Sony Is Really, Really Close to Just Making a New PlayStation Handheld

Sony is essentially doing everything but actually releasing a full-featured new PlayStation handheld. While the brand has updated its old PlayStation Portal to make it a solid system for streaming, the next step is to just add enough memory to make it potentially capable of playing some games natively. Or—more likely—Sony has something completely different in store. Recent Wi-Fi certification documents revealed Sony has been hard at work on two separate new “peripherial/console” devices, one of which we guessed at the time was an updated Portal. Of course, this new version of the PlayStation Portal is not something you can easily buy in the U.S. Sony calls it the PlayStation Portal Player, and it’s a Japan-exclusive release, for now. You also won’t be able to change the system language to anything but Japanese, either. The big difference between this region-locked edition and the current, white model is that it includes internal storage. All this seems like a way for Sony to sell more PlayStation Plus subscriptions. © Sony Interactive Entertainment How much storage are we talking? Sony isn’t saying. Instead, the company’s senior product manager Takuro Fushimi writes (read via machine translation), “Furthermore, with an eye towards future functionality, the new model includes additional internal storage. We will announce details about this feature as soon as they are finalized.” We can speculate about what sorts of features might require internal storage, but based on price alone (and the memory pricing apocalypse that is ravaging tech across gaming), we don’t suspect it’s packing a ton of memory. Teardowns of the original PlayStation Portal handheld revealed it did pack a slim amount of LPPDR4X memory alongside an ARM-based Qualcomm SG4150P chip. That’s only what’s necessary to power the Wi-Fi streaming and remote play capabilities. Sony could still replace its processor with something else that’s better for running PlayStation games directly, but we doubt that the Portal Player is running more distinct hardware. Not much else has changed on the Portal Player. It’s still a 1080p display sandwiched between two halves of a DualSense controller. It does come with a 1-month PlayStation Plus Premium subscription. With all that in mind, the “future functionality” Sony is talking about may be built to tide over gamers who can’t afford a price-inflated PS5 by adding more functionality to its streaming service, like local game saves. The PlayStation Portal Player costs 39,980 yen, equivalent to around 253 USD. It’s essentially the same price as a current $249 PlayStation Portal. While that could mean we may see an upgraded Portal in the near future, the price likely reflects Sony’s push for affordability in Japan. PlayStation needs to compete against cheaper consoles on its home turf. Last year, Sony pushed another region-locked PlayStation 5 digital edition for the equivalent of around $350. That was months before it started hiking prices on all its console hardware across the world. © Sony Interactive Entertainment The legacy of the PlayStation Vita left us routinely revisiting the thought of a new style of PlayStation handheld. There are enough rumors to suggest the longtime gaming brand is working on a PlayStation 6 handheld running on what could be an incredibly capable AMD-made chip. The supposed device may be able to run PlayStation 5 games natively at an impressive clip, made even better with PlayStation and AMD’s partnership on PlayStation Super Spectral Resolution (PSSR) upscaling. All that to say this next-gen Vita will likely cost a pretty penny compared to the Portal. Whatever Sony is cooking up next, let’s hope that it includes a device built for those of us who can’t afford a next-gen PS6.