Tech reviewer Austin Evans has denounced the doxing and abuse against him; over claiming a new model of PlayStation 5 ran slightly hotter.
Evans had obtained a new iteration of the PlayStation 5 from Japan, the CFI-1100, notably 300 grams lighter. This new model was discovered to feature a smaller heat sink, and as such would have less surface area to pull heat away. Evans own testing with a thermal camera showed the new PlayStation 5 had a hotter exhaust than the original by three degrees, and proposed the new model was likely running hotter than the original model.
Evans proposed the original model was over-engineered, and Sony reduced the size of the heat sink to reduce costs while still hitting their personal performance goals. This would have been further incentivized by the chip shortage, meaning reduced costs of production would be a boon.
Days after, Evans uploaded another video discussing the reaction he got to the video. He explains that he had been doxed, received abusive comments “orders of magnitude higher” than ever before, and accusations he had been paid off by Microsoft. There had also been response videos decrying Evans’ as wrong (even utilizing out of context clips to paint Evens as wrong, lying, or biased).
Evens proposes that along with anger from “fanboys,” he had seen scalpers selling the original PlayStation 5 at even higher prices before his video. This is in spite of his emphasis of it being a minor difference overall.
Digital Foundry had performance their own test, finding it featured a new fan with more blades, and had the same power draw. As they noted the fan did not run faster, they felt there was less chance of the new model overheating; and that Evans noting there was a small noise reduction would mean less likelihood of overheating.
Digital Foundry propose the new fan pulls more heat out of the new model (and may also run quieter) at a rate enough to compensate for the smaller heat sink; or that the new heat sink is more efficient than the larger version in the previous model. They also theorize the larger heat sink (if better) acted as a redundancy on launch.
Evans praises Digital Foundry’s coverage, and denies those who used it as evidence he was wrong. “I 100% agree with everything in that article.” Evans emphasized that he had never said the new models performance was hindered, only that in a “thermally constrained” environment it may run hotter and have less longevity.
Further, Evans addresses how the original video was entitled “The New PS5 is Worse;” being called clickbait. While he notes it was fair criticism; Evens states he still believes the new PlayStation 5 is worse, and the title was accurate.
Others had taken issue with the thumbnail; featuring a photo-shopped “PS5 V2” with a yellow fan grill, and a bright red chip. Evans discusses how under the YouTube algorithm, videos that are not clicked on are “buried.” While Evans says he had made “silly” thumbnails before, the thumbnail chosen was designed to be eye-catching.
Evens also defended how he was given an Xbox Series X early, but did not have a conflict of interest in discussing the PlayStation 5. While he calls it a fair criticism; he highlights how the PlayStation 5 is more popular than the Xbox Series X (based on Google search results).
He had also tried to overheat the Xbox Series X he got early- something that Microsoft were not happy about and he “didn’t care.” Nonetheless, Evans states (as per YouTube’s terms of service) he discloses all paid sponsorship, and will call out Microsoft or Sony if they produce a worse console than the prior one. Evans concludes denouncing the abuse against him and other tech reviewers.
