At a glance
Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Probably the best way to play Console games in the coming years
- Well-built & quiet as a whisper
- Big improvements for games with technical issues on regular PlayStation 5, whether the game has Pro support or not
Cons
- Expensive, very expensive
- Only sold without disc player
- Wide variation in how much better the games look
Our Verdict
The PlayStation 5 Pro is a well-built but oh-so-expensive Console that delivers sometimes wine, and sometimes water depending on the game. Some titles get significant improvements that elevate the whole experience, while others improve marginally – or not at all. For most people, a regular PlayStation 5 will do just fine but if you’re a dedicated Console gamer and have a TV to do it justice, then the PlayStation 5 Pro is the Console to go for.
Price When Reviewed
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Best Pricing Today
Best Prices Today: Sony Playstation 5 Pro
It’s hard not to start this review without talking about the price of Sony’s upgraded PlayStation 5. It’s a whopping £699/$699 meaning it’s not a simple purchase and will have many wondering ‘is the PS5 Pro worth it?’.
In terms of size, performance, power consumption and ease of use, however, it’s hard to find a better option. The PlayStation 5 Pro simply offers a lot of performance for the money and is by far the most powerful console at the moment.
But is it enough? Is it worth its price, or will a regular PlayStation 5 do?
Playstation
Don’t forget the TV!
Before I get into the console itself, though, I need to address the screen it plugs into.
To get the most out of the PlayStation 5 Pro, a reasonably sized TV (50″ and up) with HDMI 2.1 ports, and features like variable refresh rate (VRR) and 120Hz are recommended.
These features help even the standard PlayStation 5 deliver a smoother and better picture.
Design & Build
The PlayStation 5 Pro is an unexpectedly slim console, relatively speaking. It’s slightly longer than the PlayStation 5 Slim, but smaller and clearly lighter than the original PlayStation 5 model. Build quality is good, and the noise level non-existent – except when games are played from a disc.
On the front of the console, you’ll find two USB-C ports, for example for PS VR2 and charging cable. On the back, there are two USB-A ports, an ethernet port and an HDMI 2.1 output. On the inside, there is space for an extra M2 SSD drive for more storage, like the other PlayStation 5 models.
The PlayStation 5 Pro is only sold without a disc reader, but it can be bought separately and is very easy to install. The disc drive works, and sounds, the same as in the original model of the console.
Playstation
Specs & Features
On paper, the PlayStation 5 Pro may look like a relatively restrained update. The processor is marginally improved, while the graphics circuit has been beefed up with 67% more GPU cores. It can be compared to the difference between PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro.
Another improvement is the addition of 2GB of DDR5 memory. This memory is slower than the standard memory in the PlayStation 5, but is used exclusively for the operating system. This frees up all 16GB of GDDR6 memory for games, giving approximately 2.5GB more graphics memory than the standard PlayStation 5 has access to.
In addition, the internal hard drive is now 2TB in size, i.e. about 1.2TB more than the original PlayStation 5.
F1 24 in its ray tracing mode is one of the games where the better graphics are most noticeable.
EA Sports
AI Upscaling & Ray Tracing
All of the games are affected by the above improvements, whether they’re adapted to PlayStation 5 Pro or not. But that’s also only half of what makes the Pro stronger than the original console.
The biggest improvements, generally speaking anyway, are found in the games marked with a special PS5 Pro Enhanced logo on their page on the PlayStation Store (and presumably on the back of game cases going forward). This is because only these can benefit from the full performance of the PlayStation 5 Pro.
If games are developed with Pro in mind, they have access to an AI-powered custom hardware upscaler called PSSR – PlayStation Super Resolution. This allows relatively low resolution to be scaled up to significantly sharper graphics – without the image quality taking too much of a hit.
This way, the performance can be used to paint more detailed worlds, better effects and higher image refresh rates – instead of just squeezing out lots of pixels.
In the PC world, this is nothing new and is widely used, mainly in the form of Nvidia’s DLSS, while consoles have previously had to make do with much more limited upscalers that usually resulted in a blurry image full of artefacts.
Alan Wake II uses ray tracing in an excellent way. Here it can be seen in the reflections in the window and on the table, for example.
Remedy
In addition to PSSR, the PlayStation 5 Pro also has dedicated hardware for ray tracing. This graphical effect allows, for example, reflections and light sources to bounce around the game world and illuminate it in a realistic way. It may not sound like much, but it adds a lot to the experience when implemented correctly.
However, the technology is very performance intensive, with Alan Wake II and Spider-Man 2, for example, only running at 30 frames per second if the Ray Tracing is set to maximum.
Playstation
Alternative Graphics Options
This is also where the major drawback of the PlayStation 5 Pro is found: it is not entirely easy to understand how the games are actually improved.
