If you're buying your first PlayStation, wait for the PS4 Pro!!!

Anyone considering a PlayStation 4 Pro purchase is facing one of two questions:

1. Should I upgrade to a PlayStation 4 Pro from my existing PS4?

No, probably not. Unless your home gaming setup includes a 4K television of some kind, there's really no reason to consider a Pro purchase if your base PS4 is still running fine. 

This is doubly true if you've already purchased one of the newly slimmed-down PS4s. That means your console isn't even two months old yet. Yes, the slim PS4's only difference from the launch console is a now-removed optical audio port, but if you bought the refreshed base console then you probably knew that was the case and didn't need the port anyway.

2. I'm buying a PS4 for the first time. Which one should I get?

Ah, now this is a trickier question. Unless you have a 4K screen, in which case the answer is definitely yes.

If you don't have 4K and you're looking at a PS4 purchase, ask yourself when or if you plan to upgrade to 4K. Figure out if you'll need that optical audio port (an important feature for higher-end gaming headsets). Decide whether you care about the marginal-yet-still noticeable boosts the Pro offers even on sub-4K displays (discussed below).

To be clear: PS4 Pro-optimized games don't actually run at 4K. They're all upscaled to that resolution, since the Pro — and, really, all but the most expensive gaming PCs — lacks the processing power to run games natively at a 4K resolution.

In spite of that, I think the $100 premium you pay for a Pro is more than worth it if you're already buying a new PlayStation now, for whatever reason. Gaming consoles rarely offer the ability to future-proof your setup, but this one does just that.

Want to better understand how the technical differences between the base PS4 and the Pro play out in practice before you make your decision? Then read on.

 I've been down on the PlayStation 4 Pro for months.

When Sony announced its "4K gaming" console for a November 2016 release with just two months to go before that release, I predicted disaster. Why announce such a significant hardware launch so late? And why release it less than a month after PlayStation VR's launch?

I read that as Sony's lack of certainty over the PS4 Pro's prospects. The less-than-perfect PSVR only seemed to confirm those suspicions. I felt that the Pro's seemingly rushed launch was an effort to give the PSVR a more reliable hardware foundation than the O.G. PS4 could.

I was 100 percent wrong.

PS4 Pro is an upgrade over the PS4 we've known since 2014. Yes, the benefits are most evident if you have a 4K television. But it's also not necessary; even plugged into 1080p screen, there's a difference.

It's important to make a distinction between graphics and resolution. The former is the sum total of a game's textures, animations, physics, particle effects and other elements making up what you see. The latter is, simply, how many pixels can cram onto your screen. The Pro boosts both, but the difference remains important.

Everyone should see a graphics difference, regardless of the screen a Pro is plugged into. Even using a 1080p display, I saw obvious improvements in anti-aliasing, which smooths out the jagged edges of textures with have curved or diagonal lines. This is evident in Pro-optimized games like Battlefield 1, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Infamous: Second Son. 

Particle and lighting effects in general also seem to enjoy a boost in the Pro-optimized games I tested. It's subtle, but columns of fire, billowing smoke and inky shadows behave more naturally on the newer PS4.