PS5 Pro first impressions: a great upgrade for a minority of people

The PS5 Pro is definitely an upgrade over the launch model, but not for everybody

Witness my big PSSR / PlayStation

Last night I finally sat down to play my new PS5 Pro console, and it took a moment, but it clicked. I’ve been plugging through the last few hours of Dragon Age: The Veilguard lately – mostly agreeing with Kirk McKeand’s full Veilguard review – and putting the game I’d spent over 30 hours with on PS5 on the PS5 Pro was a pretty dramatic improvement.

Kirk told me that the game’s Performance mode was “blurry” when compared to the Fidelity mode, which isn’t a complaint I personally had. The image quality was soft, sure, but it seemed to fit the ethereal and almost dream-like atmosphere of the game, and I’d rather not opt for 30fps if I can avoid it.

However, the same game on PS5 Pro suddenly looks sharp and modern. I assumed that the “soft” image quality was a post-process, stylistic choice on behalf of the art team and developers. As it turns out, it was just an unfortunate by-product of upscaling from a low resolution. On PS5 Pro, The Veilguard looks smooth and sharp at 60fps, inching closer to a “true” PC-like experience.

Distant details come into focus on PS5 Pro. / BioWare

I had much the same experience with Alan Wake 2, which I loved on release, but I had to acknowledge that the 60fps Performance mode was holding back the visuals, especially in comparison to the high-end PC version of the game. You’re not going to get a “high-end” experience with Alan Wake 2 on PS5 Pro, but it does look nicer. If you do opt for 30fps visuals, you get new ray tracing features – which would be a wonderful addition – if you can adapt to a lower framerate. The less said about the smear-like effect in mirrors caused by the low-resolution ray-traced reflections, the better.

Things aren’t perfect in either camp. Those reflections in Alan Wake 2 also broke up and looked incredibly odd at certain angles, and in one late Dragon Age cutscene that is supposed to be hazy and dream-like, the bright streaks of hair each character has started to break up and fizzle in certain lighting, becoming more of an eyesore than an improvement.

It’s early days, and I’m hopeful that any small issues will be solved as the Pro’s PSSR tech is improved in future updates. But those updates aren’t going to solve the issues I’ve already had. 

Ray-traced reflections are nice, but a bit distracting. / Remedy

Plugging in the PS5 Pro and getting it updated is as effortless as the original console, but my efforts to Data Transfer between my PS5 and the new Pro were fruitless. I tried database rebuilds, updating from safe mode, all of it, and Data Transfer refused to work. I attempted to back up to USB and restore from that backup on the new console — only the backup bugged, failed, and deleted almost all of my capture library that I’d carefully preserved. Thanks Sony, now all the evidence that I was once utterly cracked at Apex Legends is gone. 

I also need to mention that I had two different people message me independently asking if I had any advice on how to connect the vertical stand to the console. People shouldn’t need advice for something that should be so simple. A separate issue that I’m having is that I play a lot of fighting games, and I play with an arcade stick. The PS5 Pro only has USB-C ports on the front, and arcade sticks still use USB-A as standard. As a result, I currently have two USB C-to-A adapters awkwardly poking out of the front of my console.

The PS5 Pro is a nice upgrade for those visual and performance enthusiasts who still primarily game on console – I have a high-end PC, but consoles are just so much more convenient – as long as you have the TV to make the most of it. If your TV isn’t 4K, 120Hz, and VRR compatible, then upgrading to PS5 Pro probably isn’t going to offer any benefits that befit its hefty price tag. That’s ignoring the disc drive – sold separately – which is currently out of stock everywhere and being scalped on ebay.

Still, this is a huge upgrade over the base PS5 at 60fps. / Remedy

But my biggest takeaway isn’t even related to whether or not you “need” a PS5 Pro, the benefits of having one, or the price tag. It cements the idea that Sony rushed the PS5 to market. The base PS5 saw multiple small changes to the console before the “slim” even came to market—including a smaller, lighter heatsink—and then it received a price hike in 2022. 

Now the PS5 Pro is here, and it’s both smaller and lighter than the launch console by a pretty considerable amount. Instead of marveling at how far we’ve come in four years, I’m left asking how Sony’s engineers messed up the initial launch so badly that everything since has felt like a backtrack. 

If you are one of those people who plays games primarily on console with a new TV that features all of the bells and whistles, then sure, the PS5 Pro is for you. But the good news is that it’s in stock pretty much everywhere (unlike the disc drive), and like the launch of the initial console, it’s going to improve over time. This once again feels like a Sony product that has been pushed into a market that doesn’t really need it, but that doesn’t mean people don’t want it. 

I'm excited to see what other games benefit from PS5 Pro. / BioWare

I feel confident that the PS5 Pro is going to offer me a better experience for upcoming games, but my friends that come over to see probably aren’t going to notice a difference.