Not least because the differences vary so widely from game to game. Put simply, the PlayStation 5 Pro delivers the “graphics mode” in PlayStation 5 games at 60 frames per second instead of 30, which in some games is a big improvement – in others barely noticeable.
Several of the games adapted to the PlayStation 5 Pro also have a handful of more or less obscure graphics options.
These include more detailed environments, more cars on the streets, or better effects – at the expense of resolution or image refresh. It’s nowhere near as advanced as the customisation options in PC games but still requires a decent grasp of some technical lingo.
In Spider-Man 2, you no longer have to choose between high-resolution graphics and Ray Tracing or high frame rate.
Insomniac Games
When it comes to games that don’t have specific Pro customisation, there can be a big difference in how they are improved. For example, games with a predetermined resolution and frame rate on the PlayStation 5 look exactly the same on the upgraded console. This includes, at the time of writing, NHL 25, Destiny 2 and a host of indie games.
Fortunately, dynamic resolution and unlocked image refresh is something that is being used extensively this generation, and can be found in titles such as Elden Ring, Armored Core VI, RoboCop: Rogue City and Immortals of Aveum.
These are games that on a regular PlayStation 5 have major issues with blurry graphics or choppy image refresh, but now run much more smoothly – without any specific updates to utilise the full power of the PS5 Pro.
Playstation
Should you buy the Sony PS5 Pro?
The PlayStation 5 Pro is simply a console that makes most of your PlayStation 5 games better.
How much better, however, varies from game to game, but it also depends on how much you care about things like detail in environments, sharp graphics and stable image refresh.
The graphical boost in some games is huge, and when games are developed with Pro in mind from the ground up, the differences will be even greater. The fact that some games that were notorious for technical shortcomings now run smoothly without significant problems is another big plus.
Welcome and obvious improvements, but not a giant leap compared to the original console. Especially not for anyone who just wants to play for fun.
If you don’t care whether a game runs at 25, 30 or 60 frames per second, have no problem with relatively blurry images with indistinct details, or can’t be bothered to spend a second comparing graphics modes, then the regular PlayStation 5 will do just fine.
If, on the other hand, you play a lot on console, want the best possible gaming experience, don’t want to choose between sharp graphics or good image refresh – and have a reasonably modern TV with the right features – then the PlayStation 5 Pro is well worth its price.
Specs
- Manufacturer: Sony
- Product type: Game console
- Processor: AMD Zen 2
- Graphics: RDNA GPU, up to 16.7 teraflops, additional hardware for upscaling and ray tracing
- Memory: 16GB gddr6, 2GB ddr5
- Storage: 2 tb NVMe SSD
- Video modes: Up to 8k, 120hz
- Optical drive: Ultra HD Blu-ray
- Connections: Wi-Fi 7, 2 USB-A, 2 USB-C, ethernet port, HDMI 2.1 out, M.2 NVMe SSD slot
- Size: 39 x 8.9 x 21.6cm
- Weight: 3.1kg
Games with PlayStation 5 Pro support
- Alan Wake II
- Albatroz
- Apex Legends
- Assassin’s Creed Mirage
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Call of Duty Black Ops 6
- Dead Island 2
- Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster
- Demon’s Soul
- Diablo IV
- Dragon Age: Veilguard
- Dragons Dogma 2
- Dying Light 2
- Empire of Ants
- F1 24
- FC 25
- Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth
- Fortnite
- God of War Ragnarok
- Gran Turismo 7
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Horizon Forbidden West
- Horizon Zero Dawn
- Kayak VR Mirage
- Lords of the Fallen
- Madden NFL 25
- Mnaraka: Bladepoint
- Mortal Kombat 1
- NBA 2K25
- No Man’s Sky
- Palworld
- Planet Coaster 2
- Ratchet and Clank: A Rift Apart
- Resident Evil 4 Remnake
- Resident Evil Village
- Rise of the Ronin
- Rogue Flight
- Silent Hill 2
- Spider-man 2
- Spider-man Miles Morales
- Star Wars Outlaws
- Star Wars: Jedi Survivor
- Stellar Blade
- Test Drive Solar Crown
- The Crew Motorfest
- The Finals
- The Last of us: Part 1 Remake
- The Last of Us: Part 2 Remaster
- Until Dawn
- Warframe
Please note that not all updates have been released yet. More games are also added continuously, see the current list on PlayStation Store.
Best Prices Today: Sony Playstation 5 Pro
This article originally appeared on our sister publication M3 and was translated and adapted from Swedish.
Author: P-A Knutsson, Contributor, Tech Advisor
P-A tests games and gaming accessories for console and PC, and produces videos on the latest games for TikTok
Recent stories by P-A Knutsson:
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