Home » Latest » Playstation » PS5 CONTROLLER: New DualSense Details | PlayStation 5

PS5 CONTROLLER: New DualSense Details | PlayStation 5

4

InfoSearched 64 0 Playstation

8.7

SaveSavedRemoved 7

Sony’s new DualSense pad just got its first real hands-on test, and the DualShock era is officially over.

Last week, Push Square broke down the freshest details on the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller after Geoff Keighley put it through its paces live on his Summer Game Fest broadcast. The hands-on came courtesy of Astro’s Playroom, the tech-demo platformer Sony is bundling free with every PS5, and it gave the public its first real look at how the pad behaves outside a press release. With the console still tracking toward a Holiday 2020 launch, this was the clearest picture yet of what’s actually changing under your thumbs.

• The DualSense swaps DualShock 4’s rumble motors for advanced haptic feedback that can distinguish sensations like dirt versus pavement, plus adaptive triggers on L2 and R2 that add resistance to mimic actions such as drawing a bowstring.
• A built-in microphone array allows party chat and possible voice commands without a headset, backed by a dedicated hardware mute button.
• The Share button is gone, replaced by a new “Create” button, while the pad adds USB Type-C charging, a repositioned lightbar framing the touchpad, and a two-tone white-and-black shell that’s noticeably heavier than DualShock 4.

The Feel-Everything Pitch

The headline change is haptics. Instead of the two generic rumble motors that have powered every PlayStation pad since the original DualShock, the DualSense uses actuators designed to render specific textures and impacts — Sony’s own example is telling the difference between rolling over dirt and rolling over pavement in a driving section. Paired with that are the adaptive triggers on L2 and R2, which can push back against your fingers with variable resistance instead of just clicking through a fixed range of motion, so pulling a trigger can genuinely feel like drawing a bowstring rather than pressing a button.

Talking Without a Headset

Push Square also zeroed in on the controller’s built-in microphone array, a first for a PlayStation pad. It’s built to pick up voice for multiplayer chat and potentially for in-game voice commands without needing a headset plugged in — useful for anyone jumping into a match without gear on hand. Sony paired the mic with a dedicated hardware mute button, giving players a physical, no-menu-diving way to kill their audio input on the fly.

Exterior Design Updates

Visually, the DualSense ditches DualShock 4’s all-black look for a two-tone white-and-black chassis, and it’s noticeably heftier in the hand. The lightbar hasn’t disappeared — it’s just moved, now framing the touchpad rather than running along the top edge. Charging goes through USB Type-C instead of micro-USB, and the Share button that’s defined PS4-era clip sharing is gone, replaced by a new “Create” button whose full function Sony has yet to fully detail.

Geoff Keighley described the DualSense as feeling significantly sturdier and more substantial in hand than the DualShock 4 he’d used for the past seven years.

Astro’s Playroom as the Test Bed

All of this got its live test through Astro’s Playroom, the free pack-in game Sony is using specifically to sell people on the hardware. The demo leaned on the touch controls, the controller’s internal speaker, and the tactile trigger work to show, rather than just tell, what the DualSense can do — the same approach Sony has taken with its other PS5 tech demos built to spotlight specific hardware capabilities ahead of launch.

Sony still hasn’t confirmed a hard release date beyond Holiday 2020, and plenty of the DualSense’s finer points — battery life, exact weight, what “Create” actually replaces beyond Share — are still unconfirmed heading into the back half of the year. Expect more of those blanks to get filled in as Sony keeps drip-feeding PS5 details before the console actually ships.