Walther PDP Pro-E Pistol Review: Smooth Shooter

Walther introduced its Performance Duty Pistol (PDP) 9mm semiauto handguns in 2021, and three years later the company launched the upgraded Pro Series SD PDP. Recently it has introduced yet another new member of the PDP family, the Pro-E. Available in four-inch compact and 4.5-inch full-size versions, these German-made striker-fired 9mms effectively split the difference in terms of features and prices between the standard PDP and the top-of-the-line Pro Series SD models.

The Pro-E pistols have a flat-face polymer trigger with integral blade, just like the Pro Series SD guns (more on this in a bit), and they also feature an aluminum mag well that makes it easier to reload in a hurry. The Pro-E full-size pistol gets a bump in magazine capacity—20 rounds compared to 18 for the Pro-E Compact—and the three included magazines feature magazine extensions.

The primary feature missing on the Pro-E pistols compared to the Pro Series SD is a threaded barrel. With their upgraded features, the PDP Pro-E guns have a price of $779, falling between the standard PDP ($649) and the line-topping Pro Series SD ($899). If you can live without a threaded muzzle, you’ll save more than $100 with the Pro-E model. And with the mag well, upgraded trigger and extra magazine, the Pro-E might offer the most bang for your buck of any Walther pistol.

I toured Walther’s factory in Ulm, Germany about a decade ago, and the facility is among the finest I’ve seen anywhere in the world. At the time, Walther’s flagship was the PPQ, a gun that set the standard for build quality and ergonomics in the striker-fired market. I was a bit heartbroken, then, when the PDP supplanted the PPQ.

PDP Promise

But it didn’t take me or anyone else long to warm up to the PDP. It is, painful as it is for me to admit, a more modern pistol than the PPQ. For starters, the slides on PDP pistols—including the Pro-E—are cut for optics. The cover plate is beefy, and lugs that correspond to cutouts the slide provide added traction.

Although no plates are included, you can obtain plates from Walther to fit a variety of red dots. With each new gun you get a certificate for a free plate; additional plates cost $40.

If you choose not to run a red dot, the Walther features adjustable polymer sights. The rear notch sight features two white dots and can be adjusted for windage and elevation via the screws on the right side of the sight. The rear screw adjusts elevation while the front adjusts windage, and Walther even includes a tool to make these adjustments. The front sight is polymer with a white dot.

The PDPs feature Walther’s SuperTerrain slide serrations. The portion of the slide that contains the front and rear serrations is machined wider than other parts of the slide, and deep serrations are machined into this widened section.

Useful Design

This gives the PDP Pro-E and its kin the most aggressive—and useful—slide serrations on the market. They’re far more functional than the me-too shallow cutouts you’ll find on other pistols in this class. You want a positive grip when you’re racking the slide or performing press checks, and the PDP pistols offer just that.

One feature I particularly like about the PDP pistols, and the PPQs before them, is the ambidextrous slide-lock lever. Unlike the miniaturized levers on some pistols, this one is actually functional. In fact, it’s over an inch long, and it offers plenty of purchase when you slam a magazine home and want to chamber a round as fast as possible using the lever as a slide release.

Many gun instructors preach the overhand pull/release method for chambering a cartridge, and while it’s positive, it is slower than hitting a well-positioned slide release. However, some guns have such perfunctory slide releases it’s impossible to use them consistently to drop the slide on a freshly loaded magazine. That’s not the case with the Walther.

Gone are the days of the cool European paddle-style magazine releases found on older PPQ pistols. PDP-series guns, including the Pro-E, feature a large, round, checkered mag release button. It’s reversible, and it’s larger than competing mag release buttons. It sits in a molded shelf on the frame to prevent accidentally dropping the magazine.

Construction

The slide is made from precision machined steel and is finished with Tenifer, a ferritic nitrocarburizing (FNC) process. The FNC finish is extremely durable and holds up well to rigorous use.

