Today Sony officially unveiled both the PS4 slim and the PS4 Pro. The PS4 slim will take the place of the current model PS4 sku and launch September 15 for $299 while the Pro model will launch November 10 for the reasonable price of $399. So what’s the Pro get you?
PS4 Slim
PS4 Pro
The PS4 Pro has double the graphics processing power of the standard PS4, a higher clocked processor, and comes with a 1TB hard drive. It also has the ability to play both video and games in HDR (high dynamic range) and 4K—neither of which I can take advantage of. And I sure as hell don’t plan on buying a new expensive TV any time soon. Actually, by the time I get around to buying a new TV the PlayStation 5 will likely be out. Or I’ll have kids. Or both. Those without HDR and 4K will still benefit from the upgraded power according to Sony. The pro will be able to detect the type of display it’s hooked up to and will adjust the graphics settings accordingly. For example, Horizon Zero Dawn may have sharper textures, higher density environments, characters with a higher polygon count, and a much larger draw distance on a PS4 Pro hooked up to a regular 1080p HDTV. PlayStation VR games will also see a boot in graphical fidelity with some games doubling the pixel density, enabling more detailed environments in VR. But if you don’t care about 4K gaming but want HDR content then good news, Sony said every PS4 will be HDR capable (at 1080p) in an upcoming firmware update due out next week. We’re assuming that’s the big 4.00 firmware update. Not a bad deal.
So what do I think? Well all things considered I’m not going to bite. Honesty, I’m more excited for PS VR, Nintendo NX, and the fact that Mario is coming to my iPhone. And I sure as shit don’t have the cash for a VR headset, a PS4 Pro, and Nintendo NX. Personally, I’d rather invest in the new gameplay experience VR is going to give me on my pesant PS4 along with whatever the hell NX is going to be. What about you? What if you don’t have a PS4 and are deciding between the Slim and the Pro? That’s a tough call. It depends on how much you want 4K gaming and video as well as how much developers support the more powerful hardware. Only time will tell, and unlike Microsoft’s Project Scorpio, we’ll find out this coming holiday season rather than next.
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Quick PS4 Pro Specs
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8 core low power Jaguar CPU clocked at a higher speed than standard PS4
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over double the graphics power of current PS4. This is due to using AMD’s latest Polaris graphics technology as the foundation. The original PS4 was capable of 1.84 Teraflops of graphical power while the PS4 Pro is capable of 4.20
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Wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (basically 5 Ghz compatible)
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1TB hard drive
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Both models use 8GB GDDR5 memory
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capable of recording gameplay and remote playing at 1080p 30fps and broadcasting online at 1080p 60fps up from 720p 30fps of the original PS4
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PS4 Pro consumes 310 watts max compared to the PS4 Slim’s 165 watts. Woah!
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PS4 Pro dimensions: 11.6 x 12.8 x 2.1
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PS4 Slim dimensions: 11.3 x 10.4 x 1.5
