Sony publishes a full PS5 teardown, revealing removable sides, dust catchers, storage expansion, and more
here's why that's cool BeauHD / Slashdot : PS5 Teardown Video Confirms Faster Wi-Fi and USB Ports Than Xbox Series X Thomas Bardwell / CCN : It's the Small Things That Make the PS5 Teardown So Impressive Leith Rivera / International Business Times : PlayStation 5 & Xbox Series X/S: News, Specs, Games, Where to Pre-Order Samit Sarkar / Polygon : PS5 teardown video offers first look at the console's guts Laurent Giret / OnMSFT.com : Sony reveals what's inside PlayStation 5 consoles in official teardown video Tom Caswell / Digital Trends : PlayStation 5 teardown reveals liquid metal cooling, upgradable storage Eric Van Allen / USgamer.net : Here's What's Inside the PS5, Including Where Extra Storage Goes Brad Sams / Thurrott : PS5 Teardown Provides A Look Inside the New Console Chris Kerr / Gamasutra : PlayStation 5 teardown offers an up-close look at the next-gen console Shawn Knight / TechSpot : PlayStation 5 teardown reveals storage expansion bay, massive heatsink Christopher Baugh / iPhone in Canada Blog : PlayStation 5 Teardown Reveals Massive Cooling System, Easy SSD Expansion C. Scott Brown / Android Authority : Sony tears down the PS5, shows how it lies flat, panels can be easily replaced Matthew Wille / Input : Sony shows off the PS5's incredible repairability in new teardown video Tweets: Craig Mod / @craigmod : i appreciate this power move of sony preempting ifixit: https://www.youtube.com/... @playstation : From the liquid metal thermal conductor to the ultra-fast SSD, peer inside the PS5 console in our new teardown video: https://blog.playstation.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... Mufaddal Fakhruddin / @mufaaf : Damn. The console is a big boy. Also super glad the side panels come off. The creative minds in the community will put that to some amazing use. https://twitter.com/... Dell Cameron / @dellcam : not that you'd want to, but it looks like you could convert a standard PS5 into a digital edition (vice versa?) if you wanted. just pop out the blueray (hock on ebay?) and replace the side. https://twitter.com/... Dan Seifert / @dcseifert : more like PS-absolute-unit amirite https://twitter.com/... Gavin Purcell / @gavinpurcell : either this thing is going to entirely take over my living room or that man and those screwdrivers are very, very small https://twitter.com/... Tom Warren / @tomwarren : this is how the removable PS5 side panels simply slide off https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/... Tom Warren / @tomwarren : Sony has published a 7-minute teardown video of the PS5. It reveals the sides are removable, there are dust catchers, and how SSD storage expansion works. Details here: https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Sony is filling in the picture it started in June, when it revealed the PS5's two-SKU hardware design with and without a disc drive (the two-version reveal), and deepened at its March Road to PS5 event's system-architecture deep dive (architecture walkthrough). The official teardown now shows the internals before launch: removable side panels, dust catchers, a storage expansion bay, liquid metal cooling, and Wi-Fi and USB ports that coverage flags as faster than the Xbox Series X's.
The timing matters: by publishing its own teardown, Sony controls the disassembly narrative ahead of independent teardowns like iFixit's, and it answers the practical questions early adopters had after seeing only the exterior — can you add storage, can you clean it, what does servicing look like.
First-order effects
- Pre-order buyers get concrete answers on the two biggest post-purchase questions: the exposed storage expansion bay confirms day-one SSD upgrades, and the dust catchers plus removable sides make cleaning a user task rather than a repair-shop one.
- The spec-by-spec framing against Xbox Series X — faster Wi-Fi and USB ports per the coverage — hands Sony a hardware talking point for the launch-window comparison with Microsoft.
Second-order effects
- Third-party NVMe SSD makers gain a defined console market the moment the expansion bay's requirements are clear, adding an accessory revenue stream adjacent to the console itself.
- Microsoft faces pressure to match the transparency and serviceability framing for Series X, since side-by-side teardowns make internal design choices directly comparable in a way spec sheets are not.
Third-order effects
- If serviceability sells, the pattern points toward modular consoles: Sony's later $500 model with a detachable disc drive (the 2023 detachable-drive redesign) reads as a continuation of the same design logic this teardown introduced.
- Official teardowns could become standard launch practice, shifting console launches from pure marketing reveals toward documented-maintenance positioning that blurs the line between consumer electronics and repairable hardware.
The trend: Console hardware is moving from sealed black boxes toward documented, user-serviceable designs, with manufacturers racing to publish their own teardowns before independent ones define the story.