get less drive/disc noise from the new unit too.

The drive spins down a lot quicker and doesn't seem to have the same aural note as the original device.

Noisy neighbour

And noise is a key factor in the new design too.

It's subjectively quieter than the original PS4; almost noiseless when sat under your TV. That's also largely down to the fact the new PS4 runs cooler thanks to its lower power draw, which means the fans need to spin up less when the machine is being taxed.

It's really impressive what Sony has managed to do in terms of the power draw of the new CUH-1200 series of consoles, and that has had a knock on effect on the whole device.

At idle the new Playstation 4 uses around 20% less power and around 36% less when running in Rest Mode. When in that state the new machine is now drawing only 9W from the wall.

The most impressive change though is what's going on when the PS4 is running at full tilt in game. I ran a graphically-intensive section of The Last of Us Remastered on both consoles and while the original machine is hitting 151W at peak the new PS4 is only hitting 114W at most.

That's a huge saving in power - around 25% less.

Smart move

The manufacturing moves haven't affected the console's performance, just made it cooler, quieter and more efficient. And when Sony can do that with likely a cheaper bill of materials (especially given the simplified Blu-ray and less memory silicon) it only helps boost its margins.

And could also mean a price-cut this year might be on the cards. We may find out at this year's Paris Games Week after Sony avoided Gamescom 2015 to make a splash later in the year.

Elsewhere it's exactly the same as the original console which has so effectively claimed dominion over the current-generation console war.

The controller hasn't been altered and it runs exactly the same firmware revision as the standard console. There has also been no change in gaming performance - and so no move towards getting 4K gaming anywhere close. But that also means existing PS4 owners shouldn't be too worried.

What it does mean though is that if you're going to be buying a new PS4 this year you absolutely need to make sure it's this updated one. And that, at the moment, means limiting yourself to the 500GB version as the 1TB CUH-1200 series still hasn't found its way out into the wild.

Handy hint - if you are looking to buy a new PS4, check the box before you buy.

Around where it mentions the hard drive capacity it will state the model number. If it says anything like CUH-1200 (in the UK our model number is CUH-1216A) then you're golden, but if it's CUH-1000 or CUH-1100 then put it back.

If you're worried about the storage don't forget you can always upgrade your PS4 hard drive yourself.

Original review:

Getting ready to celebrate its two-year anniversary in November, the PlayStation 4 is really getting into its stride now and is well on its way to becoming one of the most successful games consoles of all time.

After selling an incredible one million units in just its first 24 hours on sale in the US, the PS4 has now been snapped up by nearly 24 million gamers worldwide at its last count.

That's a huge number which is even more impressive when you consider it's almost double the number of Xbox One consoles that have sold in the same time period. The sales gap is growing every day, too, despite Microsoft's price cuts to bring parity to the dual.

Things certainly don't look like turning round for the PS4 either.

Sony has recently redesigned the console for the CUH-1200 model, with a less power-hungry PSU and quieter operation as well as a fully matte-black design.

Unless you go for one of Darth Vader's own PS4s anyway...

With more graphical power than the Xbox One, 32 times more system memory than the PS3 and a firm focus on pure gaming experiences rather than media might, the PS4 has established itself as the console to beat of this generation.

It's a games console built by gamers for gamers and won the hearts and minds of many from the word go, with lots of prospective next-genners left feeling alienated by some of Microsoft's bizarre policies and choices for the Xbox One – many of which were reversed as a result of a backlash.

What's more, the PS4 is now available online for less than £300, which is about the same price as Microsoft's Xbox One bundle without Kinect. It doesn't come with the PlayStation Camera but this can be bought separately for £39 if you really want one.

We don't think it's necessary, but we'll get to that.

• What should we expect from the PlayStation 5?

The differences between the PS4 and Xbox One are evident before you even switch them on.

Despite the two consoles both sporting similar half-matte half-gloss finishes and containing very similar internal components, they really couldn't be more different.

For a start, the PS4's parallelogram form is small and sleek in comparison to the enormous VCR-like cuboid of the Xbox One. And this means that the PS4's box is half the size and weight, and with the new PS4 versions arriving later this year they're getting even lighter.

