Best PS4 accessories
You have a PS4. You have a TV. It may seem like your gaming setup is just about complete. However, there are loads of neat accessories that can seriously level-up your experience.
We're not looking at cheapo gamepads that'll fall apart after three weeks or batteries that'll stop holding charge even sooner. No, we're after the good stuff.
From hard drive mods to racing wheels that'll completely change how games feel, these are the accessories that'll make your PS4 outright better.
- See also: Best Xbox One accessories
Thrustmaster T300 RS steering wheel
Perfect for racing game fans who want an authentic experience
Price: Around £252
Buy: Amazon | eBuyer
Force feedback wheels are amazing. There, we said it. If you've not yet experienced one, they use powerful motors that pull against your movements, simulating the sort of forces you'd feel when driving a real car. With the right developer programming, it radically increases the realism of racing games.
The issue is that thanks to the PS4's approach to accessories, none of the last generation of force feedback wheels work with the newer console. If you spent £300 on a Logitech G27 wheel a couple of years ago, we wouldn't blame you for being miffed.
However, the latest Thrustmaster T300 RS wheel supports both PS4 and PS3, with a special PS4 compatibility switch on its base to deal with the current console's quirks. Its powerful feedback bring a whole new level of immersion to serious(ish) driving games like DriveClub that can otherwise seem a bit sterile.
Can't afford £300? The Thrustmaster T80 is cheaper at around £70 at Amazon.co.uk, but doesn't have force feedback.
Samsung M9T 2TB hard drive
Recommended for anyone who plays lots of different games
Price: around £79.99
Buy: Amazon | Dabs
The PS4's standard hard drive won't last that long if you like to keep a good few games installed. It offers 500GB storage, not all of which you can actually use, and AAA games take up 30-50GB a piece. However, it's very easy to replace the hard drive yourself. It doesn't void the warranty, and we've made a step-by-step guide on exactly how to do it.
The one pro tip is to make sure the HDD type is 2.5-inch and its height/thickness 9.5mm or less, to make sure it fits in the PS4's HDD caddy. Most 1TB hard drives will fit just fine, but some 2TB hard drives are that bit too chunky. You'll also need a Phillips screwdriver, but it'll only take about 20 minutes. Aside from reinstalling all the games, that is.
PS Plus subscription
Great for bargain hunters and the hardcore crowd alike
Price: around £39.99
Buy: Amazon | Very
If you're not yet signed up to PS Plus, you should consider it. Some people seem to think these console subscriptions are all about playing other people online, and that used to be the case, but no longer. PS Plus also gets you free games every month. Games that stay in your account long after that month passes, playable as long as you still have a PS Plus membership.
PS Vita and PS3 games are included every month too: great news if you own multiple PS consoles. Other PS Plus benefits include Cloud saves and online play. From the PS Store you'll pay £40 a year for the subscription, although you can often get a slightly cheaper deal from CD keys and other online retailers.
Turtle Beach Elite 800 headset
Perfect for late-light gaming and more immersive audio
Price: around £239.99
Buy: Amazon | Argos
The PS4 comes with a pretty naff mono headset. There are now loads of superior PS4-compatible headsets, but what do you get when you spend a whole bunch of money on one? Let's look at one of the very best, the Turtle Beach Elite 800. Up first is better audio quality.
Top headphone models will also get you surround processing. They still use two speaker drivers, but take in the digital surround signal from the PS4, letting them create pretty convincing surround sound using digital signal processing. Then there's wireless, usually Bluetooth, a charging base and a hidden mic. Go high-end enough and you can get a set you'll be able to use out on the street without getting laughed out of town.
Compare the price to a pair of Beats headphones rather than how much you paid for your PS4 and things start to look a little rosier.
Read: Turtle Beach Elite 800 review
Mad Catz Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition 2
Recommended for top-quality construction and fan-pleasing style
Price: around £179.99
Buy: Madcatz
The name is a mouthful and it's incredibly hard to get hold of, but serious fighting game fans should check out the Mad Catz Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition 2. It's an arcade-style fight stick compatible with PS3 and PS4. It's also big, quite expensive and seems to be chronically sold out, but with good reason.
While Mad Catz is still seen as a maker of 'knock off' accessories by some, this is the real deal. It uses Sanwa parts, the same as you might find in real arcade gear. Not only does this get you that high-end feel, but should mean the stick can take a lot of abuse too. There's also a version laden with Street Fighter IV decals, for the SF devotees out there.
