Xbox Series X and S consoles are quieter than a whisper and owners can laugh at PS4 Pro users without being heard

It seems as the battle between fans of the two next-gen consoles is getting louder, with the appearance of a noise level infographic spurring the debate even further. Posted by an unofficial "Xbox News" Twitter account, the fan-made image has the Xbox Series X measured at 22 dB while using its dashboard and the Xbox Series S isn’t much louder during Destiny 2 gameplay at 26 dB. To put those noise level measurements into context, a normal whisper is measured at 30 dB, and you could expect leaves to rustle at a soothing 20 dB.

So for future Xbox Series X/S console owners who may have been concerned about noise development, it seems those fears can be put to rest. But being a fan-service account called “Xbox News”, it wouldn’t have been sufficient to end things there without putting in an arguably unfair comparison. The noise level of the PS5 is still something of a mystery, with the recent testing by Japanese gamers concluding with “hardly heard” and “gentle” for the PS5's noise emissions. So what console is known for its rather disturbing noise development? The PS4 Pro of course…and at least it is a PlayStation console for comparison's sake here, even if it is a previous-generation one.

Moving past laughter at a noisy 60 dB we see the PS4 Pro on its dashboard at 61 dB and then during Destiny 2 at an irritatingly loud 69 dB. For comparison, a hair dryer is listed at 70 dB, which is the same level as a vacuum cleaner. Not quite a jet engine taking off – 100 dB at 305 m or an eardrum-rupturing 150 dB at 25 m – but it’s certainly loud enough to cover the guffaws of Xbox Series X/S owners laughing at the PS4 Pro owner’s pain.

However, while the graph states the data was collected from a hearing-related organization and an Italian tech website called everyeye.it, there’s also a quote from Digital Foundry’s Richard Leadbetter saying “Series X is quiet to the point where breaking out the noise meter is a pointless exercise”. That’s fine…next-gen consoles should be an improvement on the previous generation, and it seems likely that the PS5 will be quieter than the PS4 Pro too. But the PS4 Pro figures do seem inflated – in fact the respected Leadbetter even reviewed the CUH-7200 revision of the console and measured it at 44-48 dB during a God of War session; bird calls have been measured at 44 dB.

It is a good showing for the Xbox Series X/S anyway but having a cheeky dig at the PS4 Pro has led to some wry comments being made against the original post, with one wag suggesting that the next-gen devices from Microsoft are so quiet because a console without any games doesn’t make any noise.

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