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The battle for the living room is a cold war no more. Sony's PlayStation 4 is ready to go thermonuclear, hitting North American retailers on November 15, and marching onto UK shelves November 29.

Housing some of the most powerful hardware ever to sit before a television, Sony's new console is two sleek slabs of industrial design fused together for one purpose: living room dominance.

Since it was first announced at E3 2013, the PS4 has been in hot contention with Microsoft's Xbox One. When its rival stumbled with a now-reversed "always online" policy that had gamers fretting, Sony jumped at the chance to win hearts and minds and rack up pre-orders.

Manufacturer messaging aside, both systems have the same goal: to become your sole source for movies, music, TV and gaming. After a hefty day one patch, the PlayStation 4 will be begging for you to pack it to the gills with streaming media apps and any of its twenty-two launch titles, which range from mega-budget AAA titles to download-only indie darlings.

At $400/£349, PS4 is $100 cheaper than a $500/£429 Xbox One. Do note that since every Xbox One is packaged with the new Kinect, you are getting something extra for that hundred-dollar price difference. The PlayStation Camera is sold separately for $59.99/£54.99.

In an ideal world, every gamer would get to have both. The two consoles would share shelf space in living rooms worldwide, cats and dogs would frolic together, Apple and Android fans would laugh off their differences and everyone would have grown up with a pony.

The cold reality is that neither machine is cheap, and they're both vying for the same spot in your entertainment center, your heart and your budget. Even if you plan to eventually buy both, essential questions remain: what can the PS4 do that the new Xbox cannot, and vice versa? For the long and short of Sony's new system, read on, dear gamer, read on.

Design

One look at the PS4 and you know you're seeing Sony hardware. It's slim, sleek and jet black, roughly the size of a second generation PS3. The full measurements are 275 x 53 x 305 mm. It's a bit more compact than an Xbox One, which is longer and taller at 274 x 79 x 333 mm.

The PS4 is 6.1 lbs, about two MacBook Airs heavy. In a feat of engineering worth tipping your hat to, Sony has tucked the PS4's power supply inside the system, leaving no external power brick to trip over. Microsoft's system has held onto its power adapter, and weighs just a little bit more, tipping the scales at 7 lbs.

PS4 sports a sloped, asymmetrical design. That's its largest departure from PlayStations past. It lies flat on its belly by default, but can go up on its tiptoes with the help of a plastic stand, sold separately for $14/£16.99.

On its face is a slit of a mouth, a slot loading Blu-Ray disc drive free from the jutting and breakable disc tray of the Xbox 360. To its right are two powered USB 3.0 ports, which can charge your DualShock 4 controllers when the system is turned off, a feature the PS3 sorely lacked.

Along the top, or the side if you've opted for the stand, is a light, which glows blue when you boot it up. It breathes some life into the otherwise cold industrial design of the system. Turn it on and it blinks a yawning hello.

Inside, the PS4 is all business. It has a custom single-chip processor that combines an eight core x86-64 AMD "Jaguar" CPU with a 1.84 teraflop GPU based on AMD's Radeon technology. That's backed by 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, and a 500GB mechanical hard drive.

Sony claims that the PS4's overall performance is ten times that of the PS3. In an official FAQ, Sony also stated that the PS4's hard drive can be removed with a little tinkering, and can be replaced with a larger drive, or a solid-state drive for better performance. Sony says these do it yourself upgrades will not void the system's warranty.

Those two USB ports are the PS4's only front facing connections. In the rear you'll find HDMI, Ethernet, a digital optical audio out and a proprietary auxiliary connection for the PlayStation Camera.

For wireless connections, the PS4 uses 802.11 b/g/n for WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 for its wireless DualShock 4 controllers.

Features

The PlayStation 4 is a living room computer, more so than the PS3 ever was. Not just because of its specs and AMD-based architecture, but because of its robust feature set. It's capable of bringing games and movies quickly into your home, as well as connecting you to your friends and other online gamers through the PlayStation Network as well as Twitter and Facebook to connect and share brag worthy gaming moments.

PlayStation Store

Sony won the popularity contest at E3 by promising not to fiddle with used game trade-ins, but gamers will still have the option to purchase any and all games digitally through the PlayStation Store.

While opting out of a physical copy means no disc to lend to a friend or resell down the road, a digital copy brings a level of convenience and security to your purchase that's reminiscent of Steam. It means no disc to lose, scratch or even bother inserting when you want to play.

Many games can even be played before a download completes, thanks PlayAsYouDownload, Sony's run-on word of a feature. When purchasing a game like Killzone: Shadowfall, you'll be asked which portion of the game should be prioritized, single player or multiplayer, essentially letting you choose which part of the game you want to hop into first.

In a fraction of the time it takes to download the full game, you'll be able to start playing. It may seem like something only the truly impatient would enjoy, but when you consider that many releases are in excess of 35GB, it's a luxury feature, and another impressive bit of engineering.

Then there's the PlayStation app for iOS and Android. With just the press of a touchscreen, you can remotely purchase games, and get the download going on your PS4 so it's ready and waiting when you get home.

Finally, Sony is offering a bit of financial amnesty for customers who bought copies of games like Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag or Call of Duty: Ghosts for PS3, and other titles that are available on next and current-gen. For $9.99, you can get the next-gen version, providing you insert your PS3 copy as a sort of proof of purchase.

You'll have to continue to do so, meaning that every time you want to play the PS4 Call of Duty you bought through this offer, you'll need to pop in the PS3 version. That last-gen copy will still work on your PS3 though, requiring the disc seems like a way to make sure customers can't use both simultaneously.

So far the list of games eligible for upgrade are Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition, Battlefield 4 and NBA 2K14. Watch Dogs was on the list, but was removed when the game was delayed. The same offer has also been extended for some games on the Xbox One, including Call of Duty: Ghosts.

PlayStation Plus

Sony has also revamped its PS Plus system, turning it into more or less an equivalent of Microsoft's Xbox Live. Yes, that means that online multiplayer for most titles is now behind a pay wall of $49.99/£39.99 for a year of service, or $9.99/£5.49 a month.

However, Sony has said that certain free-to-play titles will be able to sidestep this and grant online access to players without Plus. Currently, those free-to-play titles are Blacklight Retribution, DC Universe Online and Warframe in North America. The free-to-play lineup for the UK has not yet been announced.

Along with multiplayer access, a PS Plus membership still comes with the same benefits it has in the past. This includes discounts in the PlayStation Store, early access to exclusive content, a rotating selection of temporarily free games to play and patches that automatically download and install while the system is on standby.

You'll also get 1GB of space in Sony's cloud to backup your saved games. And if you happen to own aPS Vita or PS3, your subscription will entitle you to a variety of benefits on those systems as well.

Source (Alex Roth www.techradar.com/us/reviews/gaming/games-consoles/sony-ps4-1131803/review)