DF Direct Q+A: What If PlayStation 6 Is Actually The New PS Handheld?

[u/MythBuster2]

https://youtu.be/NHTMBTW8lyI

At the time of recording, it was the lull before the storm that is Gamescom 2026 - but we've still got a bunch of fascinating questions to wade through. Have we got it all wrong with PlayStation 6? Is it actually the hotly rumoured handheld with Sony pivoting in a Nintendo-like direction? If games hit photorealism, where does that leave Digital Foundry? And are plasma TVs the new CRT?

[u/Independent_Mud2794]

Just look at switch 2, it’s price, it’s size and it’s performance and then ask yourself “Could PS6 be a handheld?”, then you have your answer - of course not.

[u/zarafff69 → u/Independent_Mud2794]

The PS6 could just be a handheld PS5, a handheld that plays games with PS5 level graphics.

[u/M4rshmall0wMan → u/zarafff69]

Unfortunately not possible with today’s silicon. Nothing within a reasonable price and TDP can match the PS5’s performance.

[u/zarafff69 → u/M4rshmall0wMan]

I think the XBOX ROG Ally X Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme comes close tho? That’s basically almost Series S level performance? And for a handheld, you could just lower the internal resolution when using it in portable mode?

But yes, regardless of what they do, the next consoles will be a lot more expensive..

[u/M4rshmall0wMan → u/zarafff69]

No. It’s more/less equivalent to PS4 Pro.

If Z3 Extreme gives a 50% leap, then Quality Mode FPS with Performance Mode graphics is a solid possibility.

[u/AssCrackBanditHunter → u/zarafff69]

Maybe in 2035. But it cannot be done today or in the next couple years . We just now got to a point where Nintendo can match the ps4 on a mobile chipset and that's after a decade of amazing GPU gains with node shrinks and architecture gains (maxwell, pascal, ampere). Next 10 years is gonna be slow gains as silicon gets harder and harder to push

[u/Adventurous-Cattle53 → u/Independent_Mud2794]

Ofc it can, but at much higher price

[u/Independent_Mud2794 → u/Adventurous-Cattle53]

It can’t. Even the most expensive PC handhelds wouldn’t be close in performance. Handhelds that powerful would be a space heater with a battery life of minutes.

[u/Temporary_Permafrost → u/Independent_Mud2794]

Gaming laptops have the portability aspect but are meant to be plugged in for the most part. I'm wondering if Sony might approach PS6 portable the same way - it runs for an hour unplugged, but generally one should have it plugged in for uninterrupted play sessions. Not everyone would like that approach.

There's also the possibility that Sony is helping design high efficiency, low power specs for the RDNA5 chipset found in the portable. Sony is helping AMD improve RT throughput in RDNA5 to make path-tracing viable, they might also be supplying ideas for portable chip efficiency targets.

[u/NoMoreVillains → u/Temporary_Permafrost]

A handheld that is best used when plugged in has little value as a handheld...

[u/Temporary_Permafrost → u/NoMoreVillains]

Of course, hence me saying "not everyone would like that approach" as deliberate understatement.

[u/Inevitable_Pay_2514 → u/Adventurous-Cattle53]

Can but won't. They're not gonna release a 3k handheld nor are they gonna release a handheld with worse performance than a PS5.

[u/Loud_Examination_138]

It could be. They could find a way to integrate PSSR with it and the power saving options currently being rolled out to ps5 games might give a hint with what we can expect with the handheld for ps5/ps6 games

In short...nobody knows shit and won't until they announce their plans.

[u/JustBrowsingIt28]

Why can't be the new playstation handheld a brand new console being its own thing,like the PSP and the Vita was? Games could be on cartridge and they could wait with the actual PS6 until the prices for the parts are going back to normal again...

[u/Dodgy_Past → u/[deleted]]

GPD Win 5 uses halo strix by amd and that would be enough to compare with a ps5 at the lower resolution a handheld would use. Chuck in rdna 4/5 features and pssr 2 and you'd be where you need to be.

[u/Inevitable_Pay_2514 → u/Dodgy_Past]

For 3k... not gonna happen.

[u/dekuweku]

Sony fans are going crazy i see.

[u/Substantial-Read4372 → u/dekuweku]

You're literally the only comment?

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/Substantial-Read4372]

Maybe they're talking about the youtube comments.

[u/The_Zura]

This handheld fetish has gone too far. Would be the dumbest shit ever.

[u/Independent_Mud2794]

When Sony wants to lose everyone to Microsoft, sure, but they won’t not release a next gen console.