The PS4 remains small and sleek while sporting some truly impressive horsepower under the hood. On the other hand, the Xbox One is rather large and utilitarian — it's not even as powerful as its smaller competition. Why? Well, it seems Microsoft learned its lesson with the high failure rates of Xbox 360s, and plans on keeping the hardware low-power, cool, and well ventilated. Reportedly, Microsoft wants each Xbox One system to last for ten years — even with the console turned on the entire time.
Sources inside Microsoft spoke to Eurogamer, and explained that Redmond is making reliability the most important factor(Opens in a new window) of the Xbox One's core design. With a huge fan and a righteous heat sink, it's clear that Microsoft is being extremely conservative this generation. After the large and costly ordeal surrounding Xbox 360's red ring of death(Opens in a new window), Microsoft isn't fooling around this generation.
As a nice side benefit, the Xbox One is on track to be much quieter than the Xbox 360. With more efficient internals, improved cooling systems, and no requirement for spinning discs, your living room is going to sound much more tolerable than it was at the start of last generation. Early reports of the development hardware have the Xbox One labeled as completely inaudible unless you're actually playing a game. During less intense activities like web browsing or watching a movie on Netflix, you might not even be able to hear the fans at all.
So, are we really expected to leave the Xbox One on for ten years? If Microsoft ships rock-solid hardware with an effective sleep state, there's seemingly no good technical reason to power it all the way down. More importantly, we'll likely be stuck with this generation for a long time. If you remember, Sony's Kaz Hirai promised a ten-year lifespan for the PS3(Opens in a new window). By the time the PS4 launches, seven of those years will have already passed, and the Xbox One will launch a jaw-dropping eight years after the 360. Both Sony and Microsoft seem content to ride out these long console generations, and squeeze as much out of each platform as possible.
Microsoft's problem with this always-on expectation won't be technical, but social. When the Xbox team started designing its next-gen console, they clearly had "always-on" in mind. From the controversial internet check-in, to the Kinect requirement, to this most recent revelation, it's clear that Microsoft believes your digital life should be always-on. With all of the recent privacy issues involving the NSA and tech companies, Microsoft will have a devil of a time persuading users to learn to accept an always-on living room device with cameras and microphones pointed at their families
Now read: PS4 vs. Xbox One performance compared, using representative PC hardware
