Next gen is finally here, and we have been able to play both consoles (well, PS5 will be here in a few days for me). Having experienced the Series X first hand and seen the PS5 OS in videos and walkthroughs, I'm impressed with the state that both operating systems have launched in. For both of them, there's a lot more functionality at launch than there was last year.
With that in mind, what features would you like to see in system updates in the future? For me:
Xbox
PS5
I don't have mine yet (arrives Thursday, hopefully) but I'm interested to hear from those who have the console what features you're missing or would like. From what I can gather the main ones so far are:
I'm interested to hear which features everyone else would like in future OS updates. I was actually struggling to think of much myself, as both operating systems feel much more full-featured than at the start of last gen.
With that in mind, what features would you like to see in system updates in the future? For me:
Xbox
- 4K HDR dashboard - I didn't think this would be an issue when I read about it - and it's still not a *huge* issue for me, but is more of an annoyance than I anticipated it being. For one, if I bring up a popup menu on a game tile, a lot of the time it will show very blurry text that takes a split second to update to be clearer. Also, when starting a 4K or HDR game/app, my TV will show a black screen for a second or so before switching. That's not the Xbox's fault, but presumably if the dashboard was in 4K HDR like the PS5 OS, this would be a non-issue because it wouldn't be switching output modes.
- Better visualisation of Quick Resume - I love Quick Resume, when it works it's a fantastic feature and will only get better as it gets enabled for the games that it's currently turned off for. However, there's no indication of which games support Quick Resume until you start them. There's also no list of which games you have suspended that can be resumed. If you have say 5 games suspended, and launch a sixth, it would be useful to see a message "If you start this game, [game xyz] will be removed from Quick Resume. Continue?".
- Per-game toggle for Auto-HDR - Right now auto HDR can only be enabled or disabled globally. It would be nice to be able to control it per-game, if you don't like how a certain game looks with the feature but would prefer it to be left on for other games.
- Per-app audio settings - It would be nice to default to Atmos for games/movies but output stereo for Spotify.
- Bluetooth headphone support - I use my Series X as I used my One X, and as well as playing games it's my main media platform. I use it for Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube etc. I'd like to use my bluetooth earbuds if I'm watching videos and don't want to disturb people, but right now the OS doesn't support bluetooth headphones. Not sure if this is impossible if it literally doesn't have the hardware it needs, however.
- Chromecast and AirPlay support - Another media feature which would be really nice. There are 3rd party apps that can do this, but it would be great if it was built right into the OS.
- Dolby Vision support for Blu-Rays - Apparently the Blu-Ray player doesn't support this. Not sure if it's something that can be implemented in software or whether it's impossible without hardware changes (like WiFi 6).
- Password manager - this would be useful for logging into Netflix and other apps if you get a new console or need to do an OS reset for whatever reason.
- Some indication that the console is doing something if it's updating when it's "powered off" - I very nearly bricked my One X about a year ago, switching it off at the wall when I'd powered it off in Energy Saving mode, thinking it was powered down. It wasn't. It was doing a system update in the background, but there was no indication until I powered it back on the next day and was greeted with a boot error. A flashing power button / controller Xbox button or something would help in this situation.
- Show currently playing music on the home screen (maybe at the top next to the time/battery/mic icons) - As an enhancement to this, allow skipping tracks quickly (would be difficult because some buttons are used for other things, maybe the right stick or something?)
- Stability - I haven't had a huge amount of issues, but I've had games freeze a couple of times or quit to the dashboard. This could be the game itself of course, but if there are any bugs in the OS, hopefully those can be ironed out soon.
PS5
I don't have mine yet (arrives Thursday, hopefully) but I'm interested to hear from those who have the console what features you're missing or would like. From what I can gather the main ones so far are:
- Ability to store PS5 games on external storage
- Folders
- VRR
- Dolby Vision
Dolby Atmos for moviesSeems this is already a feature- General OS stability
I'm interested to hear which features everyone else would like in future OS updates. I was actually struggling to think of much myself, as both operating systems feel much more full-featured than at the start of last gen.
