New PS4 and Xbox One game consoles: a mixed bag for energy efficiency

Noah Horowitz over at the NRDC:

The Natural Resources Defense Council has just completed rigorous measurements of the power use of the newly released U.S. versions of the Sony PlayStation 4 (PS4) and Microsoft Xbox One. We found that the new models have made substantial progress on energy efficiency compared to their predecessors, the PS3 and Xbox 360. But despite these power-saving advances, the new consoles’ higher performance and new features result in up to three times higher annual energy consumption than the most recent models of their predecessors. 

What’s most telling about their research is for most common streaming usage – watching HD movies on Netflix or TV on Hulu – devices like the Apple TV and Roku use less than 5 ways. That’s 15 times lower than the PS4 or XBox One. It’s minor, but between that and the ability to easily navigate with a remote control, I tend to switch to my Roku or Apple TV for movies vs. my new PS4.