PlayStation 4 Pro Review

The Pro doubled the base PS4's compute units to 36, clocked them higher for 4.2 teraflops, added a gigabyte of DDR3 to free system memory for games, and leaned on checkerboard rendering to reach convincing 4K from a half-resolution buffer. That trick worked far better than it had any right to. Horizon Zero Dawn, Uncharted 4 and God of War on a Pro looked a generation removed from the launch machine, and boost mode quietly lifted framerates in older titles nobody was ever going to patch.

All of it arrived at $399, the same figure the original PS4 had launched at three years earlier, which reframed the mid-cycle refresh as a free upgrade rather than a tax on enthusiasts. The omissions are real: no UHD Blu-ray drive, which was indefensible on a machine sold on 4K, and a fan that under load sounds like a hairdryer. Neither dents the case. It hit the right price at the exact moment Sony's studios were doing their best work.