PS4 Pro details, price, release date & first impressions revealed

After quite the wait, PlayStation has finally unveiled the new PS4 Pro. Others may remember this as the much-rumoured PS4 Neo. From the looks of it, this new console will be the most powerful addition to the PS4 family to date.

Over at the PlayStation Blog, Sony detailed the particulars that make the PS4 Pro unique from its predecessor. The very first thing that strikes the player is that the PS4 Pro is meant for a much higher experience in gaming.

Touted as the high-end PS4 version, the PS4 Pro is capable of 4K graphics, HDR support, better framerates and 4K video streaming. This means that the PS4 games played on the new console will have far better quality and smoother run. In the same way that the Xbox One S, it is not meant to separate the 2013 current-gen consoles.

The good news for PS4 players is that there won’t be any PS4 Pro-exclusive titles, so games are fully compatible and playable in either device. The advantage for players who are looking to get the PS4 Pro alone is that all of the other PS4 games from the launch of the new device will already have the PS4 Pro added-value features.

One other benefit of the PS4 Pro is that it doesn’t require a 4K TV. With a 4K TV, the resolution improvement will be very noticeable. Without a 4K TV, PlayStation promised that players can still notice the difference. Among these benefits include consistent framerates, more character detail, improved visual quality and enhanced processing power. Plus, a 1080p run is almost guaranteed even on an HDTV and with a PS4 game that renders below that resolution.

As far as actual testing goes, more impressions of the PS4 Pro are leaning towards a fairly considerable upgrade from the standard PS4 even without 4K. According to Pocket-Lint, the PlayStation conference gave life back to Sony’s side of the console, as it presented a very capable new device in the PS4 Pro to battle against the best of them.

However, Ars Technica noted that, for an entirely new PS4 device, the PS4 Pro’s upsides may be a little on the thin side. Games that have been run on the PS4 Pro does present a cleaner experience with steadier framerates, but the leap in terms of quality may be lacking that extra punch for an entirely different device.

Players can judge for themselves, as the PS4 Pro will launch on Nov. 10 in North America for US$399.99 (approx. AU$523).