With the design, we're going to look at the actual look of the system, the internal design, and the software design. In all of these fields, the PS4 takes the cake. The first thing you'll notice is the power supply. With the PS4, it is built into the box while the Xbox one still has the same big and goofy power brick that all of the Xbox's before sported as well. What makes it even worse is that even still, the Xbox manages to find a way to be bigger and chunkier than the PS4.
Another great thing about the PS4 is that the controller comes standard with a rechargeable batter, which is an optional accessory for the Xbox that you have to pay for AFTER you already spend $100 more on the system itself. The PS4 controller also has a motion controller to replace the Move, a built in speaker and also a headphone jack. For all of you people who like to show off video's of yourself "pwning n00bz", there is a share button directly on the controller so that you can post videos to your social networks instantly.
The operating system on both consoles seem fine. There isn't really a clear winner. On the PS4 you basically have an updated version of that found on the PS3. Neat, clean, easy to use. It supports multi tasking as well. The Xbox's user interface looks great and operates well, although the voice commands don't always work. It's kind of like when voice commands first came out on phone's before Apple perfected it with Siri.
Launch Titles
Well let's face it, neither system is killing it in this department at all. This is one of the reasons that a lot of people have held of on buying, me included, I don't even want one until I can play the new Final Fantasy coming in January. There really aren't even any great apps out for either system yet. Some people say that the Xbox has the edge with it's release titles, but honestly I don't think I could care even one tiny bit less about anything that has been put out on either.
A huge disappointment with both systems is that neither one of them are backward compatible. It was a pretty big deal with the PS3 and the Xbox 360, and at this point it is honestly just a huge slap in the face. To be honest, the graphic's aren't even that much better than the previous generation of the consoles. It would be nice to be able to play your "old" games still.
Features
One of the reasons that hard core gamers were hating on the new Xbox before it came out is the fact that it's not a gaming console, it's a home entertainment console. The reason it is called the "One" is because Microsoft want it to bring everything you would use together in one device. Living room entertainment like cable TV, gaming, streaming videos, listening to music, whatever, the idea is to put it all in one. That is basically the complete opposite of the Playstation approach, although the PS4 still does most of those things.
The PS Vita remote play is said to work VERY well. I haven't tried it because I do not own a Vita or have any interest in hand held gaming, as I am not a 12 year old playing Pokemon on the way to school in my mom's car, but it's there if you're interested. The optional camera you can get for the PS4 is pretty neat, offering facial recognition and sign in. The Xbox features seem a little bit more futuristic and neat, it just seems like they need to work on the software a little bit.
One big turn off about the PS4 is that it doesn't read files from USB drives or play 3D blu ray movies. The PS3 did both of these things. Why wouldn't the new system? I can only shake my head at this one.
Value
The first thing that you will notice is that the PS4 is $100 cheaper than the Xbox One. The Xbox one does come with a camera though, and the PS4 doesn't. But for $59.99 you can buy the camera for the PS4 which still puts it at about $40 less. The Xbox One can't really do anything unless you pay for the Xbox Live Gold membership for $60 per year, while the PS4 can still run apps like netflix without any membership. Neither system can be used for online gaming for free though, which is a shame. The Playstation Plus account required for online gaming will run you $50 per year. With the Playstation you also get a month long trial and a $10 store credit for purchasing games.
With system updates and new releases coming out, the war isn't over yet. There is still plenty of time to improve each one. But as it stands right now, I think the PS4 wins overall.