Netgear WN3000RP-200UKS Wi-Fi extender
Great for sorting out the niggles in your PS4's wireless connection
Price: around £29.99
Buy: Amazon | PC World
If you find that your Netflix stream keeps on breaking up, or that Remote Play simply never works, it's worth considering either a new router or, more simply, a Wi-Fi range extender. These tend to chip away at the maximum speeds you'll get from your connection a little but, more importantly, will also improve reliability if your PS4 is at the edge of your router's range.
Unfortunately, the PS4 doesn't benefit from the latest Wi-Fi range technologies. It only supports up to the 'n' standard, not the more advanced 'ac' type. Ac provides much greater range, not to mention faster max speeds, and would really have solved a lot of connection woes. Still, there's not much we can do about that.
PS4 Camera
A great way to futureproof your PS4, and have more fun with it
Price: around £42.99
Buy: Amazon | Zavvi | Very
Hardly anyone even knows what you can do with a PS4 camera, but it's actually one of the neatest accessories if you're into your tech. And if you're reading this site, we guess you might be. One of the top uses is nothing to do with the camera. It has a microphone, letting you issue voice commands without wearing a headset. You can turn off your PS4 just by talking, run a game and navigate through the interface. It's a lot like the Xbox One's Kinect.
The camera can also be used to stream your reactions while broadcasting your game-playing: good for the YouTube fans out there. Not many games actually use the camera as a core part of the experience beyond Just Dance at this point, but it is seen in a few. For example, in FIFA 15 it lets you change tactics quickly, in NBA 2K15 it'll scan your face to paste onto a player and — our favourite — lets you look around corners in Alien: Isolation. The future is still a big draw of the PS4 Camera too. It's a vital part of Project Morpheus, Sony's VR headset (we're currently looking for confirmation on whether it'll use a separate, new camera instead).
PlayStation Vita + PS TV
Recommended for offering a way to get more out of your PS4
Price: around £149.99 (£79 PS TV)
Buy PS Vita: Amazon | Tesco Direct | Smyths Toys
Buy PS TV: Amazon
Buy another platform just to complement your PS4? Sounds mad, but it actually makes sense. The PS TV and PS Vita can be used as a way to play your PS4 games remotely using a feature called Remote Play. This was around back in the PS3 days, but only with the PS4 has it reached maturity.
You can play any PS4 game on these platforms, steaming from the main console. It makes PS TV a great way to get PS4 gaming in a second room without paying for a second PS4, and a Vita a handy way to play while in bed or, errr, on the toilet. Don't forget that if you have a PS Plus subscription you also get free Vita games each month, making the handheld even more attractive. Go on, you know you want to.
Read: PS Vita review
Turtle Beach Headset upgrade Kit
A smart upgrade that could end up saving you money
Price: around £25
Buy: Amazon | GAME | Tesco Direct
The PS4 is not compatible with most PS3 accessories. It has upset a lot of people. Headsets don't work, racing wheels won't work. However, there is a way to get your existing headset up and running with a PS4. Turtle Beach makes a dongle that plugs into a PS4 USB port, providing both 3.5mm and USB ports that will interface with non-PS4-compliant headsets.
It costs around £25, though, so it'll only really be of interest to those who have pretty good headsets to start with. Why don't existing headsets work? From what we've gathered, the PS4 requires an additional security chip to be present in accessories. Whether that's to stop console-hacking exploits or actually for our security, it means a dongle like this is dead handy.
Sony DualShock charging dock
A headache-blasting accessory, a real frustration-reliever
Price: around £24.99
Buy: Amazon | GAME | Argos
The most basic of our suggestions is a DualShock 4 charging dock. There are plenty of cheap licensed and unlicensed versions doing the rounds, but we're going to look at the official Sony one. There's nothing too fancy about these things. They're plastic docks that route through a power connection, which is then plugged into the mains. It'll take two DualShock 4 pads. We find two main benefits to using one of these docking systems.
First, it means you don't need to have a cable plugged into the front of your PS4 half the time, and don't need to keep a microUSB cable nearby during the rest. Second, it makes it much easier to organise your pads. We can't count the number of times we've headed to the PS4 for a bit of TV dinner-style Netflix action only to spend the next 20 minutes hunting for the pad. Gah.
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