The PlayStation 4 Pro has marked a turning point for the modern console era. In fact, it also redefines what a 'console' even means. Consoles are supposed to offer decent enough graphics at an attractive price point, and a consistent hardware target to enable developers to optimize the crap out of their games. Meanwhile, PC gamers can spend twice as much and get marginally better graphics and all the headaches and complexities of playing games on a PC hardware.

The PS4 Pro is on another level

But the PS4 Pro is a mid-generation upgrade to an already successful console. It adds significant power and complexity to the console equation, at a very reasonable price: $399, only $100 more than the slimmer version of the original and much less powerful PS4. The extra expense also gets you a nice big 1TB hard drive, an extra USB plug, an optical audio out, and of course, 4K resolution output.

The PS4 Pro is all about 4K

When you manage to boot up the PlayStation 4 Pro, you'll land in the PS4 System Software 4.0, which is already available on the regular PS4, and is a major redesign of the PlayStation interface if you haven't been using a PlayStation recently. But probably the most notable on the PS4 Pro is that the user-interface is all in 4K.

4K resolution explained

4K is about four times as many pixels as a 1080p, which is the resolution of a typical HDTV that the original PS4 was designed for. The PS4 Pro is twice as fast as a PS4 and not four times faster, which leaves us an obvious question: where do all those extra pixels come from?

Tricks, mostly. One primary way that developers can turn their regular 1080p games into 4K is called "checkerboard rendering." For instance, that's how Call of Duty: Infinite works. You may think that it looks good since it has 4K labeled on it, but if you look closely, the difference is close to none.