In retrospect should Sony have given the PS4 Pro better specs for a higher price?

[leng jai]

The PS4 Pro was half baked and the absolute bare minimum Sony could get away with. Even taking away power it was extremely lacklustre at launch:

- No UHD drive
- Bad noise issues
- Same cheap plastic as the OG PS4
- No boost mode at launch
- No system wide down sampling at launch
- No BC enhancements
- Same awful controller battery life

Only thing going for it was the price and Sony's software.

 

[Nerun]

[x] build a decent cooling system and not use jet engines ;)

 

[shark97]

Ok what if pro specs had switched with x and you ran the reverse poll asking if pro should have had lower specs and a lower price. Instead of 60-40 it would be 95-5 against....

 

[YukiroCTX]

I wished they did. Felt too much of a low effort system that gave me no reason to upgrade. X1X is everything I expect from a mid -gen upgrade. Hard to say whether it was a good or bad choice from Sony's perspective given how well it's doing. But I would have loved it if I could play the exclusives in 4K.

 

[Gamer17]

I think they should have .point of midgen refresh is to Target high-end customer to prevent then from migrating to PC.not to have anothee reasonably priced console on the market .

 

[ElCidTmax]

Sony is well aware of the install base for 4k TVs and 4k blu-ray sales. My guess is most people with PS4 Pros are still using 1080p TVs.

PS4 Pro came out in (late) 2016. So 6+ year cycle with a good refresh after year 3, and what should be quite a significant PS4 regular to PS5 regular jump in 2020. 4k TVs are now affordable, but were less so in 2016. I think Sony got the timing right for the majority of their customers.

 

[Rendering...]

It would be nice if the PSPro were on par with the 1X. Then again, I probably wouldn't have bought one at a higher price point. I was in the market for a base model when I found a good deal.

 

[overcast]

Pro was a nice upgrade for me considering how little I paid for it after trade in and stuff.. It was a pretty appealing machine at its price point but the 1X absolutely kicks its ass. No 4k blu ray was the most immediately disappointing aspect.

But its the console I own and think plenty of games look amazing on it.

 

[Nessus]

I mean, would it have sold better if it had higher end specs and cost more? As far as I can tell Sony seems to be doing fine.

 

[Man God]

Retrospect nothing, I've been saying this since the specs were announced.

 

[Seahawk64]

Yes.

Not that big of an upgrade from a reg PS4 imo.

 

[chrisPjelly]

They should've added a 4k blu ray player, but aside from that, I don't see why they need to blow their load on technical specs when next gen is already coming.

 

[Poimandres]

Ok what if pro specs had switched with x and you ran the reverse poll asking if pro should have had lower specs and a lower price. Instead of 60-40 it would be 95-5 against....

Click to shrink...

What if... What if... Purely a hypothetical situation, and we have no idea how things would have panned out had the Pro and X switched places (which includes a $100 price difference and 1 year release difference). Maybe Microsoft would have gained more ground with that year as the most powerful at a critical time of the generation. Who knows.

Anyway, it's reasonable to say the Pro was a bit undercooked, or at least it's components aren't well balanced.

On the other hand, you posted about the best looking Pro games not being 60fps, but ironically that's an issue that can also be levelled against the X where the CPU is clearly the weakest link and largely seen as a major impedance to 60fps games.