The barrels also receive the Tenifer treatment and feature a 1:9.8 twist. Why such an odd twist rate? Because Germany uses the metric system, and the 1:250mm twist rate—which translates to 1:9.8 inches—is the 9mm standard.

Like other PDP pistols, the Pro-E guns feature polygonal rifling, which is believed to create a better gas seal, ease cleaning and improve accuracy. Feed ramps are polished and machined to the proper angle to ensure reliable operation.

Walther handguns have superb ergonomics, and the PDP Pro-E pistols are no exception. The sides of the grips, and the interchangeable backstraps are covered in Walther’s Performance Duty Texture. It’s a grip texturing that, when viewed under a magnifying glass, appears like hexagonal reptile scales with peaks in the center of each scale.

Grips and Feel

Most owners won’t closely examine the grip texture, but the benefit of the design is immediately apparent when you hold the pistol. The gun is firmly locked in your hand and doesn’t shift under recoil at all. Best of all, this anchored grip is achieved without resorting to aggressive texturing that hurts your hand during recoil.

There are no finger grooves on the front of the grip—a departure from the PPQ’s design—but finger grooves are molded into the sides of the grip. The grip angle itself is excellent, and the grip has an ample beavertail and trigger undercut to promote a high handhold. Keeping the hand high on the pistol drives recoil forces back through the arm where they are manageable, and this, in turn, allows for faster follow-ups.

Three interchangeable backstraps are included: small, medium and large. Swapping them out is simple. Remove the magazine well by driving out the pin at the base of the grip using a 5/32 punch. The mag well is easy to remove as well if you’d prefer a more concealable profile, and you need to remove the well first in order to change backstraps.

Pro-E pistols incorporate the E-Dynamic Performance Trigger. It’s a flat-face design like the Dynamic Performance Trigger found on Pro SD models, but Jens Krogh, Walther’s vice president of marketing and product development, told me there are a few minor differences between the two. First, the trigger shoes on the E-Dynamic are made of injection-molded polymer, not aluminum like the Dynamic Performance. Also, the E-Dynamic isn’t hand-tuned, which the Dynamic Performance is.

Crisp Trigger

However, unlike the trigger on the standard PDP, the E-Dynamic has a flat face, which many of today’s shooters prefer. There’s a smooth, light take-up and a well-defined wall, and the break is very crisp—crisper than the standard PDP trigger. Trigger reset is also exceptionally short.

The trigger on the full-size Pro-E broke at an average of five pounds, one ounce. The compact version’s trigger broke at four pounds, 14 ounces on average. You’d be hard-pressed to find any factory striker-fired trigger that performs better.

Walther has earned a reputation for superb ergonomics, and the PDP Pro-E is as comfortable and controllable as any striker-fired gun. Both the full-size and compact frames feature a large, square trigger guard with ample room for gloved fingers and three-slot accessory rails on the dust cover. There’s a molded “step” in the front of the frame that serves as an indexing point and offers some control of the muzzle.

PDP Pro-E pistols are not currently offered with manual safeties, but there are multiple passive safeties built in. They include the trigger safety, a striker block safety and a disconnect safety.

High-End Components

I’d shot Walther’s PDP and Pro-SD as well as the Pro-F (smaller grip circumference) models prior to laying hands on the Pro-E, so I knew what I could expect from the Pro-E. There are no cheap, weak or ill-fitting components on this gun. The external extractor is beefy but precisely machined and fits into the gap in the slide with very little extra space.

The grip inserts fit snugly into the frame without seams, and the pin that holds them in place is neither too loose nor too tight. The spring is relatively heavy, but slide movement is smooth, and slide-to-frame fit is excellent. Feed ramps are polished and smooth, and the internals were free of machine marks.

You might also expect these guns to be accurate, and the PDP Pro-E proved to be one of the most accurate striker-fired guns I’ve tested. I topped the 4.5-inch PDP Pro-E with a Leupold DeltaPoint Pro and tested it at 25 yards and found that the gun could routinely group under two inches at that distance. The best group went just over 1.5 inches.