The Sony console can be extracted from its packaging and plugged in and booted up in a couple of minutes.

Xbox One on the other hand comes in a huge, hulking box. It's fiddly to open and unpack, and it's full of little compartments, with loads of cardboard and plastic bits to get in your way.

This is the kind of streamlining that typifies the PlayStation experience with PS4.

It's a console designed for gamers to play games and in this respect it could be described as more of spiritual successor to the PlayStation 2 – still the best selling games console the observable universe has ever known.

Design

One look at the PS4 and you know you're looking at Sony hardware. It's slim, sleek, available in jet black and shiny white, and amazingly it's roughly the size of a second generation PS3 Slim.

You could also pick it up in PSOne grey for a limited amount of time, but thatdidn't end so well...

The full measurements are 275 x 53 x 305 mm so it's a lot more compact than an Xbox One, which is longer, taller and squarer.

In a feat of engineering worth tipping your hat to, and in spite of the PlayStation 4's slim stature, Sony has tucked the power supply inside the system, leaving no external power brick to trip over.

The Xbox One on the other hand retains the external power brick of the Xbox 360, leaving you with more mess behind your TV, though without the ol' 360's overheating issues.

The PS4 is meant to lay flat on its belly but, if your media centre can only accommodate a vertical machine, Sony has a plastic stand it sells separately for £17 which helps the system stand up straight.

On the front-facing side you'll find a slot-loading Blu-ray disc drive and to its right two powered USB 3.0 ports, which can charge your DualShock 4controllers even when the system is turned off and are used to sync controllers when taking gamepads from one place to another.

Spin the system around and you'll be met with an HDMI (still only 1.4 m'afraid), Ethernet and a digital optical audio out port, as well as a proprietary auxiliary connection for the PlayStation Camera.

Along the top - or the side if you've opted for the stand - is a light, which glows blue when you boot it up. It breathes some life into the otherwise cold industrial design of the system. Turn it on and it blinks a yawning hello.

PS4 specifications

Inside, the PS4 is all business. It has a custom single-chip processor that combines an eight core x86-64 AMD "Jaguar" CPU with a 1.84 teraflop GPU based on AMD's Radeon graphics technology. That's backed by 8GB of mega-fast GDDR5 RAM, and a 500GB mechanical hard drive.

You can also remove that 500GB drive and replace it with a larger drive, or an SSD for better performance. Sony says these do it yourself upgrades will not void the system's warranty which is fabulous.

There is also a new 1TB version of the PlayStation 4 on its way in July if you don't want to take to your console with a screwdriver.

Overall, Sony claims that the PS4's overall performance is ten times that of the PS3.

For wireless connections, the PS4 uses 802.11 b/g/n for WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 for its wireless DualShock 4 controllers.

What's in the box?

You're bringing home more than a just a stylish, black or white parallelogram. In addition to the actual system you get a power cord (not a big power brick), an HDMI cable, an earbud microphone combo, one DualShock 4 controller and its charging cable (we charged our DualShock 4 pad using the Xbox One and the world did not end).

Extra controllers don't come with another charging cable, so don't lose that one.

Also, note that we said earbud singular, not earbuds, as in just for one ear. It's cheap but serviceable, but you can actually plug any headphones you already own into the controller's headphone jack, so it's not much of an issue.

New features

If there's a team that works harder than Sony's internal development team, we'd like to meet them. As it is, they roll out monthly (sometimes bi-monthly) updates that drastically change the interface and feature set of the system.

The biggest changes of the past years? The Sony-exclusive rental streaming service called PlayStation Now - finally now in paid beta form in the UK- Remote Play, Sharefactory and Share Play, which debuted in system firmware 2.0.

Of course there have been myriad minor changes like the ability to turn off HDCP, play games while they're downloading, upload clips to YouTube and set themes and background images for the home screen in that time as well.

All of these features can be found sporadically throughout the new PlayStation Dynamic Menu, the primary GUI of the PS4. It's capable of delivering games, movies and TV shows into your home at lightning speeds as well as connecting you to your friends and other online gamers through the PlayStation Network.

