Comparing PS4 Pro and Xbox One S

I got a Playstation 4 Pro this past holidays and after a few  months of playing I thought that I'd compare it to my XBox One S.

I was initially attracted to the XBox One S for it's hardware.  It supported 4K and 4K Blu-Ray and it had an HDMI-pass through input option.  The price was a bit cheaper then the PS4 Pro and there were enough games on it that I was interested in even if they weren't exclusives to the console (sports games like Madden, Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy XV, etc.).  I don't use consoles as a media hub even though that is a feature that Microsoft has touted about the Xbox One.  What I wanted was a gaming system for someone like me:  a casual gamer but one who grew up with video gaming.  While I was overall content with the Xbox One S, I wasn't always so motivated to play it.  Start-up time was slow especially for some of the games.  It doesn't support CEC-HDMI so I had to always find the remote to turn on the TV and speakers which is surprise given this is suppose to be a media and entertainment hub for both hardware and digital content.


Honestly, I didn't think much of this inconvenience and just subconsciously not played the Xbox as much as I might have otherwise.  None of these came into my mind when I got the PS4 Pro.  The Pro got my attention for some of its titles such as Nier:Automata and Horizon: Zero Dawn.  When I played it, it just felt like a better gaming systems.

The PS4 controllers are more comfortable, the system is responsible and felt more like it's given more thought to being a gaming system then the XBox.  I can pick up the controller and the system will turn on along with the TV and speakers and I just start playing. 

While I heard there's some criticism about the Playstation interface, I like it a lot more then the XBox interface.  It is simpler and it shows some just the games and some other apps.  When I first turned on the XBox it provided a dazzling array of items from news, to videos, to apps... and also the games.  It didn't feel as much of a game system as the Playstation.

I've definitely have been playing the PS4 more and unlike the XBox, I do just play because of the convenience of being able to pick up the controller and get started.  I do like the XBox and overall its hardware is nice (minus the lack of CEC-HDMI support) but the software and games falls behind the Playstation.  The XBox still has the advantage of the 4K blu-ray player, but the PS4 has the edge on the controller and better integration with the TV and speakers.  Software goes to the PS4 and it wins on the intangibles that makes the gaming experience fun.

If the choice is just one console, I'd give the edge to the PS4 Pro.