A History of Pricing

There was a lot of controversy surrounding the PS5 Pro, and rightfully so. Sony didn’t read the room, as people are struggling in a post-COVID economy and gaming has gotten more expensive over the last five years. Prices of hardware are going up over time and not down, which is a trend never before seen. The PS4 Pro was well received, as it improved games significantly, and many developers quickly adapted to the newer hardware, but it wasn’t a significant cost difference over the original hardware. In fact, it was the same price as the base model, and that dropped $100 to $300. This was part of the usual trend. This generation has gone the opposite direction. The base PS5 launched at $500 with the slim version being the same price as the base model, with no price drop for the base model. On top of that, the slim with the disc drive is an $80 add-on, increasing the cost of a slim by $30. You could still buy a slim disc version at $500, but this was all a weird choice. What would be the rationale for purchasing a digital slim for $450 and then adding a disc drive later?

With that out of the way, Sony dropped the PS5 Pro as a digital-only console for $700 and the disc drive add-on increased that by $80. For $780, plus a game, plus PS Plus, a new user could be looking at nearly a grand for a new PS5 experience. This is completely unheard of. Forget the fact that the PS5 Pro comes with a 2TB SSD. It’s a nice bonus, but you can upgrade the drive at any time by adding an SSD up to 4TB. Who needs this much storage? During launch, it wasn’t worth the upgrade. Only a couple of games received Pro patches at launch, and the PS4 Boost mode was nice if you played a lot of those. Outside of this, the Pro offered nothing for already established customers. If you traded in your PS5 it could offset the cost by a few hundred dollars, but that still didn’t make it worthwhile.

Fast forward almost a year later, and the PS5 Pro has seen quite a few updates and many new games supporting its more powerful hardware. Games will don the PS5 Pro Enhanced symbol so you know it will take advantage. Many do this in several ways that we will get to later, but even games not supported can see boosts. Games with unlocked frame rates will run more stable as well as have lowered load times. There’s also the use of PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution), which is Sony’s own AI upscaling tech similar to FSR from AMD and DLSS from Nvidia. The hardware is 47% faster in the GPU department with twice the ray-tracing power and the added tech for super sampling. The GPU is an entire generation newer than the base PS5, as it uses RDNA 3 technology instead of the PS5’s RDNA 2.

Getting to Know the Pro

The system looks similar to the Slim PS5. The side panels are now split down the middle and are no longer a singular sheet like on the base model. We get three new “fin lines,” or stripes, which gives the Pro a distinctive look over the other models. There is a vertical stand that is needed with the disc drive. These are two small plastic pegs that raise the console up to meet evenly with the bump. The panels pop off much easier than the base model. Just a swift pull, and they come off, with one side revealing the SSD slot and the other for the disc drive. The system also comes with a new vertical stand, but it is honestly not needed. Due to the lighter weight and slimmer design, the system stands upright really well without a huge risk of falling over. The PS5 Pro is a sleek-looking system, and the subtle changes are a nice touch.

I won’t be getting into the controller or anything like that, as it’s all the same. This isn’t Xbox, where the controller changes three times in one generation. I will say that there are two USB-C ports in the front now, losing a USB-A port with two A ports in the rear. The LED lights on the front extend from top to bottom now rather than just around the top’s hump like on the base model.

As for games, the difference is noticeable, and the cost can justify this. I tested several games out, and while other sites do a better job with visuals, graphics, and what not, from just a gamer’s perspective I can easily say that games that aren’t PS5 Pro run better when they have unlocked frame rates. Using Balanced modes with a 120 Hz TV is night and day over the 30FPS locked Quality that we normally get. That extra 10 frames can really make a difference. Games like Cyberpunk 2077 have an unlocked performance mode so you can easily hit 70-80 FPS, while the RT quality mode is now mostly locked at 40FPS rather than dipping below 30. Games that use PSSR like God of War Ragnarok and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, look a lot better, and this is a great FPS boost as well.

With that said, the PS5 Pro is subjective to the user. Some current users may find the boost in power worthwhile, like I did. You, of course, need a proper TV that can take advantage of the hardware. 120 Hz minimum is a must, or you’re throwing performance out the window. I also highly recommend an OLED TV with at least 1,000 nits and HGiG for good HDR. While HDR doesn’t really have a standard yet, the brighter your OLED can display, the better HDR will look. You must also properly set up your TV with Game Mode and turn off all processing. Look up guides on your TV model for a suitable baseline.

For $700 (and now $750 as of this writing due to US tariffs), the PS5 Pro is a worthy upgrade and a perfect entry point for new PlayStation users. If you really want your games to look the best, this is the way to go. That is if you already have a proper TV. If you don’t, your setup could become astronomically expensive, shooting well above $2,000 for a proper setup for the Pro. I personally have a 65″ Samsung S90D to go along with the Pro, and I am playing console games now more than I ever have. Do yourself a favor; look up some videos on graphics comparisons to see if it’s worth it to you. If anything, a higher frame rate is more than worth the upgrade for most.