Rumor: New Handheld Playstation Set To Dwarf The Competition
The success of the Nintendo Switch has made competitors scramble for a piece of the market share. Xbox recently announced that they are working on a handheld gaming device, and PlayStation has also been connected to a portable option, with rumors leaking about the possible PlayStation 5 portable, and now about a future PS6 portable option. The long-rumored system still has no confirmation, but some trusted leakers are suggesting the handheld may be more powerful than the Xbox Series X, and be the class of the handheld market.
Rumored PlayStation 6 Portable Would Match Power With Consoles
There have been many leaks and rumors about a possible PlayStation portable device being in the works, and with Microsoft already confirming one on their end, it makes sense that PlayStation would want to dive into the market once again as well. Although the companies are targeting different audiences, the Switch’s popularity shows an interest in portable gaming. Sony’s first collections of portables, the PSP and PS Vita, were critically well-received devices, but they did not sell as well as their Nintendo counterparts. Perhaps the PSP was ahead of its time, and the current market is the perfect time to capitalize.
Kepler L2, a well-known leaker in the gaming community, has shared some information on the rumored PlayStation handheld. Although the release appears years away, according to Kepler L2, it will be a very powerful handheld device. According to TechPowerUp directly, “The mysterious handheld is said to be powered by a ’15 W SoC’ manufactured on a non-specific 3 nm node process. Elaborating further, they posit that PlayStation’s rumored handheld is capable of running PS5 generation games—bandwidth and power restrictions could reduce resolution and frame rates below that of Sony’s current-gen system.”
More To The Rumor
The other rumor is that the system will be somewhere a bit below the PS5’s 36 Compute Units (CUs), but better than the Xbox Series S’s 20 CUs. This is a lot of technical jargon, but what exactly does it all mean? In short terms, it means the PlayStation portable system will be more powerful than the current gen Xbox Series, and less powerful than the current gen PS5. That said, it will be able to run PS5 games, just at a lower graphics level, and do so natively instead of requiring any upgrades. If this is true, it would make the new portable device the most powerful in the console market and dwarf the competitors in that aspect.
It is unclear exactly how different the graphic performance would be, but resolutions and frame rates could be affected. Multiple insiders have rumored the system to be developed alongside the PlayStation 6. This has led to suggestions that the consoles may release in tandem, or at least in very similar time frames. With the PS5 a bit over half of its lifespan, that would project 2027 or 2028 as a possible release for the two devices.
Final Thoughts
Sony has not released any information at all about a possible PlayStation portable device, so any information here needs to be taken with a grain of salt. That said, it would be logical that Sony may want to get back into the handheld market, given that the Switch and even the Steam Deck have shown that interest is there. Given the history of the insiders leaking the information, it points towards this being a legitimate leak. PlayStation has always prided itself on the power of its consoles, so attempting to set the standard for handhelds would be in line with the company. Should the handheld come to fruition, fans will be very excited.
