The range of gaming consoles available today is enormous, ranging from retro-style consoles that take you back in time to incredibly portable gaming rigs for on-the-go play to obscenely powerful options for high-resolution HDR and virtual reality games. With today’s video game consoles, you can play games, stream games, watch movies, listen to music, and do much more. You can read our evaluation of the top five gaming consoles in 2023 on the market right now here.
It’s excellent news if you haven’t played games in a while or are looking for a strong update for your setup in outdated hardware with these top picks. It’s a great moment to be a gamer right now since there have never been more platform possibilities. The cost of gaming technology advancements can, however, be rather costly. If you’re unsure about which gaming console to buy, take a look at our top five gaming consoles in 2023 below.
5. STEAM DECK
- GPU: 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.0-1.6GHz
- CPU: Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz
- RAM: 16 GB LPDDR5
- Internal Storage: 512GB NVMe SSD; 256GB NVMe; 64GB eMMC
- Max Resolution: 7-inch 1280 x 800px
- Expandable Storage: MicroSD card compatible
- Pros: Excellent construction, Good performance, Huge library of games
- Cons: Short battery life, Slow load times
The Nintendo Switch whetted our appetite for high-caliber mobile games, but regrettably, the platform was never powerful enough to support beloved third-party games found on PlayStation, Xbox, or PC. You may access a significant number of games on Valve’s platform with the aid of the Steam Deck without having to significantly sacrifice game quality. The games may not look or perform as well as they would on a powerful PC, but the Steam Deck manages to showcase graphically demanding games in a way that Nintendo Switch has never been able to.
The Steam Deck offers a surprising amount of high-end hardware for its startlingly low starting price of $399 for the most basic model and up to $649 for the most expensive edition. It was only directly available through the Valve Steam client at the time this article was written (opens in new tab). No matter whatever version you choose, you can play a lot of officially Verified(opens in new tab) games.
Together with a large selection of games (that are accessible from all of your Steam accounts), the Steam Deck also has a straightforward user interface, lots of control customization, and affordable pricing. We also can’t emphasize enough how pleasant it is to log in and see all the games that you’ve bought through Steam throughout the years that are available. Although almost every new release is compatible with the gadget, not every game is, thus the investment was still well worth it.
4. XBOX SERIES S
- GPU: 4 teraflops at 1.565GHz
- CPU: 8-core 3.6 GHz
- Frame Rate: Up to 120fps
- RAM: 10GB GDDR6
- Internal Storage: 512GB NVMe SSD
- Max Resolution: 1440p with 4K upscaling
- Usable Storage Space: 364GB
- Optical Drive: None
- Pros: Completely silent in operation, The smallest Xbox ever made, Plays all Xbox Series X games
- Cons: No disc drive, No 4K, 512GB SSD fills up fast
The Xbox Series S is the Xbox Series X’s less sophisticated sibling and among the list of top five gaming consoles in 2023, it occupies the fourth position. The system has frequently been lowered from its list price of $299.99 to as little as $249.99, making it a value bundle that’s difficult to fight against. While being significantly smaller than the Series X, this console has a drawback: it lacks an optical drive. The Xbox Series S does not have a disc drive and only shows games in 1440p, while the Series X shows games in 4k. But, this Series S is a great choice if you’re ready to forego visual quality in order to save money because it is more cost-effective.
You can access all of your games on this console’s all-digital game library without ever getting up from your couch. This console makes it simple to access your entire collection of games, and thanks in part to a bespoke SSD, it also offers up to 120 frames per second when playing those games. With 3D Spatial Audio produced by the console, you may fully immerse yourself in the gaming action, much like with the Series X system. You can save a ton of games that are always available thanks to the expandable capacity in the back of the system and access to Microsoft’s Game Pass, a program available only to Xbox gamers.
The Xbox Series S costs around 2/3 as much as the Xbox One S, but you still get to play all the fantastic games from the current-generation Xbox. This implies that the goal resolution of this console will produce visuals that look far clearer than the typical 1080p display, whether you’re looking for a media streaming center for services like Netflix and Disney Plus.
3. NINTENDO SWITCH OLED
- GPU: NVIDIA Tegra X1
- CPU: 1GHz Cortex-A57
- RAM: 4 GB
- Internal Storage: 64GB
- Max Resolution: 720p (handheld); 1080p (docked)
- Dimensions: 4 x 9.5 x 5.4 inch (W x L x H)
- Portable Battery Life: 3 – 7 hours
- Optical Drive: None
- Pros: Enhanced speakers and kickstand, Large 7-inch Screen, Beautiful and vibrant OLED display
- Cons: Processing power is the same, No upgrades in TV mode
Out of the current lineup of consoles offered by the firm, the Nintendo Switch OLED is without a doubt the best model. The screen itself represents the biggest improvement with this iteration, although having identical internals as the standard device. That’s because the larger 7-inch OLED display really maximizes the computing power, which is admittedly restricted and hasn’t changed in more than five years. You won’t find a hybrid handheld and home console that is better for the money than this one, though.
