In many ways, the timing of Sony's launch of the PS4 Pro in 2016 couldn't have been better. 2013's slightly improved version of the PlayStation 4 came at a time when a wave of 4K TVs was just starting to grow in the form of tens of millions of annual sales in the US.
The purchase of Sony's first-ever mid-generation console upgrade in 2016 didn't give original PS4 owners access to new games, a fact that contributed to us calling the PS4 Pro a “questionable value proposition” at launch. Still, many graphically conscious console gamers were looking for an excuse to use the extra pixels and HDR colors on their new 4K TVs, spending hundreds of dollars on a makeshift console years before the PS5 fulfilled that purpose well enough.
Fast forward to today and the PS5 Pro faces an even weaker value proposition. After all, the PS5 has proven itself to be more than capable of making excellent-looking games that take full advantage of the 4K TVs that are now pretty much standard in American homes. Because 8K TVs are still an extremely small market niche, there's nothing like what Sony's Mike Somerset called “the most significant improvement in picture quality probably since black and white went color” when talking about 4K TV in 2016.
Front view of the PS5 Pro. Note the complete lack of a built-in disk drive on the only available model.
Kyle Orland
Front view of the PS5 Pro. Note the complete lack of a built-in disk drive on the only available model.
Kyle Orland
The console comes with two cheap plastic “feet” to stabilize it when laid horizontally.
Kyle Orland
The console comes with two cheap plastic “feet” to stabilize it when laid horizontally.
Kyle Orland
The top view shows the console's accordion-style racing stripe.
Kyle Orland
The top view shows the console's accordion-style racing stripe.
Kyle Orland
The console comes with two cheap plastic “feet” to stabilize it when laid horizontally.
Kyle Orland
The top view shows the console's accordion-style racing stripe.
Kyle Orland
Instead, Sony says spending $700 on a PS5 Pro will have a decidedly more marginal impact, namely helping current PS5 gamers avoid having to choose between the smooth 60fps visuals of 'Performance' mode and the resolution-maximizing, graphics-laden “Fidelity” mode in many games. Thanks to the extra power of the PS5 Pro, you can get the best of both worlds, according to Sony: full 4K, ray-traced graphics And 60 fps simultaneously.
While nothing is precise wrong With this value proposition, there is a serious case of diminishing returns. The graphical improvements between a PS5 game in “Performance Mode” and a PS5 game in “Performance Pro Mode” are so small that I often found it difficult to reliably tell which was which at a glance.
