Around a month ago, I bought a PS5 Pro. Thanks to PlayStation’s Days of Play sale, I ended up paying £692 for both the console and the disc drive, a saving of around £110 compared to launch day pricing.

When the PS5 Pro arrived, the first thing I noticed was the size of the cardboard delivery box. It was noticeably smaller than the one the base PS5 came in. I didn’t expect the Pro to be smaller than the original. Once I opened the box and took the PS5 out, my first impression was: is this actually the Pro, or is it the Slim? It was smaller than the base PS5! I was comparing the disc version of the base PS5 with the PS5 Pro, and I hadn’t installed the disc drive yet; regardless of that, it was smaller than I expected. I liked the look of it. Unlike most people, I’ve always been a fan of the PS5’s design, and the Pro is a nice evolution of that. I particularly like the black stripes on the sides — they remind me of Adidas, but in my mind, they scream, “I am fast!”

Another point to note: I bought the base PS5 at launch, and the initial packaging had an “8K” badge, claiming it supported 8K games. Sony later removed that label, as it was misleading. The PS5 Pro’s box doesn’t mention 8K at all.

Once I set up the PS5 Pro, I spent some time playing games. The first game I tried was Gran Turismo 7. After tweaking the settings, I noticed visual improvements to the cars on the game. The thing about racing games is that the fast-paced environment makes it hard to appreciate subtle graphical upgrades unless you really slow things down. To be honest, I wouldn’t say these visual upgrades are essential overall. But I now play this game at 120fps, something I avoided on the base PS5 because it came with a noticeable drop in visual fidelity. That’s no longer the case on the Pro.

The second game I played was Hogwarts Legacy, and as soon as I launched it, I could see a significant difference compared to the base PS5. There was far more detail, and the lighting stood out. I sit about 1.5 metres from my TV — an LG CX from 2020 — and it definitely felt worth the upgrade. The point to note here is the TV I am using and how far I am sitting from the screen. The further I sit, the more negligible the upgrades are. And having an OLED TV definitely helps in justifying the upgrade from a PS5 to the PS5 Pro.

The third game I played was Forza Horizon 5. It happened to be 20% off, so I picked it up. The graphics were impressive, especially considering I hadn’t played it on the base PS5. The native 4K graphics mode looked clean and smooth at 60fps. This is a game that I didn’t play on the base PS5, and I am glad that this is the best way to play this game on a console.

One thing I quickly started to realise about the PS5 Pro is that when Mark Cerny introduced this “Pro” console, he said:

“Removing that decision [between fidelity and performance], or at least narrowing that divide is one of the key targets for PS5 Pro,” Cerny continues. “We want to give players the graphics that the game creators aspire to, at the high frame rates that players typically prefer.”

The goal was to eliminate the choice between performance and quality modes, so that users would get both top-tier visuals and performance at the same time. While that is now true, what we have ended up with is even more options and decisions to make.

On the base PS5, I usually had just two options: best graphics or best performance. Now, there are multiple configurations and modes to choose from. It’s starting to feel a bit like a PC. For all three of the games I mentioned, I had to watch Digital Foundry videos just to decide which graphics mode to use. On GT7 I went with the best performance option to play at 120fps, on Hogwarts I stuck to quality, and with Forza Horizon 5 I get the best of both worlds (native 4K at 60fps).

Choice can be a good thing, but when you’re inundated with so many, especially on the PS5 Pro, you do have to spend some time figuring out which mode you actually want to play the game in. This sounds like a first world problem, and that’s because it is. And if there is one thing we gamers love to do, it’s to complain.

I am writing up my full thoughts on this console, so watch this space. But to answer the popular question — is the Pro worth it? Yes, it is, for me.