The PS4 Pro has launched and the Xbox One Scorpio is due in 2017. But should you wait until next year for the Microsoft console, or grab the PlayStation 4 Pro right now?
By
Dominic Preston | 3 hours ago
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£349 inc VAT. US$399
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Sony’s PlayStation 4 Pro is out now, and is currently the most powerful games console on the market by some way. It won’t hold that crown forever though, as Microsoft’s souped up Xbox One Scorpio is set to arrive at some point in 2017. Some gamers might already know they’re planning to pick both upgrades as soon as they’re out, but that’ll get pretty pricey, pretty quickly. So if you’re just looking for one, should you grab the PS4 Pro right now, or wait a year for Project Scorpio?
Comparing pricing and release dates for the two consoles is tough, because while we know everything that we need to about the PS4 Pro, there are a lot of question marks around the Scorpio. Sony’s console arrived in the UK on 10 November 2016, and the 1TB edition can be found for £349. That’s only £100 or so more than the default PS4 model (a.k.a. the PS4 Slim ), making it a reasonably compelling value proposition.
By contrast, we don’t know much about the Xbox One Scorpio, but what we do know puts it at a distinct disadvantage. The only release date Microsoft has confirmed so far is that it’ll be out by ‘Christmas 2017’, so it’s most likely a full year away from release. Whilst we’re not yet sure of UK pricing, the ability to provide « true 4K gameplay » suggests to us that it may cost somewhere between £350 and £500 – already more expensive than the PS4 Pro, which could cost even less in a year’s time.
We do at least know when we’ll find out more though. Microsoft has confirmed that it will be holding an E3 press conference on 11 June 2017 at 10 p.m. GMT, and we know the Scorpio will be the big focus. Expect to find out specs, price, release date, and to get a look at the device itself.
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So Project Scorpio is likely to cost a bit more than the PS4 Pro, but will you get more for your money? If claims from Xbox execs are anything to go by, then yes.
Scorpio is said to boast six teraflops of graphical power, with Microsoft already branding it « the most powerful console ever. » By comparison, the PS4 Pro clocks in at 4.2 teraflops, and both the standard PS4 and Xbox One have less than 2 teraflops of power. The Scorpio is also expected to trump the Pro when it comes to memory. Microsoft has already confirmed it will have a memory bandwidth of 320GB/s, while the PS4 Pro runs at 218GB/s.
