A PlayStation 5 Pro will cost $900 starting tomorrow, April 2. As bad as that sounds for console gamers who want the latest and greatest, the next PlayStation—let’s call it the PS6—could cost even more. Instead of lamenting those obscene prices, the silver lining may be a supposedly less powerful and less costly PS6 handheld.
Many gaming industry analysts anticipate Sony could try to push a $1,000 PlayStation 6 console—finally making consoles a luxury product fewer people can afford. What’s left for traditional console gamers may be Sony’s first handheld since the PlayStation Vita. Based on the supposed next-gen specs suggested by leakers like Moore’s Law is Dead, we could expect the PS6 handheld to cost less than the full console. Even a $700 gaming device will suddenly seem affordable compared to the supposed blowout price of the next-gen Xbox, currently dubbed Project Helix.
Sony’s rumored handheld may offer a better deal overall, too. KeplerL2, a mostly reliable leaker of AMD hardware, claimed on the Neogaf forums this week that the PlayStation 6 handheld—reportedly dubbed Project Canis internally—will offer better in-game performance than today’s Xbox Series S console. While on its face that doesn’t sound impressive, you need to remember this device will need to be as portable and light as today’s handheld PCs. KeplerL2 further claimed we’ll see the PS6 and next-gen Xbox arrive in late 2027.
More reliant on upscaling than ever
Sony’s next-generation handheld may be its first mobile device to incorporate hardware-specific upscaling with AMD’s upcoming Zen 6 CPU and RDNA 5 GPU microarchitecture. This means it would use AI to upscale lower-resolution assets to native resolution. The leaker referred to the PS6 handheld’s upscaling tech as “PSSR 3,” an update to today’s PS5 Pro’s impressive PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution upscaler. The upscaling software would also allow for better ray tracing performance in a handheld form factor, according to KeplerL2.
There’s already solid precedent for this. Nintendo’s $450 Switch 2 is performing on par or sometimes even better than an Xbox Series S in some titles. That’s mostly thanks to its use of Nvidia’s DLSS alongside in-game graphics tweaks that remove unnecessary geometry. Even better upscaling will be crucial for the pint-sized PS6, especially if you can dock the device and play on a TV like you can with Nintendo’s leading handheld console.
We don’t need the best hardware for consoles
A console’s raison d’être has long been its consistency. You didn’t need to spend nearly as much as you would have for a gaming PC to play a wide assortment of games. After a year of tariff woes from Trump and a sweeping memory pricing crisis engendered by AI, consoles are less affordable than they’ve been in many decades. Starting on Thursday, the PlayStation 5 console without a disc drive will start at $600. A version that will let you play physical copies of your games will squeeze you for $650.
At those prices, the PS5 makes less sense for five-year-old hardware. Gamers simply have to temper their expectations and know what they’re getting for their money. The PS6 handheld won’t be as powerful as a next-gen console or PC. But it may be the last bastion of the traditional console ethos—where gamers don’t need to have the latest and best hardware to have a good time.
