PlayStation 5 Accessories Review - Remote, Headset & More

 

PS5 accessories

What to connect to the new console

The tech business is pretty simple. For example, the main device is the PlayStation 5. An excellent piece of hardware, a console that you want to put at home and dive into the wonderful world of video games. It will be a great investment in the entertaining experience we covered in our big review. How to make your impressions brighter? How to expand and improve the practical use of the new game console? With accessories, of course.

The Russian office of Sony provided our editorial office with a complete set, consisting of remote control, an HD camera, a charging station for DualSense gamepads, and a Pulse 3D wireless headset. I spent enough time with them and am ready to share my impressions. Let's talk about everything in order - from smallest to largest.

Remote control Multimedia

When we first met, I asked myself the question - why do we need this little gadget? It is really small and barely reaches 19 centimeters in length and weighs quite a bit: 165 grams. The compact device allows remote control of the console. With it, you can turn on the PlayStation 5, quickly get to, for example, YouTube and Netflix, and already inside the services, you can comfortably watch videos and use the fast navigation options using the remote control: select, start, rewind and stop videos.

It's a niche thing, but in the long run, the remote can be quite useful. It is not for nothing that the PS5 is positioned not only as a game console but also as a multimedia center - the menu inside the interface was divided into games and multimedia for a reason. The remote has separate buttons for Netflix, Youtube, Spotify, and Disney +. At the time of launch in Russia, the last two are not available, so two of the four buttons lead nowhere. This is most likely temporary, but for now, you have to put up with this little inconvenience.

The rest of the remote control left a good impression of itself. It is pleasant to the touch and fits comfortably in the hand, fits into the overall design and just lies beautifully on the shelf. If you plan to actively use your PS5 as a media player, this is a good option to make your experience more comfortable.

HD camera

The most highly specialized and niche thing of all. In fact, this camera is only useful for those who are going to stream and communicate with friends via video link. The story, you see, is not the most common.

At the same time, I cannot fail to note the quality of the performance: a soft and high-quality picture in 1080p, the sound is clear. With the camera toolkit, you can add a picture of yourself to game videos during broadcasts using picture-in-picture mode, crop the background, or even replace it. However, do not expect miracles, to replace the background you will need to pull a green screen behind your back. Also, be prepared for the fact that using this camera with PS VR will not work - this is its main and, perhaps, the only drawback. A VR headset requires a PS4 camera and a dongle adapter that Sony will mail to you for free.

And the HD camera remains the ultimate solution for those looking to stream.

DualSense charging station

My favorite, a damn useful accessory that saves time and keeps harmony and beauty in your living room. I had a similar one for PS4, and this is its direct heir.

I really don't like extra wires. In a large room, I tried to hide and remove them as much as possible: the power cord from the TV, from the router, from the console. The DualSense charging station saved me the hassle of connecting a gamepad to the PS5 with a USB Type-C cable and keeping the console on all the time, and at the same time ruining the interior.

Now everything is simple: I played, turned off the console, and left the room, put the gamepads in the charging connector. The station is made in black and white, like the console itself, which preserves the overall aesthetics. If you, like me, prefer long gaming sessions, then the thing is definitely useful and necessary - you don't have to think every time that you need to connect the gamepad to the charger. I just put it in the charging station, it's a little more ergonomic and comfortable than the one in the DualShock 4 stations, so it's even easier to get in the first time. Almost as easy as making the decision to buy an accessory, especially given the quite friendly price tag.

Well, you are always sure that if you decide to play together, for example, in Sackboy, you will not have to steam up because of the charging of the second gamepad.

The power cable of the charging itself spoils the impression a little, but with competent management of the wires, there will be no difficulties in hiding it. I've removed it.

Pulse 3D Wireless Headset

Headphones for the console are perhaps the most popular product. They are usually the ones that get the most attention from both the buyer and the manufacturer. For the Pulse 3D wireless headset, Sony engineers have given a special place. The PS5 has a dedicated audio chip that takes sound to the next level in the next-generation console. Headphones make it possible to fully experience it.

In terms of sound, I am as close as possible to the average consumer portrait - I have never had any special requirements for sound quality before, but when I get a great product, I am always happy as a child. I don't have expensive headphones with which to immerse myself in the sound of next-generation video games, so Pulse 3D became my entry point.

The headset is made of materials that are pleasant to the touch and of high quality in appearance. The headband is flexible enough and gently wraps around my rather big head. For six hours of continuous use, I did not feel any discomfort. The correct structure of the inner ear capsule plays an important role in this - it is spacious, does not compress or deform the ear during use. My average size ears fit completely in it and the headset covered them on top.

On the left side, on the edge of the earphone, there are buttons: power lever, volume, priority for a game or chat, a microphone mute button. This arrangement seemed to me not very convenient for several reasons:

1. They're all on one side
2. They are all similar in shape.
3. The first two points complicate the interaction, it is rather difficult to remember where and what is

Another point - the right / left ear designations are indicated on the inside of the headband. As a lover of playing in a dark room, I unexpectedly faced a situation where I had to feel blindly for labels or buttons in order to figure out which side to put them on correctly.

But these are all minor inconveniences, which are more than offset by the sound quality and experience that the Pulse 3D headset conveys. At the start of the generation, a number of titles support all the functions and features of the headset.

I have tested the sound in the following games:

• Demon's Souls
• Astro's Playroom
• Spider-Man: Miles Morales
• Sackboy: A Big Adventure
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

The first thing that caught my ears (oh, those metaphors) was 3D positioning, which works great. In Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, I always knew which side the enemy was moving from and could even roughly imagine how far and at what speed he was moving. Astro's Playroom was also surprising - it seems to be a techno-demo for the presentation of the capabilities of the DualSense controller, but the headset proved to be excellent in it. Using headphones on a level with the jungle, I unexpectedly found out that planes were flying overhead - I heard them corny. When playing through the TV speakers, this noise was simply washed out in the general stream.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure reminded me of my childhood with its sound. Cartoony and cozy music samples, collecting coins, bursting bubbles, running on different surfaces, everything is pure pleasure. I'm not talking about the famous level under the track Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars. Demon's Souls has a thick atmospheric sound, in which the howling of the wind alternates with the crackling of a fire, the clang of metal, and the blow of steel to the flesh of monsters.

I've read a lot of controversy on the Internet about dongles - the little flash drive through which the headset connects to the console. People write: “Why is it needed? We would have done full synchronization without any additional devices. " I do not share the skepticism. Thanks to this small flash drive, in a few seconds I can connect the headset to a work PC or directly to a TV and not dig into the settings trying to figure out how to connect my “ears” to a new device. At the same time, I would not say that this is the best option to, for example, listen to music or play PC projects. In the first case, there are tasks on the market that are much more adapted to music at the same price point, and video games on PCs are simply not optimized for the three-dimensional sound that Sony guarantees in selected titles on PS5.

The Pulse 3D headset is a pleasant experience for the most part. This is a specific accessory designed for the needs of a particular console and for its cost it gives exactly what you expect from it.

Isn't that what you need?

Instead of a conclusion

Currently, a number of third party accessories are also compatible with the PS5 and some PS4 accessories. But there are nuances here too. For example, the DualShock 4 is only compatible with PS4 versions of games - you won't play Demon's Souls with it.

If necessary, you can use headphones from other manufacturers, but that, as they say, is a completely different story - for example, the 3D sound function may work differently, not as the developers intended.

At the start of the PS5 generation, it received a solid set of accessories. They provide gamers with additional features (high-quality video for streaming, convenient gamepad charging without having to plug wires directly into the console), improve the gaming and multimedia experience - 3D sound and remote control.