PlayStation5 Pro review

Sony’s most powerful gaming console ever, the PlayStation5 Pro, has just been released and it’s fair to say it’s been a wild ride from start to finish: it is a long-rumored, widely-discussed and unusually controversial product, more polarizing than any other gaming system in recent memory. It’s also the most important game-related release of the year, in the sense that how developers choose to leverage its extra power and how well it’s received by consumers will influence how the inevitable PlayStation6 is configured and marketed in 2027 or 2028. Long-term, this will prove to be a milestone product in ways that the PS4 Pro was not. Of that, there is no doubt.

Yours truly has had his PS5 Pro in for testing since November 1st and he’s now clear on everything Sony’s latest gaming console can and cannot (currently) do. He’s also had the chance to play a few more PS5 Pro Enhanced games, engage in some multiplayer action and check out the media player side of this thing.

Long-term, the PS5 Pro has the potential to become an influential product in ways that the PS4 Pro could never be.

It was all done in order to answer one question, really: now that all the PS5 Pro preorders all delivered and the day-one purchases made – now that everyone who wanted one got one, regardless of what the media think of it – is Sony’s latest worth buying for the vast majority of the PlayStation crowd?

Here’s what people who are on the fence regarding the PS5 Pro need to know in order to decide.

PS5 Pro system specifications

In a way that was rather strange, all things considered, Sony had not released the official spec sheet of the PS5 Pro when it unveiled the product itself back in September, which is why we were able to find out a number of interesting technical tidbits about it through the printed Safety Guide included in its packaging (it is now available on Sony’s website too – as a PDF file – right here).

In any case, here’s the spec sheet itself along with some additional information.

External dimensions (excl. projecting parts)	Approx. 388 × 89 × 216 mm (W × H × D)
Mass	Approx. 3.1 kg
CPU	x86-64-AMD Ryzen “Zen 2” processor
	8 Cores / 16 Threads
	Variable frequency, up to 3.8 GHz
GPU	AMD Radeon RDNA 2-based graphics engine
	Advanced Ray Tracing Acceleration
	Variable frequency, up to 2.23 GHz (16.7 TFLOPS)
System Memory	GDDR6 16GB + GDDR5 2GB
	576GB/s bandwidth
SSD	2TB
	5.5GB/s Read Bandwidth (RAW)
PS5 Game Disc	Ultra HD Blu-ray, up to 100GB/disc
BD/DVD drive	Optical disc drive (sold separately)
Video Out	Support of 4K 120Hz TVs, 8K TVs, VRR (specified by HDMI ver. 2.1)
Audio	“Tempest” 3D Audio Tech
Input/Output (Front of Console)	USB Type-C port (Super-Speed USB 10Gbps)
	USB Type-C port (Hi-Speed USB)
Input/Output (Back of Console)	USB Type-A port (Super-Speed USB 10Gbps) x2
Internal expansion	M.2 SSD connector (Key M), optical disc drive port
Networking	Ethernet: 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T WI-FI: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be Bluetooth: 5.1
Maximum power rating	390 W

Weirdly enough, there is no mention here of the very thing that sets the PS5 Pro apart from the PS5 Slim in the most important way possible: the machine-learning co-processor on which Sony’s proprietary AI-assisted PSSR upscaling tech depends on. The Japanese company has barely shared any details on that, so people who are curious as to how this particular processing block has been implemented in the PS5 Pro hardware will probably have to wait for the first lithography shots of the new system’s CPU and/or a detailed tour of the new motherboard in order a to find that out.

What is easy to tell is that this is a carefully done, targeted hardware upgrade that improves on specific areas of a system affecting gaming performance and not much else. The increased storage space is obviously appreciated and the Wi-Fi 7 connectivity is a welcome surprise but, other than that, everything else – from ports to audio to expandability – is in line with what the PS5 Slim offers at a lower price point.

The absence of an optical drive on the PS5 Pro has been extensively discussed and, judging from social media and forum comments, many people believe it should have been included (as it’s offered by the more affordable standard PS5 model). It’s not hard to see why, given this particular product’s high price point and target group.

PS5 Pro design, build quality and ecosystem compatibility

One can’t easily express an opinion on Sony’s latest gaming console without taking into account its $700 price tag and, with that in mind, one can’t help but feel that in terms of packaging, design and build quality the PS5 Pro seems rather underwhelming. There’s nothing wrong per se about any of the above – it’s just that they are not exactly in line with what many would expect of a premium product, priced accordingly, to offer.

