Upscale ANY 1080P Signal To 4K?! PhotoFast 4K Gamer PRO Review
108In this episode, we unbox and test out the Photofast 4K Gamer PRO, designed to upscale any 1080P HD Signal to 4K!
For best quality, we suggest setting your video display setting to 4K.
What if you could Upgrade ANY HD Device to FULL 4K? You can, thanks to the Photofast 4K Gamer Pro! Our review is still in the editing phase, but here's a quick look and comparison to the 4K Gamer Plus.
In the past, we have shown you the PhotoFast 4K Gamer Plus, a plug-and-play device that allows you to upscale 1080p content, such as from the Nintendo Switch, and get a 4K output from it. A neat device by its design, and many people asked us why it was red and not black, however. The answer is simple, the 4K Gamer Plus is red, and the 4K Gamer Pro, PhotoFast's other 4K upscale dongle, is black. Well, they have recently sent us the 4K Gamer Pro to check out, and it promises some exciting upgrades over the 4K Gamer Plus. Let's take a look.
The overall design and construction are pretty simple and straightforward. The dongle features a six or seven-inch hard plastic case with a male HDMI port on one end, a female HDMI port, and a female USB-C port on the other. There is an HDMI Male-to-Female adapter in the box which will allow you to connect the 4K Gamer Pro inside of a Nintendo Switch dock as the dongle itself is too long by just a few millimeters to fit inside. That's really unfortunate, but this is an adequate solution and workaround.
The overall design and form factor is identical to the 4K Gamer Plus, including the button on the top of the unit. This is what you use to scroll through and access the different profiles. Press the button once and you get a low level of filter and upscaling, a second time is the medium setting, the third time is the high setting, and a fourth, final press puts the 4K Gamer Pro in passthrough mode providing no upscale or filtering.
I connected the 4K Gamer Pro to my Nintendo Switch and fed the signal directly into my KUHAIMI 4K capture device and connected the output to my 4K Samsung TV. I will say, at The lowest setting the picture did look quite improved. The colors were brighter, the images were sharper, and checking my recording I was definitely getting 4K output. Neat! I toggled through each of the additional settings and must admit I did not see much of a difference from low, to medium, to high. I think a lot of the difference will depend on the TV you are using, even more so than the content you are feeding into the 4K Gamer Pro. The nice thing is that I did not notice any additional lag, delay, or latency introduced into gameplay while using this.
Much like the 4K Gamer Plus, I also tested the 4K Gamer Pro on a number of different items. My RetroTink 5x, Xbox Xedusa, and HDMI-modded NES all saw very similar results to what I saw with the Nintendo Switch. The picture definitely looks better, but I could not really discern much of a difference between the different modes.
Why it RoX:
- Works as advertised
- Three different levels of upscaling
- Compatible with practically any 1080p source
- Lagless
- Integrated pass-through mode
- 4K HDR
What could be improved:
- Not sure it delivers much more of a value than the 4K Gamer Plus
- Does not fit inside Switch dock without dongle extension
- Expensive
-Requires external power
Should you buy one?
If the 4K Gamer Plus did not exist, this would be a hands-down solution. The existence of that less expensive model does muddy the water a bit. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I just did not notice any real difference between the three different modes on my television, but as I stated, your mileage may vary. It's definitely improving the signal and providing 4K from a 1080p source, and it does so brilliantly. The colors look great, the audio is unaffected, and the play control is wonderful. I would say the great thing is that you now have two terrific choices depending on What you're looking to accomplish. If you want something that's simple and functions, the 4K Gamer Plus is the way to go. If you want something that you have more tunability and customization for, then the 4K Gamer Pro is the unit for you.
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