Say goodbye to toothbrushes, cocktail sticks and other painstaking efforts to keep your consoles as shiny as the day you bought it. Thanks to the PlayStation 5’s next-gen “dust catchers”, you won’t have to worry about cleaning those hard to reach places.
We’ve all experienced that eye-widening sound when your PlayStation 4 sounds like it's about to take flight, as it tries to operate normally against an accumulation of dust. While all vented systems suffer from dust bunny invasions, the PlayStation 5 will introduce a new hardware mechanic that will aid the system's performance and longevity. Featured in Sony’s PS5 Teardown video - hosted by Sony’s head of mechanical design Yasuhiro Ootori - the next-gen console can be seen sporting two holes behind the primary faceplate that will be the console’s dust catchers.
The console fan will inevitably collect dust, which will then be filtered into these small dust catchers. All that’s left to do is to grab a vacuum and remove the collected dust from the convenient catchers. It’s an innovative step for Sony to include in its already impressive machine, that should dramatically reduce overheating and keep the fan purring for years to come, instead of revving like a jet engine.
Although the outer white panel of the PlayStation 5 will have to be detached to access the dust catchers, its removal process seems fairly straightforward. It would appear as if Sony has given gamers the necessary access to maintain their consoles and preserve its long and healthy life. While recent reports have stated that both next-gen consoles run quieter than their predecessors, Microsoft’s Xbox Series X apparently suffers from heat issues; a problem that Sony may be ahead of.
Also featured in the Teardown video was the PlayStation 5’s Ultra HD Optical Drive, which carries special insulation to reduce vibrations and internal noise. The large fan is also fitted with a heatsink and liquid metal is used to achieve an optimal cooling performance. Sony confirmed that the cooling liquid metal was worked on for two years, and its innovation - combined with those neat dust catchers - are making the PlayStation 5 seem technically irresistible.