There is a lot of Talk and controversy about the use of the PS4 in vertical orientation at the moment and upon a fair bit of reading on the subject i feel there have been some things that were overlooked.
While there has been some evidence to suggest there is a noted rise of internal temperature within the PS4 when operated in Vertical Orientation, much of the discussions regard the restriction of airflow to the vents on the front-facing right hand side of the unit. Whist it is true that each side of the unit has cold-air intakes on both sides, much of the discussions point to that side being 'blocked or restricted' when the PS4 is standing upright on that edge, in the vertical position.
With Xmas passing i did put the vertical stand on my list and oddly enough ended up with two separate stands. The official PS4 Sony vertical stand and a cheaper 3rd-party one by ORB. Now personally i think the PS4 looks far more visually appealing in its vertical position and I've always used my Playstations in this way. Not just for that reason, but for space saving within my home entertainment unit. So i was a little surprised to see so many people warning against it.
Having a closer look at the two vertical stands i noticed some interesting and, what i consider very important differences. The ORB stand which is assembled from two halves serves as a reasonable effort, if a little lacklustre to do the job, with no real weight to the unit, nor a means of securing the stand to the PS4 itself. With regard to the cooling, the only way fresh air can enter the intakes on the now-downisde of the PS4 is via a gap at the from and the rear. While this will allow air in, it is what i would consider restricted and could certainly lead to the internal fans accelerating to draw more air in.
Now, the official stand is an entirely different kettle of fish. As you would expect, Sony have put plenty of thought into the design of routing cooling to the unit, but upon first glance, and without close inspection you could easily miss how this has been achieved. First off the unit itself is of a good weight aiding stability of the PS4 when mounted to the stand, not only by weight but by physical attachment points that 'twist-lock' the PS4 to the stand. They also, unlike the ORB, seal up the front and rear recessed gaps on the PS4 which the ORB stand uses for airflow. At first you would think this a terrible idea being that it will be completely sealing up the air intake, and it would. But if you look a little closer you will notice there are tiny slits all the way around the base of the stand which route clean, cold air directly to the PS4's intakes. These vents are round the entire base surface which allows fresh air in from 360 degrees around the unit. The Stand's latches which actually go up into the PS4's recessed edge will actually break up the intake into 3 compartments for drawing in air, each getting clean air from the front, middle and rear of the stands intake slits, further helping the intake pressure to pull air naturally where it is required.
The fact that this is such a subtle design is to Sonys credit, and it doesn't surprise me at all that they had obviously thought long and hard about designing this stand to be as functional as possible. In my honest opinion i think this stand is excellent. The only negative is that if this was placed on a carpet, the slits being so low could mean they once again become restricted. This is no such problem for me as its sitting on a hard surface and I've not noticed any increase in fan revving to when it was in horizontal so far. What i will say is this, if your considering a vertical stand, stay away from anything cheap and cheerful that hasn't incorporated the cooling into the design. My Orb stand is going straight in the bin!
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