During the last State of Play showcase, Sony surprised everyone by announcing the PlayStation Portal handheld device to compliment its current-gen console, the PS5. Formerly known as Project Q, Sony today has finally named and priced the upcoming auxiliary hardware for the console.
What is the PlayStation Portal?
It’s called the PlayStation Portal, or PSP for short (we see what you did there, Sony!), and it is designed to be a “remote player” with a 1080p/60Hz 8″ LCD screen and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The device will cost $199, and will release sometime later this year.
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Design-wise, the PlayStation Portal looks like a DualSense controller cut in half with a screen attached in the middle. It’s a sleek-looking device nonetheless, although carrying it around as a portable gaming system seems a little bit difficult to do.
The controller will support the adaptive triggers and haptic feedback found on a regular DualSense controller, with the physical touchpad now replaced with on-screen touch zones on the left and right side of the screen (basically a touchpad for both of your thumbs). PlayStation Portal can only play games from your PS5 over Wi-Fi (no 5G support, which is odd), and Sony recommends at least a 15Mbps Internet connection for a smooth and lag-free gaming experience.
One of the egregious things about the PlayStation Portal is the lack of Bluetooth support. So, if you have a Bluetooth headset or a pair of wireless earbuds, they won’t be compatible with the remote player. Instead, the device supports PlayStation Link, a new proprietary wireless technology found on the new PlayStation Pulse Explore wireless earbuds and the Pulse Elite wireless headset. The earbuds promise to offer a “premium portable audio experience” with AI-enhanced noise cancellation and will set you back by $199.99. The Pulse Elite will cost $149.99, offering lossless audio, a retractable boom mic, and AI-enhanced noise cancellation.
There is no word on the battery size yet, so we still don’t know how long the handheld device will run on a single charge. However, by looking at the device’s size and the industry standard, we would expect around 3-4 hours of battery life at the most – but we hope we are wrong!
The PlayStation Portal is set to launch sometime later this year. Meanwhile, drop a comment below to let us know what you think of the device and if you will be interested in buying this for yourself!
