I have both consoles and I am only speaking from experiences with both consoles over the last couple of weeks
From a gaming point of view both consoles are great but there are aspects of the ps4 design which seemed very rushed or cheap and its been bugging the crap out of me if anyone else is having the same issues.
We are also lucky enough to have 2 ps4 consoles at our place and one xbone so its not related to a single faulty console.
TLDR VERSION
I hate the design of the ventilation on the ps4 and the ds4 feels like a fat ds3 with flaky bits and a crappy battery.
The Fans
The Xbone is whisper quite
its summer at the moment in Aus and we have had a couple of 35 degree days with high humidity and my house feels a little hot at times
in saying that I have not once heard the xbone fan kick in after hours of gameplay in this weather..i have to put my hand above the vent to check to see if the fan was working
As for the PS4
the First thing I noticed when I booted up the ps4 for the first time was the fan sounded exactly like the ps3 slim and once I started to game with it the fan started to creep up to the same audible levels of the ps3 and in some cases
It got quite loud (Killzone)
.all 3 of our consoles had the same noise level and a mate who also got a ps4 commented that he could hear it over a pedestal fan that he had running in his room
.which brings me to the next point
PS4 does not like being put in a cabinet
The PS4 does not like being placed in tv cabinets or entertainment units
.which is where a majority of people would put them
I have my ps4 and xbone in an Ikea bookcase lied on its side..to give you an idea its basically one of these turned on its side
http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/50185483/
The TV sits on top and all my consoles sit in the bottom
The clearance above the consoles is about 35 to 40cm and at the rear there is around 30cm from the back of the console to the wall..and there is also a gap between the cabinet which air flows out of.I have an xbox 360 and ps3 in 2 of the boxes so I have a rough base to go off in terms of sound.
I have tried the xbone in this cabinet and I have also used in another rooms tv cabinet which has reduced room above the console which is one of these
http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/S09927114/
It has the back plate removed as I got sick of running cords through a tiny hole
On both occasions I have not heard the console or noticed any excessive heat coming out of the location where its stored..the ps4 has also been in both locations and while its not as loud in the bigger ikea cabinet (have tried in both horizontal and vertical orientations) it sounds like a jet once it goes into a smaller space
Which is weird because the cabinet has ample space on the sides and at the rear (70cm wide 20cm high 50 cm deep).
The only way I have been able to reduce the noise is to pull the ps4 out of the cabinet and place it on a crate in the middle of the floor which is sort of crap
.the furniture I own is certainly not the most exotic space restricting furniture for consoles and even the xbone which is as fat as an old VCR does not give off as much noise and it has even less space to work with.
Coming from 4 rrod xboxs and 2 YLOD ps3s I have made sure the choices in furniture are the best when it comes to having a cool environment for your gaming consoles
My Friend who also owns the ps4 has also realised he cant have it placed next to his tv as the heat from the rear of the TV makes his ps4 fan kick in or he cant have it in his entertainment cabinet as he has to turn off his satellite box as the heat from that also kicks in the fans.
The other ps4 in the house also has to be away from the tv and in a fully open area to remain at a low fan speed level and in when i tested it in the same spots the same issues came up.
I am pretty certain MS spent a crapload of money in designing cooling and cases to limit the risk of the same 360 rrod issues popping up again with the xbone but the ps4 just seems like a She will be right mate approach and simply copied the ps3 slim design and put a few extra holes in it
surely I'm not the only one with both consoles that have noticed how loud this thing is at times????
I understand the reason the ps4 does not have a massive quite fan is due to the PSU being integrated into the case but surely they must of realised how loud this thing is and how hot it gets and how most people are going to be putting this thing in entertainment cabinets with other electronic components?????
Which brings me to the other pet hate
The Controller
Yes the bigger controller Is better than the ds3 and to some people gives the xbox controller a run for its money but I want to point out 5 things that bug me about the controller you get in the box and why it feels cheap and rushed
1) The short charging cord you get
..you want to play your ps4 straight away but your control is flat and must be charged so you have to move your whole couch/chair closer to the tv because the cable is so short
.would a few extra feet really hurt??
2) Those thumbsticks wear down pretty quick
I have not rubbing on them like a woman and her lady parts but after a week of gaming the corners of the thumbsticks have started to break away leaving the underlayer coming through??
I have a dualshock 2 that is linked up to my pc that has been used almost every day for the past 5 years and it has no signs of wear but the ds4 after a week starts to flake and fall apart??? Some great QC there
3) The touch Pad
.apart from being awkward to use my pad has started to come loose and rattle slightly when used
It really seems as if it was simply tacked onto ds3..im yet to see the benefit of having it on the control.
4) That Blue light
.while it was a choice to remove the camera to make the console cheaper its left a rather annoying
Light on the control that is only used properly if you have the camera add-on
.they should of left the camera in or removed the light off the control and simply bundled the controllers with the lights with the cameras instead of giving everyone a light show which drains the battery. Which brings me to the final point
5) Battery life of the ds4 is absolutely shocking ..some days it only lasts for 4 hours before I have to move the whole couch forward next to the tv to use the short charging cord to play the ps4
.my xbone control I have not replaced the batteries in it once since release and it has extra motors in it compared to the 360 control.
Either it has the most crappy rechargeable battery internally or the blue light show is sucking all of the juice
All of the things they have added to the control have not improved my gaming experience at all.
If I used the new xbone control as an example the feedback through the triggers allows me greater feedback on forza where I can now feel when I am pushing the car to hard around a corner or I am braking too hard
Back over the other side of the fence
the only real innovation is the controller fits better in your hand
The mic/speaker , touchpad and flashing light have added nothing to my gaming experience and as a result of having these I have to put up with crap battery life and have to buy another charging cable so I dont have to move my furniture around the loungeroom
my extra control I purchased did not even come with a charging cable..GG there.
Those are my 3 main issues I have with the ps4 and lead me to believe that MS spent a fair amount of money in controls cooling and case design and not very much on the internal pieces that run the console
while many people could not give a S### about fan noise and the ds4 bugged bits the build quality of the xbone and its components feels far superior than the ps4 at this time.
I would of laughed if someone told me that last generation but there are far too man rough edges around the ps4s design this time around that have me wondering if my ps4 will croak in the first couple or years.
Only time will tell
.. So String me up or share your thoughts on my topic
