The PlayStation 5 is the console to get if you want to play hit video games like The Last of Us, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and God of War. While many of these games will launch on PCs eventually, the PlayStation 5 is where you can play them first, making it a great choice for gamers of all ages and interests.
Sony has replaced the original PS5 three years after launch with a new PlayStation 5 Slim and PlayStation 5 Slim Digital Edition. The revamped consoles are (slightly) smaller, but they’re not exactly upgrades from existing PS5s, and if you already own one, there’s no reason to splurge on the Slim models. Here’s everything you need to know about the latest PlayStations—and which one to buy.
If you have a big collection of physical PlayStation 4 games, if you want to watch 4K Blu-ray discs on your console, or if you’re a deal hunter looking for discounted new and used games on disc, you should get the standard PlayStation 5 so that you can use its UHD Blu-ray drive.
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The Digital Edition doesn’t include a disc drive, so you can’t watch Blu-rays or take advantage of new or used games, or old PS4 discs. But if you’re comfortable going all digital, it has the same graphics, CPU, memory, and storage hardware as the standard PS5.
The PlayStation Slim 5 Digital Edition costs $50 less than the version with a UHD Blu-ray drive, and it does everything the standard version does except for play discs. If you don’t want to spend $500 on a new console, if you don’t buy or watch movies on UHD Blu-ray, or if you don’t care about disc-based games, the Digital Edition might make more sense, especially for anyone who takes advantage of a PlayStation Plus game subscription. You can also add a disc drive later—but it’ll cost you.
![A screenshot from the Final Fantasy 16 video game, showing two people and a wolf overlooking waterfalls flowing into a lake.](https://cdn.thewirecutter.com/wp-content/media/2023/06/june-games-2048px-1212.jpg?auto=webp&quality=60&width=570)
Most of PlayStation’s biggest games in 2022 came to the PS4, including Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7, and God of War: Ragnarok, but in 2023 PlayStation began to release games like Final Fantasy XVI and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 exclusively on PS5. If you play a lot of games on your PlayStation 4, it might be time to upgrade—and you won’t even have to leave your library behind. Virtually all of your PS4 games will work on the PS5, and you’ll also get immediately noticeable improvements in console boot times and game loading, as well as some performance and visual improvements in many games.