PS5: 8 things to do when you get your brand new PlayStation

the PS5 is finally here and during games are arguably the most important part of any console launch, PS5’s new user interface is a treasure trove of cool new options. We’ve taken an in-depth look at the options and found a few tips and tricks to help boost your PlayStation experience.

Some are handled transparently during setup, but others are buried in a mountain of settings and options. We thought it was worth collapsing.

Here’s what we think is worth doing when you turn on your PS5 for the first time, to help you customize your PS5 experience to suit your specific preferences.

1. Check your privacy settings

During the initial setup of the PS5, you will be asked to choose from a series of four different privacy settings with names such as “Social and Open” or “Solo and Focused”. This basically gives you control over your online profile and what others can see.

But these settings can be broken down into more detail into these categories, giving you full control over your display in search results or who can add you as a friend, etc.

These settings can be found under the “Users and accounts” tab in settings.

2. Select your power settings

The PS5 gives you the ability to gain more control over the power of your PS5, mainly when you put it in “rest mode”. As with the privacy settings, you’ll be able to choose between profiles during setup, with presets that can be broken down further if you feel like diving deeper. These presets determine how long it takes your PS5 to turn off when idle and also whether the console will automatically download updates – very useful if you want to avoid the dreaded system update when you want to play. to something online.

3. Play with the HDR sliders

If you have an HDR capable TV, you will definitely want to make sure these settings are correct.

Again the PS5 allows you to change the contrast and brightness during setup, but personally I have been going back and forth with these settings a few times, mainly because if you change your TV settings afterwards configuration (for example, in a game mode), these HDR settings will be affected. It makes sense to go back and optimize. Especially if you are as picky as I am when it comes to image quality! (I spent an embarrassing time correcting these settings.)

4. Experiment with the submenu

Maybe my favorite parts of the PS5 UI are the submenu that you can bring up while gaming. Basically, if you press the big PlayStation button in the middle of the controller, that submenu appears in the game. Very nice.

Older consoles have had a variation of this feature for a while now, but I’m a huge fan of the PS5 version. It’s discreet, subtle and allows for personalization.

You can access settings, play with sound levels, and add additional devices like headphones. You can even link your Spotify account and choose music from the submenu. Virtual reality options are also available from here which will be of great help for those trying to solve VR issues on the fly.

You can also easily switch between recently played games in this submenu, eliminating the need to go to the home page to start a new game.

But my favorite part: it is possible to customize your submenu. You can even add the PS5’s accessibility options to the submarine, which I imagine will be incredibly useful for players with disabilities.

5. Choose between performance and resolution

Those of you who have a PS4 Pro probably know that games go a bit PC. Games like God of the war and Horizon Zero Dawn let you choose whether you’d rather have the PS4 Pro focus its extra processing power on resolution or performance (which basically means frame rate).

Personally, I always prefer to focus on performance rather than resolution. And if you have a TV that isn’t 4K, you absolutely prefer performance to resolution.

Either way, to save you the trouble of having to reselect your preferences with every game, the PS5 lets you select a default choice in settings. Head to the saved data game / app settings and select the game presets.

6. Choose your default difficulty

In the game presets section, there are a lot of great things – you can even choose whatever difficulty you prefer by default.

Personally, this is not something I would do. I think the difficulty of the game is way too subjective and differs a lot from game to game. But I know there are people out there who like to jump right into the more difficult setting and vice versa, people who just like to play games for the sake of the story.

7. Check your controller settings and have some DIY

It is an absolute must.

It’s not exactly new, but the PS5 allows you to configure default controller settings that apply to all games. First of all, you can set your default to “reverse” on first person shooters or third person games with camera controls.

I have to constantly dive into the game settings to change this so this is a must for me.

You’ve probably heard that the PS5 DualSense controller is a big step forward in terms of adaptive triggers and vibration functions. You can also change the intensity of the effect. Personally, I wouldn’t touch it. I’m very happy with the default, but it’s there if you want to change it.

8. Choose your spoiler settings

I couldn’t believe this one exists but it does!

You can actually control the level of spoilers you will see while browsing PlayStation Store. You can choose between eliminating “all” potential spoilers or eliminating spoilers as determined by the game developers.

So if you’re incredibly spoiler-sensitive, you can head over to the Game / App Saved Data section of the settings and click on Game Presets. The option is in there.