Keeping the PS5 in Vertically Upright Position Will Not Damage It, Report Clarifies

A report from earlier this month suggested that orienting a PS5 upright would cause the cooling liquid metal within to leak onto the motherboard.

Written by Rahul Chettiyar, Edited by Manas Mitul | Updated: 12 January 2023 15:35 IST

Keeping the PS5 in Vertically Upright Position Will Not Damage It, Report Clarifies

Photo Credit: Akhil Arora/ Gadgets 360

PlayStation 5, and DualSense wireless controller

Highlights

The outlet now says there’s ‘no evidence’ it will occur in fresh units
Sony has always advertised the PS5 in an upright position
The sources still claim the vertical orientation is risky over time

Keeping your PS5 upright is completely fine, news outlet Wololo has clarified. A report from a few weeks ago suggested that placing the current gen console in a vertical position was prone to do internal harm by causing the liquid metal to leak down the sides of the APU, and eventually spread onto the motherboard. The outlet has now retracted its statement, claiming that while the problem can still occur, there is “no evidence” that it will happen to consoles fresh out of the box, devoid of tampering. This would mainly affect those who had their PS5s repaired recently, so you might need to be cautious in how you position it. Fresh PS5s are not in any danger when placed vertically.

Wololo stated that the initial report had to do with a misunderstanding on their part, where they “thought” that the liquid metal problem happened on an untampered, in-box PS5 unit. “What he [The Cod3r — hardware Youtuber who first brought the design flaw to attention] said (and meant) was PS5s that had not been opened (the actual console!) by other repair shops prior to him,” Wololo tweeted. If the issue indeed was severe, it would paint Sony in a bad picture, as the company continues to advertise the product in an upright position. Sony made it clear previously that you could orient a PS5 both vertically as well as horizontally, thanks to a plastic base that clips onto the console's outer white shell.

Here goes nothing:
There was a critical misunderstanding on our end when we thought TheCod3r said the Liquid Metal problem happened on unopened, in-box PS5s. What he said (and meant) was PS5s that had not been opened (the actual console!) by other repair shops prior to him.
(1/2)
— Wololo (@frwololo) January 9, 2023

That said, both TheCod3r and Wololo hold onto their claim that standing a PS5 vertically is indeed risky, eventually leading to an uneven spread of liquid metal intended to help cool the APU. However, there isn't widespread evidence to back this claim. For what it's worth, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan announced during CES 2023 that the PS5 had sold over 30 million units worldwide. He also claimed that December — Christmas season — was the biggest sales month for the console yet and that players should now have a much “easier time” finding a unit from local retailers. It is still unclear if this applies to India, where PS5s are made available in batches that go out of stock in mere minutes.

Back in September, Sony quietly revamped the internals of newly revised PS5 models, which first hit the markets in Australia. The new units sported a CFI-1200 number and proved to be 200 grams lighter than the original CFI-1100 variant, as confirmed by tech YouTuber Austin Evans. The new PS5 also drew less power and saw changes to the heatsink and included an updated motherboard.

From Elden Ring to BGMI's ban, 2022 gave us a lot in the gaming space. We discuss it all on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Sony PlayStation 5

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
DualSense is great
Very powerful
Reduced loading times
Friendlier storage expansion
Capable of 8K / 120fps
4K Blu-ray player (finally)

Bad
Expensive
Lack of truly next-gen exclusives
Not a generation leap over PS4 Pro at launch
Game prices now go up to Rs. 5,000
Missing next-gen upgrades for PS4 games
No "Quick Resume", as on Xbox Series X
Limited backward compatibility
No support for Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos
SSD storage amount is restrictive

Read detailed Sony PlayStation 5 review

HDD 825GB PCie Gen 4 NVMe SSD

Processor Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU @ 3.5GHz with SMT

Graphics Custom AMD RDNA 2 GPU 36 CUs @ 2.23GHz (variable frequency)

RAM 16GB GDDR6

USB 4

Weight 4.5kg

Ethernet Gigabit

More Sony Gaming Consoles

Sony PlayStation 5 Digital Edition

KEY SPECS
NEWS

HDD 825GB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD

Processor Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU @ 3.5GHz with SMT

Graphics Custom AMD RDNA 2 GPU 36 CUs @ 2.23GHz

RAM 16GB GDDR6

More Sony Gaming Consoles

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