The PS5 Pro’s packaging, for instance, is as ordinary as it gets, so the unboxing experience ends up being unexciting too. The device’s shape and size follows Sony’s design language and manufacturing choices for this generation of hardware, which also makes sense but does the Pro no favors when it comes to distinctive looks: save for those three stripes on the sides of the machine, nobody would be able to tell it apart from the standard PS5 model. Build quality is on par with what’s on offer by the OG PS5 and the PS5 Slim, which – again – is totally acceptable but not premium in any way.

To be honest, the PS5 Pro packaging, design and build quality are all… fine. They are totally fine: very few people will give any of the three a moment’s thought after using it for a few days. It’s just that many people probably expected something more from the first PlayStation costing $700 and who can blame them?

The hardware upgrades offered by the PS5 Pro over the standard PS5 will most probably prove to be a sound investment in the long run.

What Sony would probably prefer consumers to think is that – for almost double the price of the standard PS5 Digital Edition – what they are actually paying for when getting a PS5 Pro is the more powerful graphics chip, the custom machine learning co-processor, double the amount of storage and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity. It stands to reason – for what it’s worth, yours truly believes that these upgrades will prove to be a sound investment in the long run – but not everyone seems to agree with the company’s position. Many seem to think that a premium product should also look and feel like one, which is understandable too.

The good thing about the choices Sony made with the PS5 Pro is that they do lead to maximum flexibility when it comes to expanding its functionality over time and making it their own (certainly in gaming console terms). Attachable optical disc drive? Check. Way more storage in the form of an M.2 NVME SSD drives of up to 8TB? Check. Different faceplates available (at some point in the future)? Check. Full compatibility with all DualSense models, all PlayStation headsets, the PSVR 2 and the PlayStation Portal? Check. This is a thoughtfully put-together product and one that’s well-integrated into the current PlayStation ecosystem. Even if it seems like a given, it still accounts for something.

PS5 Pro functionality, user experience and performance

As yours truly can attest by extensively using this new PlayStation several days prior to its release, people getting it should not be expecting they’ll be doing anything differently with it – or that they’ll be doing more – compared to what they already did on the standard PS5. Despite the extra TB of storage and the additional 2GB of GDDR5 RAM, the PS5 Pro does not boot or multitask or generally function any faster than the PS5 Slim does. It probably wasn’t supposed to anyway, so it’s pretty much the same user experience overall.

In terms of functionality, outside of gaming there’s not much the PS5 Pro can do that the PS5 Slim Digital Edition cannot. They both need Sony’s optical disc drive module for physical copies of games or playback of movies on Blu-ray/UHD Blu-ray, they both run the same streaming apps in the exact same way, their media playback capabilities (on files both on external storage and on a local network via e.g. Plex) are exactly the same. The PS5 Pro will connect to the Internet wirelessly faster than the standard model thanks to Wi-Fi 7, but that’s about it (it goes without saying that a Wi-Fi 7 router or access point is needed to take advantage of that).

For those curious or interested in this detail: the PlayStation Portal does not seem to benefit from the PS5 Pro’s faster wireless connectivity in any perceivable way when it comes to latency, which makes sense since it’s almost certainly limited by its own connectivity speeds (Wi-Fi 5). Sometimes graphics in certain PS5 Pro Enhanced games look crisper because they are sharper on the host system to begin with, but even that is not a given with every PS5 title labeled as such. Since this heavily depends on encoding happening on the PS5 Pro side – in other words, on software – it might be improved in the future through firmware updates.

The functionality and user experience of the PS5 Pro are pretty much the same offered by the standard PS5, which makes sense but it’s also kind of a missed opportunity.

Which fittingly brings us to the most important aspect of the PS5 Pro, performance, because that will depend on software updates for current or incoming PS5 games, as well as for Sony’s system itself. Even this early on it’s clear that the new PlayStation cannot deliver the kind of performance uplift its tech specs promise on paper if the PS5 games running on it are not optimized for its hardware. It’s one of the things consumers should keep in mind when it comes to the PS5 Pro: there’s no easy way to know how non-PS5 Pro Enhanced games will benefit from its extra power, if at all. It all comes down to how each individual game was programmed.

