UPDATE: After receiving an Xbox One of our own our tests have shown a boot time much longer than the PS4. The initial reports of a 17 second boot time were indeed referring to standby boot. The Xbox One has an option in its settings where when you turn it off it goes into a low-power standby mode. Boot from standby is around 13-15 seconds, so it’s worth enabling.
Several early PS4 owners (critics and users alike) have reported that the PS4 takes roughly 30 seconds to boot up from the moment you press the start button. While that number is far from impressive, how does the Xbox One fare?
Testing with the Xbox One has revealed a 17 second boot time from a cold start. Made better, there’s a standby mode which allows the Xbox One to fall into a low-power sleep mode which can be awakened in around 11 seconds, as demonstrated in a new Instagram video by Major Nelson. The PS4 will have a similar feature in the future, but implementation didn’t make it in-time for launch.
Think about this: how many times have you turned on your current-gen console? If you’re reading this it’s likely that your answer is “a lot“. It’s definitely a nice touch if you can get into the OS as quickly as possible. That means playing games quicker, watching Netflix sooner, and spending less time waiting around.
Waiting for the PS4, given all its hardware brilliance, to boot isn’t a huge deal, why is it 10 seconds longer than the PS3? Both use a similar HDD.
The most obvious answer is that Sony has never proven itself to be very capable with software. Meanwhile, Microsoft has specialized in software for more than two decades. That’ll show more than just with the boot times, as consumers will learn soon enough.
