In August, Microsoft kickstarted the second wave of this current console generation, releasing its acclaimed Xbox One S to a largely receptive audience. Now, Sony is returning fire with the PlayStation 4 Pro, an updated version of the standard PS4, which – like Microsoft’s machine – is designed to get the most out of the coming era of 4K televisions. Here’s how the new instalment stacks up.
Looks
Unlike the Xbox One S, this is no radical aesthetic departure. PS4 Pro looks like a vertically elongated version of the regular PS4, with slightly curved edges giving it a smoother outline. At 295 x 327 x 55mm, it is, of course, bigger and heavier than both the new PS4 Slim and the original model. It’s sort of brutalist in design – resembling what a multistorey car park might look like in Bladerunner. The power and eject buttons are now at separate ends of the front fascia, so you’re less likely to keep pressing the wrong one.
The PS4 Pro offers a considerably more powerful version of the basic PS4 architecture, and a higher spec than the Xbox One S. The central processing unit has had a 30% speed boost from 1.6GHz to 2.1GHz, while the graphics processing unit has leapt from 1.84 TFLOPs (trillion floating-point operations per second) in the original machine to 4.2 TFLOPs, a substantial lift in performance. This is all necessary to render game visuals – and run streaming video – at ultra HD 4K resolution, rather than the 1080p HD resolution supported by older models. This is basically what PS4 Pro is all about – improved graphics fidelity.
The Pro also offers an extra USB port at the rear (handy for the PlayStation VR headset) and brings back the Optical Digital port for connection to certain headsets and AV receivers. Finally, the addition of support for 802.11ac wi-fi (also offered in the slimline PS4), may well improve your broadband connection speed.
Unlike the Xbox One S and doubtless the Xbox Project Scorpio, the optical drive has no support for UHD Blu-ray discs. However, the system does support streaming UHD video from services like Netflix and Amazon. This has annoyed a lot of movie fans, and if you imagined building a large library of 4K Blu-rays alongside your console, it maybe something you’ll have to think about.
It’s up to developers to decide how they implement the capabilities of PS4 Pro, and it’s going to vary a lot from studio to studio. Sony has released a list of current and forthcoming titles that support 4K and HDR visuals and it’s quite impressive with big blockbusters like Fifa, Battlefield and Rise of the Tomb Raider onboard as well as all the major in-house Sony titles. Some games will require a download to support the capabilities of Pro, some will have them built in. It’s likely that all future PS4 releases will offer a choice of standard and Pro modes, the latter offering either smoother frame rates or higher resolutions, or a bit of both.
So far, we’ve seen some impressive results. Rise of the Tomb Raider, Titanfall 2 and Last of Us: Remastered all shine, with greater-than-1080p rendering adding finer detail and slicker animation, while the titles that support HDR are using the increased luminosity range to add real depth to well-lit environments. Titanfall 2 particularly benefits from ultra smooth frame rates that give those swirling parkour moments extra zip and dynamism.
It’s worth pointing out however, that very few PS4 Pro-compatible games are likely to offer full native 4K resolution, especially not at high frame rates – the hardware just isn’t powerful enough. Most will employ an advanced form of upscaling known as checkerboard rendering which extrapolates twice as many pixels from the standard output. This can get very close to native 4K performance, though – Rise of the Tomb Raider is perhaps the best example at the moment, but the upcoming zombie adventure Days Gone looks truly astonishing on Pro, its huge undead armies and blinding explosion effects making the most of the extra power.
Controller
The PS4 DualShock is largely unchanged. There’s a tweak to the light bar, which now makes its colour visible from the front face – handy for multiplayer titles where players need to know which character they’re controlling. The new controller also offers both Bluetooth communication with the console and wired communication via a USB cable. The latter potentially cuts down on latency between button presses and on-screen movement, which could make all the difference in, say, fighting games.
Price
The PlayStation 4 Pro retails at £349 ($399, Euros 399, AU$559) with a 1TB hard drive. A few retailers are offering bundle deals with one or more games. This compares to around £240 for a standard slimline PS4 with 500GB hard drive.
Pros: solid 4K and HDR performance; encouraging support from developers; small but important tweaks to controller; potential to improve PlayStation VR experience
Cons: Most games will not achieve full native 4K rendering; no 4K Blu-ray player; lacklustre design; variable support from current titles
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