Sony finally pulled the shrink wrap off the PlayStation 5 Pro this week, and the internet reacted with the same energy you'd expect from a group of people being told their rent is going up.
The console lands November 7 at $699.99, and that's the version without a disc drive, because apparently physical media is now a premium add-on like heated seats in a BMW.
For that pile of money you get a beefier GPU, a feature Sony calls "advanced ray tracing," and something branded PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution — which is a real name humans chose on purpose.
The pitch is simple: games look sharper, run smoother, and finally hit 60 frames per second in that one title you've been squinting at for three years.
The catch is that you need a TV and a game library that can actually use any of this.
If you're still gaming on a 1080p set from 2016, the PS5 Pro won't fix your life.
It'll just render your mediocrity in slightly higher fidelity.
Let's talk about the price, because everyone else is.
Seven hundred dollars buys a decent gaming laptop, a Steam Deck and a nice dinner, or roughly 140 Chipotle burritos.
Sony is betting you'll pick the console instead, and history suggests Sony is annoyingly correct about this kind of thing.
If you own physical games, you'll need to buy a separate drive for $79.99.
If you own a vertical stand, that's another $29.99.
Congratulations, you're now at $810 before you've bought a single game.
This is the console equivalent of a cable bill — the advertised number is never the real number.
Games like *Final Fantasy VII Rebirth* and *Alan Wake 2* have performance modes that look like they were smeared through a wet sock.
The Pro's extra horsepower should clean that up without forcing you to choose between pretty and playable.
That's a genuinely nice quality-of-life upgrade, and anyone who's squinted at a blurry 40fps compromise knows the pain.
Nothing here is a must-have; it's a must-have-if-you-have-money-and-a-nice-TV.
That's not a scandal, it's just a luxury product doing luxury product things.
Sony is also leaning hard on AI upscaling, which is the industry's favorite magic trick right now.
Every console maker, GPU brand, and probably your refrigerator is slapping "AI" on the box.
Sometimes it makes faces look like they're melting.
Your mileage will vary, and reviewers will spend the next six months arguing about it.
The real question isn't whether the PS5 Pro is good.
It probably is, in the way a $700 steak is probably good.
The question is whether you're the person who needs it.
If you've got a 4K 120Hz TV, a backlog you actually care about, and disposable income burning a hole in your pocket, sure, treat yourself.
If you're a normal person with a normal TV and a normal amount of money, your current console is fine.
Our take: this is a mid-generation refresh aimed at enthusiasts with more money than patience, and that's a perfectly valid product to sell.
Just don't let the marketing convince you that your existing PS5 suddenly became trash overnight.
Final Thoughts
Skip it, wait for a sale, or put the $700 toward a TV that actually deserves it.