Then there’s the best case scenario: the titles Sony deems worthy of the PS5 Pro Enhanced label. These indeed do much better – in a more dependable way too – than the rest of the PS5 titles, as more or less everyone expected. Some impress more than others but they all offer something of note, be it increased graphics resolution, higher and/or more stable frame rates, a variety of additional lighting effects or any combination of those.

Even when focusing on these games, though, one can tell by looking at the frame rate numbers alone that the PS5 Pro’s claimed 45% increase in graphics processing power does not directly translate to that level of performance uplift… yet. It’s more like between 30% and 35%, obviously depending on the title.

That is why software updates targeting the PSSR algorithm and the PS5 Pro’s AI-infused architecture in general are equally important: developers will have to familiarize themselves with the custom hardware of the Pro model so they can leverage it whenever possible, but Sony will also have to continue working on the underlying firmware and software in order to extract as much deliverable performance out of this hardware as possible. In other words: the potential for some seriously results is there, but it’s early days yet for everyone involved. Another reason why the PS5 Pro is not just a console targeted at enthusiasts, but at early adopters too.

So… is the PS5 Pro worth buying?

It all leads back to this question, obviously – but, at this specific point in time, it also defines those among the PlayStation crowd more likely to ask that question. It’s not the people that preordered the PS5 Pro and it’s also not the people that got it on launch day yesterday. Those had probably made that decision in September. No, it’s the people who are on the fence that are actually asking: the ones not yet sure whether the PS5 Pro will improve their games enough to deliver true value, at this price point, right now.

To that crowd, yours truly can offer this answer: if you feel there’s nothing wrong with the games you’re currently playing on your PS5, then you can rest easy. The PS5 Pro is not a must-have purchase for you (at least not right now) but it could be a great option for the future, if the types of games you play the most don’t seem as smooth or responsive anymore – we’re obviously talking more about frame rate than picture quality here.

If you are still thinking about getting a PS5 Pro regardless, well, you can always wait a while until more games get updated to PS5 Pro Enhanced status, so you can enjoy more of the benefits the upgraded hardware of this device brings to the table.

If, however, you spend considerable amounts of time on specific PS5 games and you feel that they should look and perform better than they currently do, then you belong to the target group this upgraded model is designed for. Even then, though, it’s not a clear-cut case. Have the games you intend on playing the most received a PS5 Pro Enhanced label yet? If they did, or if they are officially going to in the near future, then go right ahead. If not, there’s no easy way to know how your favorite unpatched PS5 games will perform on the Pro. In which case a healthy dose of patience and a lot of research on the Web are highly recommended… for now.

For PlayStation gamers who feel that their favorite games should look and perform better than they are on the standard PS5, the PS5 Pro is an expensive but obvious option.

For the money-is-no-object consumer there’s really no point discussing this: just get it for the improved hardware, the 2TB of storage or the Wi-Fi 7 connectivity and keep on playing the PS5 games you already do in either substantially improved form or not. As time goes by – things will get better in terms of PS5 Pro support, so you will be among those who have enjoyed its benefits for the longest period of time.

The way Sony’s most powerful PlayStation handles PS4 titles is is not overly important, since this product’s main target group is probably not all that excited to play those games anymore (so it does not really matter whether the PS5 Pro actually improves them substantially or not). Owners of 8K TVs might view things differently, though: the three (3) titles currently offering 8K modes may not be reason enough to get a PS5 Pro right now, but if enough PS5 games start doing the same in the future, some of these consumers will find something they’d actually like to play at (upscaled) 8K. Just not yet or anytime soon… probably.

At the end of the day, it all comes back to value and – at this price point – the PS5 Pro cannot deliver a lot of that to every PlayStation fan. That’s OK: Sony itself has already established that this is a premium product designed for console gamers who simply demand the highest visual quality possible at the highest frame rate possible, period. At this price it’s not for everyone and it probably never will be… which is perfectly fine.

It will be interesting to see, though, how PS5 owners feel about all this once more demanding games come along, pushing the standard model to the limit of what’s considered to be an acceptable framerate in 2025 terms and beyond. And then there’s Grand Theft Auto VI, which makes yours truly wonder: is there the console equivalent of a Crysis moment in the future of PlayStation games? Weirder things have happened!