Revised ‘1200’ model PS5 is lighter and more power efficient

Sony quietly unveiled a new model of its PlayStation 5 last week in Australia. Reports suggested the new model, which bears a 1200 model number, was more lightweight — like its predecessor, the 1100, which appeared last year.

Austin Evans, a YouTuber, has now obtained an 1200-model PS5 Digital Edition, put it through initial tests and then performed a teardown. It was Evans whose initial report on the 1100 suggested its cooling assembly might perform worse than the 1200, leading to fears the model was a downgrade — which proved to be unfounded.

However, Evans’ findings on the 1200 model are significant. It’s around half a pound lighter than the 1100, and a full pound lighter than the launch model — a noticeable change. A teardown shows a significantly reduced internal structure, including a smaller heatsink and motherboard, as well as a new heatpipe. Both in noise and heat output the 1200 performs very similarly to older models.

But the main point is that it draws significantly less power than its predecessor. The simple gameplay test, which involves running a scene from a movie starting at 0:00 p.m. Astro’s PlayroomEvans discovered that the 1200 model used 20-30W less power than older PS5 models. If this is borne out in more extensive testing, it would mean a non-trivial reduction in the power cost of playing games on a PS5 of between 10% and 20% — good news for the planet, and for players’ energy bills.

Evans says the revised PS5 is “almost certainly” cheaper for Sony to produce. It’s normal for electronics manufacturers to find efficiencies and cost savings as they refine their products, but these normally go hand-in-hand with price reductions for consumers. Sony recently increased the PS5’s price in countries outside of the U.S.