With the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X just a few weeks away, a few units are now in the hands of reviewers. And while there is limited to what we can actually report at this point, a few choice details are beginning to emerge.

One of the strangest tidbits comes from John Linneman of Digital Foundry, who reports on the strange differences between the PS5 and the Xbox Series X.

[8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] One of the strangest stories comes from John Linneman of Digital Foundry, who reports on the strange differences between the PS5 and Xbox Series X. The former has a dashboard that runs at 4K natively, while the latter is stuck at 1080p, even though UHD gaming is a major selling point for this generation.

"Disappointed that the Xbox One X only offers 1080p UI rendering while the PS4 Pro offers native 4K," Linneman tweeted. 'However, the continuation of the 1080p UI in the Series X is ...... That's really unacceptable to me." [After all, the dashboard is merely a means of accessing the game, not eye candy for its own enjoyment. That said, it is a bit odd that a machine that is marketed to deliver smooth 4K gaming would insist on a 1080p dashboard. [When we visited Microsoft at the end of March, the original plan was to reserve 1GB of RAM for the upgraded Ultra HD dashboard, leaving a total of 8GB for developers. According to Microsoft, plans for a 4K front end were scrapped when the game maker said it could use the extra memory." [Of course, such concerns may no longer be a real issue, as the Xbox Series X already has 16GB of RAM, compared to the Xbox One X's 12GB. In any case, if lowering the home screen resolution improves game performance, it is probably a change that most players would agree with. If it significantly improves the performance of cross-platform PS5 titles, even if Sony's dashboard seems a bit crisper, the move would appear to be a masterstroke.

One caveat. Just because the Xbox Series X dashboard currently in use is 1080p does not mean it will last forever. After all, it would be a fairly easy patch to increase the resolution. When the original tweet began to resonate, Linneman added: "Whenever I've seen it, it's always been 1080p. It's not out of the realm of possibility that this could change before launch."