The Playstation 4 is without doubt the front-runner in today's battle of the consoles. At the last count it had shipped well over 24 million PS4s around the world, with the competing Xbox One from Microsoft has only been able to shift around half as many at 13 million consoles.
The PS4 hardware update, however it has been pretty low-key and is currently only available in 500GB trim. The current 1TB consoles out in the wild are all still running the older CUH-1100 series hardware - something to keep an eye out for if you're looking to pick up a new Playstation 4.
After selling an incredible one million units in just its first 24 hours on sale in the US, the PS4 has now been snapped up by nearly 24 million gamers worldwide at its last count.
That's a huge number which is even more impressive when you consider it's almost double the number of Xbox One consoles that have sold in the same time period. The sales gap is growing every day, too, despite Microsoft's price cuts to bring parity to the dual.
Things certainly don't look like turning round for the PS4 either.
Sony has recently redesigned the console for the CUH-1200 model, with a less power-hungry PSU and quieter operation as well as a fully matte-black design.
Unless you go for one of Darth Vader's own PS4s anyway...
With more graphical power than the Xbox One, 32 times more system memory than the PS3 and a firm focus on pure gaming experiences rather than media might, the PS4 has established itself as the console to beat of this generation.
It's a games console built by gamers for gamers and won the hearts and minds of many from the word go, with lots of prospective next-genners left feeling alienated by some of Microsoft's bizarre policies and choices for the Xbox One – many of which were reversed as a result of a backlash.
What's more, the PS4 is now available online for less than £300, which is about the same price as Microsoft's Xbox One bundle without Kinect. It doesn't come with the PlayStation Camera but this can be bought separately for £39 if you really want one.
We don't think it's necessary, but we'll get to that.
- What should we expect from the PlayStation 5?
The differences between the PS4 and Xbox One are evident before you even switch them on.
Despite the two consoles both sporting similar half-matte half-gloss finishes and containing very similar internal components, they really couldn't be more different.
For a start, the PS4's parallelogram form is small and sleek in comparison to the enormous look like square look of the Xbox One. And this means that the PS4's box is half the size and weight, and with the new PS4 versions arrivied later they got even lighter.
