PS4 Pro
$399 on Amazon
PS4 Pro: The world’s most powerful console – the tagline that every PlayStation fanboy has a hard-on for. Pro marks the first proper example of iterative console design, signalling Sony’s future imperative to mimic Apple in releasing a premium model in tandem with a base console moving forward.
The Pro’s stats make for impressive reading; eight jaguar cores clocking in at 2.1 GHz, over the standard PS4’s 1.4 GHz. That means an increase to 4.2 teraflops, from the standard model’s 1.84 — which is a big improvement. Other hardware changes include a beefier 1TB internal storage and HDMI 2.0 out port, enabling 4K resolution and HDR for TVs that support it. There’s also a slight modification to the controller, with a rearranged light-bar that’s visible through the touch pad, and a sturdier thumb grip for the analog sticks.
The Pro has been designed around 4K and HDR, which Sony are clearly betting is going to become standard in the not so distant future. But the console’s additional grunt also means potentially more stable frame rates, crisper visuals and quicker load times.
Yet for all of these impressive specifications, unleashing the power of Pro is entirely at the discretion of the game developers. As part of a shared ecosystem with the standard PS4 and Slim, there’s no exclusive content that will be designed specifically for Pro. And right now there are only a dozen or so games that take advantage of the console’s extra punch, and most of those are by way of implementing upscaled 4K resolution, not necessarily increased frame rates and/or faster loading times.
In WGTC’s review of the PS4 Pro, editor Joseph Meli noted “what I’ve seen of its improvements to current games leaves me very optimistic about its future.” And that’s very telling.
So far, the Pro holds potential. It promises great things in the future but it isn’t delivering much out of the box. If you don’t own a PS4, you’d be mad not to invest $100 in the Pro over the PS4 Slim. If you have an HDR 4K TV in your front room, too, then Pro might well be worth the investment. But for those of us already enjoying the power of PlayStation, the Pro probably isn’t worth your time just yet.