The Nintendo Switch OLED positions itself as being substantially less expensive than the current top models from Sony and Microsoft, the PS5 and Xbox Series X, respectively, with its $349.99 asking price. But, as is to be anticipated from a system that can do both, paying the premium on portability in this case, that rate comes at the expense of performance. There are no hardware improvements here, so if you frequently play in docked mode on the TV, stick with the standard Switch.
The Switch OLED is a great option because it makes use of all the previous model’s extras, including the dock, microSD cards, Joy-Con controllers, and, of course, games. Customers that upgrade can therefore utilize all of their old accessories with the new OLED model. Simply, the Nintendo Switch OLED model will produce the greatest visuals for the top Nintendo Switch games. There is currently no better Nintendo console that can compete with it, even though it isn’t exactly the Nintendo Switch Pro that fans are asking for.
2. XBOX SERIES X
- GPU: 12 TFLOPS, 52 CUs
- CPU: 8x Cores @ 3.8 GHz
- Memory Bandwidth: 10GB, 6GB
- Memory Interface: 16 GB GDDR6 w/ 320b bus
- Internal Storage: 1TB Custom NVME SSD
- Optical Drive: 4K UHD Blu-ray Drive
- Process: 7nm Enhanced
- Die Size:45 mm2
- Pros: Good value, Accessible library through Game Pass, Gobs of potential, More storage than PS5
- Cons: Next-gen potential is untapped, Lacking big exclusives, Difficult to fit in most A/V cabinets
A technological powerhouse, the Xbox Series X, comes in at second number in the list of top five gaming consoles in 2023. The system has double the processing speed of the Xbox One X and 12 TFLOPS of power, in addition to up to eight times the graphical capabilities. Moreover, the Xbox Series X contains 16GB of GDDR6 Memory, which works with variable refresh rate, variable rate shading, and a low-latency mode to improve gaming responsiveness. When actual next-generation games are made for this device, gamers will be blown away by its capability.
The Xbox Series X, which costs $499, can easily compete with what the gaming PC market is now providing. This is made possible by the HDMI 2.1 compatibility of the device, which ensures that features like ray tracing are also supported and permits resolutions of up to 4K120 or 8K60. Given the performance on display at this price point, Microsoft’s most recent offering is a true behemoth that will certainly endure the test of time. Also, the system features Gen 4.0 NVMe SSD technology, which ensures that it won’t slow down anytime soon.
While Xbox One-exclusive games are compatible with the Series X system, Microsoft has developed titles exclusively for the Series X and S consoles that have faster load times and 120 frames-per-second support. You can experience 3D spatial audio while gaming with such a high frame rate so you always know what’s around you. Even though the Xbox Series X is a strong device, it is also remarkably quiet. The cooling system for the console is so effective that occasionally you could wonder if it is even on.
1. PlayStation 5
- GPU:28 TFLOPs, 36 CUs
- CPU: AMD Zen 2-based CPU with 8 cores
- GPU Architecture: Custom RDNA 2 ‘Oberon’
- Memory Bandwidth: 448GB/s
- Memory Interface: 16GB GDDR6 / 256-bit
- Internal Storage: Custom 825GB SSD
- Optical Drive: 4K UHD Blu-ray Drive
- Pros: The DualSense controller is an excellent, Fast, and beautiful system U.I., 4K/120Hz support
- Cons: No Dolby Vision or Atmos support, The internal drive fills up fast, Large size
The PS5 is the best plug-and-play gaming platform available because of its super-fast load times, redesigned controller, an incredible lineup of games (including fan favorites and brand-new exclusives). The capacity of this system continues to astound us, and its excellent software prowess is supported by superb hardware. Particularly the DualSense controller stands out from the competition and imparts a genuine, immersive cutting-edge experience.
Given its capabilities and price of $499.99/$479.99, the PS5 definitely distinguishes itself as a true value offer. You can feel every stride, gunshot, and surrounding movement with the new PS5 controller, giving you complete control over your game experience. Because to its haptic feedback, movable triggers, and integrated microphone, this controller is the best for console gaming that we have ever seen. It is unmatched by competitors.
In terms of peripherals and hardware, both incarnations of the console rely entirely on AMD chips, including an eight-core CPU that uses a customized Ryzen line. The GPU of the PS5 is likewise made by AMD and has a power output of 10.28 teraflops while enabling resource-intensive operations like ray tracing, which enables more sophisticated lighting in games. Together with the Xbox One S and Xbox One X, it also includes a 4K Blu-ray player. In plain English, the PS5 is technically less powerful than the Xbox Series X, but it still has plenty of power and is a significant improvement over last-gen consoles.
FINAL THOUGHT
We have reviewed the top five gaming consoles in 2023. High-resolution gameplay on the PS5 and Xbox Series X is supported, allowing for the use of 4K and High Dynamic Range displays, as well as other new display standards (HDR). There are some people who don’t own a 4K TV, and there are even fewer who have high-quality HDR support, which has its own sub-categories. But, you should consider how frequently you plan to play it if multiplayer is important to you, and how much you are ready to pay when making your decision.