Remember to use the ability to post to Twitter and Facebook to share your best brag-worthy gaming moments and, if you're feeling outgoing, you can stream to Twitch here too.

Sony has also recently boosted the PS4's capabilities as a media player too, by releasing a new PS4 Media Centre app. Finally Sony's console has almost the same excellent non-gamey playback as its PS3 forebear.

Yes, you can now play .mkv files, you lucky people.

Setup

Setting up the PlayStation 4 is very easy, especially if you have a PS3. You can actually use the same cables from Sony's last system, making for a very easy swap.

As mentioned above, the PS4 is super easy to extract from its box and set up, leaving minimal mess and very little environment-killing packaging.

Once it's all plugged in and booted up, your new PS4 will ask to connect to the internet. It wants to download the latest patches which could take a while depending on your connection, but it doesn't need them for offline play.

You are able to skip WiFi or ethernet altogether and just pop in a game. Unlike the Xbox One, you can get to the homescreen without initially connecting to the web and patching.

Once you do connect to the internet, you'll need to let the PS4 update before you can make purchases from the store or play online.

PlayStation Store

The PlayStation Store is your portal to every shred of content Sony has available on its system. You'll use it to shop for the latest games, movies and featured content that the Big Blue thinks you ought to know about.

Of course featured games have come and gone over the course of the past year, but one new feature that's stuck around is the ability to buy a digital copy of a game and have it install days before its retail launch.

You won't be able to start it until the midnight of its launch-day, but just having a game the second the clock strikes 12 is convenient.

If you're not buying a game the minute it comes out, you can even start playing part of the game before the download completes.

When purchasing a game you'll be asked which portion of the game should be prioritised, single player or multiplayer, essentially letting you choose which part of the game you want to hop into first.

In a little less than an hour, you'll be able to start playing a brand new title.

It may seem like something only the truly impatient would enjoy, but when you consider that many releases weigh in excess of 35GB, it's real luxury feature, and another impressive bit of engineering.

And might put a stop to some of that midnight queuing.

Then there's the PlayStation app for iOS and Android. With just the stroke of a touchscreen, you can remotely purchase games and get the download going on your PS4 so it's ready and waiting when you get home (the console will turn on, download and switch off on its own).

PS Vita and Xperia Remote Play

When Remote Play for the PS Vita and Xperia smartphones was announced, everyone chirped that the PS4 would be the best thing ever to happen to Sony's struggling handheld.

In short, a WiFi connected PS4 can stream gameplay to a Vita or recent Xperia handset, much like a gaming PC streaming Borderlands 2 to the Nvidia Shield, or the Windows to Linux streaming of Valve's Steam Box.

We used the PS4 and Vita over our home WiFi and the connection to the PS4 was lag free so you can actually use it as an additional control pad, as well as a second screen. It's a great way to avoid using the on screen keyboard, if nothing else.

Sharing gameplay and videos

When Sony pulled the PS4 out of the shadows and started rattling off features, it mentioned one truly original and intriguing feature: saving and sharing gameplay videos with the press of the Share button on the DualShock 4.

At all times when playing a game, your last fifteen minutes of action is being recorded.

This can be disabled, if you find it creepy or want to save on hard drive space, but it's switched on by default. There are also places where recording or screen grabs are locked out by developers. It's usually during cinematics or in certain menus.

Right on the console you can manipulate the video to a limited degree, more like trimming than true editing, and then share it to Facebook, YouTube or on the PSN. You can also take a screenshot by holding the Share button, and then attach it to a PSN message, Facebook or tweet it.

You can also stream live gameplay for others to watch over Twitch and Ustream, something PC gamers have enjoyed for a while now. It's quite painless to set up, especially compared to the third-party mechanics needed to employ this on a last-gen system.

Share Play

Share Play allows players to let friends take control of the game they're playing, watch their in-game progress, and even lets them invite friends to play with them co-operatively or competitively (depending on the game). The most interesting aspect about this is that both players don't need to own the game in order to have a shared session. It's pretty simple to use; simply hit the Share button on the control pad and a menu pops up in which players can select the Share Play feature. Then it's all a matter of sending out an invitation to a player in their friend list. You can read more about Share Play on the Network page of this review.