Sony’s PS5 handheld is called PlayStation Portal. And the price will surprise you
PlayStation Portal will launch later on in 2023, before the holiday season - can the new PS5 handheld gain an advantage?
Back in May Sony unveiled Project Q, a PS5 handheld gaming console that enables you to stream PlayStation 5 games to a portable screen. Now the handheld console has a name – PlayStation Portal.
PlayStation lead Jim Ryan said it was “internally known” by the Project Q name. But it was always going to have a full launch name – PlayStation Portal is it.
We also have a price and it’s somewhat pleasing at $200/$200/220 Euros. We had expected it to be a lot higher than that, possibly even $100/£100 more.
PlayStation Portal will launch in the United States, Europe, and Japan later this year. We don’t have a more concrete release date. Sony adds that pre-order details will be available soon, meaning that we’re surely looking at a late September launch at the very earliest, but more likely it’ll be October we’re thinking.
The device features an 8in LCD display at Full HD resolution, a built-in DualSense controller either side of the screen with all of the same buttons including the adaptive triggers (plus haptic feedback) and a “long-lasting” battery – we still don’t know just how long lasting that will be. The games will be able to run at up to 60fps.
Portal will enable you to play PS5 games on the go. Ryan said that Project Q “enables you to stream any game from your PS5 console using Remote Play over Wi-Fi.”
So in other words, the games need to be installed on your PS5 – and it says a 15Mbps Wi-Fi connection will be required. There’s no sign of Portal being compatible with a streaming service at present.
Other new PlayStation devices
There will also be some new PlayStation Buds launching later this year, too; they can connect to any Bluetooth devices and will deliver lossless audio. They’re clearly intended to be used with the handheld, the handheld will surely be compatible with any Bluetooth devices anyway.
Rumours about a new PS5 handheld called ‘Q Lite’ appeared earlier this year and a lot of the details from those leaks like the display and the compatibility with Remote Play were accurate.
Dan Grabham
Editor-in-Chief 
