So there you have it! The PS5 Pro has just been announced by
Sony and the price tag is somewhat hefty if you look at the
MSRP of 700 USD. But is the update worth it? At this moment
it will have to be put to the test. The update seems good though!

So how do PS5 and PS5 Pro differ to each other?

First: This is the PS5:

Nothing spectacular so far. A look we all know for a good 2 years now.

And this is the PS5 Pro:

Notice something? Yeah it got some nifty “racing stripes” and no optical drive at all. That’s right, the optical drive is history and you’ll have to purchase it as an add-on separately for roughly 100 to 150 USD. So either you play your disc-based games on your conventional PS5 or you are ready to shell out some extra bucks to play them on the PS5 Pro. Sad move but yeah, that’s the way it is.

Nowadays a large number of players most likely download their games anyways but the drive was good for bluray playback as the PS3 of it’s time already was one of THE best bluray players out there.

But the tech specs really do give the revamped PS5 Pro a push forward. Urgently needed in my opinion as the original PS5 was barely able to bring native 4K to the screens. Some games had to scale down to 1440p in order to maintain a stable and steady framerate in certain games. the PS5 Pro now really does no longer have to do that and will deliver a really good 4K experience. This is also thanks to AMD who have updated their APU/GPU lineup to meet the newest requirements when it comes to processing power both computing and graphic-wise. The included custom SSD comes now with 2TB capacity yet there’s an additional NVMe-Slot to fill should the 2TB become filled. There’s no information yet what capacity you may pop in at max but it should be at least a PCIe 4.0 SSD and these are quite expensive beyond 4TB capacity. 8 TB still cost about 1000 USD that meets the criteria for the PS5 (Pro). So all in all that would be a whopping 2000 USD for a fully equipped PS5 Pro with optical drive addon and an additional 8TB SSD drive. YIKES!

As the update is rather slim, it does not rectify a PS6 branding. I guess the PS6 rather will aim at 8K gaming as 8K displays more and more become available at reasonable prices in the asian region and also in Europe 8K displays seem to appear more and more despite the fact that even TV broadcasting barely hits the 4K. The european market in my opinion still isn’t ready for 8K but you never know what will happen in 2 years.

So what’s the conclusion so far? The PS5 Pro is the logical consequence to the older PS4 – PS4 Pro update. But will the PS5 Pro handle temperatures better and not have a roaring fan? You’ll never know. Time will tell, sooner or later!

So which one is more appealing to you? The PS5 (Optical) or the PS5 Pro? The image contest is just below: