PS5 ‘slim’ teardown shows the clever engineering of its detachable disc drive

The new PlayStation 5 hasn’t come out but — it doesn’t actually have a particular launch date — however just a few YouTubers have gotten their fingers on it, together with Dave Lee from the Dave2D channel. Lee posted his teardown of the console yesterday, and in case you’ve been interested in how that detachable disc drive works, that is the greatest look you’ll get at it with out shopping for the $499.99 PS5 your self later this month.

After Lee pries off the PS5’s plastic facet cowl, you possibly can see the drive sitting there with three screws staring again at you. I assumed they had been pentalobe screws at first, however a later zoomed-in shot shows they’re simply customary crosshead screws. Philips head, in case you like. Okay, no surprises there. Good.

But then it simply pops proper out. The screws had been a purple herring! Such glossy modularity!

When Lee pulls the drive apart, it reveals a port framed inside an rectangular hexagon the place the drive’s connecter settles. This is what I beloved about a lot of the design of machines like the PowerMac G5. You see the half, you seize it, and you are taking it out — there’s no exhausting, angular plastic connector to stab your sweaty fingers as you wriggle it free. Very tasteful.

The drive apart, the new PS5 is a nice-looking system in case you’re into the pointy Dracula collar look of the first one. And when Lee places it subsequent to the unique, the measurement disparity is extra drastic than previous comparisons have made it appear, even when they’re actually not that in another way sized; it’s nonetheless bigger than the Xbox Series X, in any case. Lee says it feels considerably lighter, too — nice for once you take your PS5 out for its afternoon stroll (or over to your pal’s home).

Here’s the full video, in case you’d like to take a look at the relaxation of the teardown.