Xbox One or PS4: Which should you get?

Published Dec 8, 2014

Share

Washington - So you've saved your allowance money for a year, and now you have enough to buy a next-generation console. They're about the same price — Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 — but which one is better?

We've played with both of them, all year long. (It's a tough job, but someone had to do it!) While both machines have pluses and minuses, we pick one as our overall winner.

 

Key features

We're not going to bore you with technicalities (how fast the processing chips are, what sort of video memory each has, etc.). These consoles are powerful and games look really great on them.

Both have an internal 500 GB hard drive, a Blu-ray drive and wireless networking capability. They come with a controller and a way to talk to your friends — headset (Xbox One) or ear buds (PlayStation 4).

An important thing to note about both consoles: Neither of them is compatible with previous-generation games. This means that you can't play Xbox 360 games on your Xbox One or PlayStation 3 games on your PlayStation 4. (You can give your old console to a younger sibling.)

 

Overall experience

This is where the machines part ways. You need to ask yourself: Do I want a machine that only plays games or one that also does other things?

Xbox One is basically a Windows 8 machine. What does that mean? The dashboard is tiled out with various squares or apps. Popular apps such as Netflix, HBO Go and Hulu are available on Xbox One. When you want to launch one, just highlight it with your controller and hit a button. Super easy.

Xbox One also can be plugged into your home's cable box to watch television. If you opt for a system with Kinect (it costs about $20/R200 more), you can use voice commands to control it. Just say, “Xbox, watch TV” and it will switch to your cable box. You can access specific channels, too. Say, “Xbox, watch ESPN,” and it will tune it to the sports network for you. Even Web searches are possible by voice command.

Like the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 can run apps such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, but it can't be plugged into your cable box. There is a PlayStation 4 camera (sold separately) that can handle some voice commands, but nothing on the level of the Kinect on Xbox One.

 

The games

Ultimately, it's all about the games. Sure, most third-party publishers (Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, etc.) will have games that work on both platforms. However, each platform has its “console exclusives.” For example, Xbox has the Forza racing series, the Fable series and Halo. PlayStation has the popular Uncharted series and Little Big Planet. It's really up to you which franchises you prefer.

 

So which one to buy?

We like both consoles, but if we had to choose one, we would go with the Xbox One with Kinect. We like that it can play terrific games and showcase great entertainment. Being able to watch TV through your Xbox One is too cool. We also love the game exclusives and the voice controls.

Whether you agree with us or not, you really can't go wrong with either console. Both have an array of games to keep you busy this holiday season and well into next year.

The Washington Post

Related Topics: