Summary
ThePS5 Prohas been officially revealed, with its announcement lending more credence to one older rumor about Sony working on a new handheld device. The possibility of another portablePlayStationconsole was originally reported by YouTube channel Moore’s Law Is Dead.
The claim itself dates back to February 2024, but hasn’t gained much online traction, possibly because Moore’s Law Is Dead’s track record with industry scoops is shaky, at best. Some fans also found the specifics of the report, including the suggestion that theunannounced PlayStation handheld could even run some PS5 games, hard to believe.
PlayStation Handheld Leaker Was Right About PS5 Pro Specs
Seven months later, Sony officially announced the PS5 Pro as part of a ten-minute technical presentation hosted by Mark Cerny, the console’s lead architect. As noted byTheGamer, the September 10 livestream vindicated a lot of Moore’s Law Is Dead’s past reports about the console. Among other things, the channel was right about thePS5 Pro having a 2TB SSDand offering up to 45% faster rendering than its predecessor. Ditto for it performing ray tracing calculations two to three times more quickly and supporting the PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) solution for AI-infused upscaling, both of which have been leaked by Moore’s Law Is Dead in the first half of 2024.
The volume and consistent accuracy ofthe channel’s PS5 Pro leakssuggests that Moore’s Law Is Dead did have some level of insight into what’s been going on at Sony over the course of 2024, even if its track record has been more unreliable in the preceding years. This, in turn, lends more credibility to the YouTube channel’s claims that another PlayStation handheld is in the works, which were made in between its PS5 Pro reports.
Moore’s Law Is Dead host Tom previously claimed that Sony had already ordered some prototypes of its purported handheld console from AMD as of February 2024. The device itself was described as being able to run PS4 games and potentially even some PS5 games that have received a special compatibility patch—which would presumably downgrade their visuals—beforehand. The report hence suggested that Sony is working on a standalone handheld console that’s much more versatile than the PlayStation Portal, dubbing the device the “PS Vita 2.” Tom also maintained that this potential PS Vita successor wasn’t greenlit for commercialization at the time, but that Sony was merely considering it.
Rumored PlayStation Handheld Console Might Also Fulfill the PS Portal’s Role
Three months later, Russian journalist Anton Logvinov shared a similar claim,reporting that Sony was working on a new portable console that can play PS4 games. In theory, there are no obvious technical barriers that would prevent such a device from also fulfilling the PS Portal’s role of a second screen for the PS5. The purported console’s expanded capabilities would almost certainly mean that if Sony were to commercialize it, the device would be significantly more expensive than the $199.99 PS Portal.
PlayStation Portal
While not exactly a PSP successor, the PlayStation Portal solves an age-old issue of having to share one TV in a household. This remote play device allows users to stream whatever is happening on their PlayStation 5’s directly to the large 8-inch 1080p LCD screen. What makes the PlayStation Portal unique is that it comes packed with all the advanced technology of the DualSense wireless controller, such as adaptive triggers and haptic feedback. One downside is that it doesn’t feature Bluetooth support for wireless audio, but it does work with the PlayStation Pulse earbuds and headset, while also sporting a 3.5mm audio jack for wired audio.
