PS4 VS Xbox One: Can Xbone And PlayStation 4 Updates Fix The Design Errors?

The PS4 VS Xbox One console battle continues to be waged on the internet, but we think both Sony and Microsoft could have done better. Both companies focused on avoiding having their systems become huge loss leaders, but to the detriment of gamers. Could future Xbone and PlayStation 4 updates fix the hardware design errors?

In a related report by The Inquisitr, in part 1 of this series we discussed how the both PS4 and Xbox One GPU should have been faster based upon a cost comparison to previous generations. In part 2, we analyzed how the Xbox One and PS4 hard drives could have been much faster and yet not have cost very much at all. For part 3, we considered how the Xbone and PlayStation 4 controllers could have been improved.
For good or worse, the hardware is here to stay. But it’s possible both companies will eventually come out with a console “refresh” similar to Xbox 360 redesign and the PS3 Slim. So what should be on our wish list for a PS4 Slim and Xbox One+ (or whatever it gets called)?

Upgradeable Internal Hard Drive

Personally, I found the next generation a big step backwards in regards to hard drives since upgrading the Xbox One HD yourself requires Linux knowledge and voiding your warranty (not so with the PS4, although accessing the HD is not as easy as the PS3). Right off the bat, the 500 GB hard drives in both systems only give about 400 GB to work with. This space is consumed quickly because all games are fully installed to the hard drives mostly due to the performance requirements of loading high resolution textures. This is also a big issue since hard drive failures are fairly common in all computer hardware. So a console refresh needs to make internal hard drives easily accessible.

Faster GPU

Everyone talks about how the PS4 GPU can handle 1080p at 60 FPS while the Xbox One cannot. The thing is, that’s not entirely true. When tests have been run on various PS4 games the actual framerate tends to fluctuate between 30 FPS and 60FPS, which can make for an inconsistent gaming experience. So a hardware refresh could include AMD shrinking the die size of both the Xbox One and PS4 APU with the 14 nanometer production process, which could potentially have a higher clock speed.
Games would still be designed with the hardware limitations of the original design in mind, but this could help the framerate be more consistent. In the case of the Xbox One GPU, it’s possible a higher speed could allow 1080p in newer games. This would function similar to the Nintendo 64 RAM upgrade back in the day, where games would detect the hardware version.

PS4 Controller Battery Life

All the reviews comparing the new designs have noticed one glaring flaw with the PlayStation 4 controller: it’s battery life is pathetic in comparison to the Xbox One or even the PS3. Quite frankly, Sony should just increase the backing of the plastic ever so slightly in order to wedge in a bigger battery. I’d also suggest allowing us to turn off the nifty blue light bar and also give us more USB cables with controller purchases (it’s $60 already!).

Media Remotes And DLNA Streaming

Why don’t media remotes come standard with both systems? Nuf said.
In this day and age it seems odd we don’t have DLNA for streaming videos and music. But I’m just glad the Bluetooth support includes wireless headphones for my late night gaming sessions.

Voice Recognition

While I’m glad Sony decided to give us voice recognition akin to the Kinect 2.0, the way it’s implemented leaves a lot to be desired. The mono headset is the only way to input voice commands and I really don’t like using it. So why couldn’t the controller just have a microphone built in? The same goes for the Xbox One. When my 18-inch sub is booming out explosion communicating with the Kinect becomes troublesome, so Microsoft should copy Sony in a refresh of the Xbox One controller design.

PS4 Cloud Based Saved Games

On the PC side Steam has been allowing gamers to back up their saved games onto the cloud for safe storage for years. Even if it’s part of PlayStation Plus I think most gamers would love to have the security of knowing their saves won’t evaporate when their console (eventually) bites the dust. Also, the local saved games and the cloud copy need to be synchronized automatically instead of keeping them separate. Since Microsoft managed to get this right with the Xbox One you’d hope Sony would follow suit.

Software Issues

Regardless of hard issues, Microsoft has been trying to fix the software issues with regular Xbox One updates, but there’s also issues with PlayStation 4 user interface. While in some ways it’s an improvement on the PS3 it still resorts to rows of icons which can’t be organized or pinned for common usage. I’d also like to see touchpad support for the web browser added. It’s also very limited on organizing files, download management, and even the background theme can’t be tweaked at all. Both companies also didn’t bother to enable full software support for the eSATA port for hard drives. Also, Sony currently does not allow us to save our game files to USB drives.