You can credit some of that to the polygonal rifling, but I believe trigger quality plays a major role in the Walther’s accuracy. The E-Dynamic Performance Trigger is simply outstanding, certainly among the best of any striker-fired guns out there.

Comfortable Hold

The grip geometry also allows for a firm, steady, comfortable hold on the gun. I tested both the full-size and compact guns offhand and was equally impressed. The Walther’s robust design and architecture make it not only accurate but fun to shoot. It’s like a sports car, begging you to move faster. You’ll hit your speed limit before the Walther does, but a well-trained shooter will appreciate this gun’s impressive capabilities.

You’ll also appreciate the gun’s reliability. Throughout testing neither of the guns failed to chamber, extract or eject a round, and the slide locked open every time the magazine ran empty. Running the quality-control failure reports must be the single most boring job at Walther.

Both the 18-round mags for the compact and 20-round mags for the full size are made of metal and feature base plates that add enough weight to ensure they drop free during reloads. The extension on the 20-rounder also offers better purchase on the mag should you need to strip it by hand. The base plate on the compact pistol is made from polymer, while the plate on the 20-round mag for the full-size pistol is made of aluminum.

Although it’s not oversize, the Walther PDP Pro-E is a beefy pistol. Both versions are 5.7 inches tall and 1.3 inches wide, making them a bit more broad-shouldered than many other semiautos. The full-size pistol weighed 26.6 ounces, with the compact coming in at 25.1 ounces. While they are slightly heavier than competitors’ guns, the extra couple ounces of mass certainly make them more manageable to shoot.

Heavy Consideration

Novice gun buyers typically want the lightest and cheapest 9mm available, and the Pro-E guns are neither. However, they are great pistols for new shooters because they are so manageable. They’re also easy to disassemble thanks to a large transverse takedown bar, which is much simpler to operate than the small blade-style bars on other guns.

With the mag well removed and a standard PDP 15-round magazine (available from Walther) the PDP Pro-E Compact in particular would make a suitable carry pistol, and you wouldn’t have to wear a bulky coat to conceal it.

There’s a lot to love about this gun, but if I had to identify a weakness it would be the sights. The three small white dots aren’t as visible as the sights on competing guns. The adjustable rear sight is a nice touch, and it offers a flat face for one-handed cycling, but the sights are too short to co-witness with an optic. Also, there’s no serialized fire-control unit that allows you to swap slides and grip frames as with some other pistols.

Overall, though, this is simply an outstanding pistol. The craftsmanship is best in class, and every component part is high quality. There are a lot of striker-fired 9mms that exist simply to grab a share of the market. Walther designed the PDP to outperform the other guns in this class, and it largely does so. The new Pro-E offers many features found on the line-topping Pro-SD guns, at an excellent price. The Pro-E is a superb gun and an excellent value, and if you’re about to purchase your next striker-fired 9mm, don’t pull the trigger until you’ve had this pistol in your hand.

Walther PDP Pro-E Specs

• Type: striker-fired semiauto centerfire
• Caliber: 9mm Luger
• Capacity: 20 (full size), 18 (compact)
• Barrel: Tenifer-finished steel; 4.5 in. (full size), 4 in. (compact)
• OAL/Height/Width: 8.0/5.7/1.3 in. (full size), 7.5/5.7/1.3 in. (compact)
• Weight: 26.6 oz. (full size), 25.1 oz. (compact)
• Construction: Tenifer-finished steel slide, polymer frame w/Performance Duty Texture; 3 interchangeable backstraps
• Trigger: E-Dynamic Performance; measured pulls: 5 lb. 1 oz. (full size), 4 lb. 14 oz. (compact)
• Sights: adjustable two-dot notch rear, white dot post front; slide cut for optics, free plate available from Walther
• MSRP: $779
• Manufacturer: Walther Arms, WaltherArms.com

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