First PS5 hands-on reviews emerge from Japan, and more tech news today

Your Tech News Digest via the DGiT Daily Tech Newsletter for Monday, October 5th, 2020.

1. Outside Japan: First Hands-On PS5 Reviews

Japanese reviewers are the first in the world to get their hands on Sony’s new PlayStation 5. A number of outlets showed photos and videos of the console in the flesh and had the opportunity to play a few games with an early vision of the load times and games.

• It’s a beast. The PS5 is the biggest console ever and is early photos (still with plastic wrap!) By 4Gamer uploaded in very high resolutions. Check What You See Even If Most Users Need Google Translate!
• The only thing missing from the pictures is the classic banana-type arrangement for scale to really find out the size and dimensions, but hopefully no one should be surprised that the first boxes are delivered as one large unit.

As The Verge notes, there are a couple of clues of pieces of metal hiding in the louvers and vents, with this piece of metal here supposedly being a latch:

• The latch (or is it just a screw?) May be partially accessible for opening the hardware box and adding expandable storage with an SSD.
• Sony has promised it will be possible, but has not yet explained exactly how it will work, including the type of connection required to connect the SSD of your choice.
• (4Gamer also stated that they didn’t remove dust because they went through the photo and post production process, but the non-matte finish might still collect dust.)

Play:

• 4Gamer put the console through its paces in a gaming session, saying the console was warmed up but stayed cool: “As mentioned above, the exhaust was gentle and I could barely hear the seemingly rotating sound of the fan.”
• A silent next-gen console? Hmm!
• There were comments about the nice touch and feel of the new DualSense controllers, especially the joysticks, and some great close-ups of them:

Further findings:

• Dengeki Online had a video about the gameplay and a helpful view of the PS5 running near a TV showing a rough size. (The TV looks roughly 50 inches? It’s hard to tell).
• Hanae Natsuki showed the games Astro’s Playground and Godfall, the former that we have seen a few times.
• One interesting nugget is that here we see and we have seen reports (AV-Watch) that the default Confirm / Accept / Continue button setting has been changed to X instead of O in Japan.
• For Japanese players, some adjustment in muscle memory is required in order to switch to the new control standards. (You can see the same shift from PS4 to Switch!)

It’s only been a month or so: the PS5 release date is November 12, 2020.

2. Google Pixel 5 Versus Older Google Phones: Should You Upgrade? (Android Authority). Why did Google choose the Snapdragon 765G for the Pixel 5? (Android Authority).

3. The durability test for the Galaxy Z Fold 2 reveals important corrections and permanent defects (Android Authority).

4. Mi Smart Speaker Review: The best affordable smart speaker, but currently limited worldwide, although it costs around $ 48 (Android Authority).

5. We asked, you told us: 72% prefer 60 Hz OLED displays over an LCD with a higher refresh rate (Android Authority).

6. Apple’s new emoji wants you to know that wearing a face mask (gizmodo) doesn’t mean you need to be unhappy.

7. Zeiss full-screen Android camera is available for pre-order for $ 6,000 (The Verge).

8. Tesla camera hack shows how your EV can monitor driving habits (Engadget).

9. Taiwan’s giant chipmaker TSMC feels the heat in the US-China tech feud as it tries to remain neutral friends to both of them (New York Times).

10. After two peels, Elon Musk says he will visit SpaceX launch sites in Florida: “Expect Musk to remind his launch team of their expectations” (Ars Technica).

11. Here is a virtual tour of Machu Picchu (Google).

12. IKEA catalogs of the past. Huh, 1974 looks suspiciously aesthetic, but I’m not the person judging these things? (ikeamuseum.com)

DGiT Daily delivers a daily email that keeps you updated on all the technical news, opinions and links on the most important developments on the planet. You get all the context and insight you need, all with a fun touch. Plus! Daily fun change for every day of the week, like Wednesday weirdness. Join in!