New upgraded PlayStation Portal coming in 2026 claims insider

Sony is believed to be planning a new version of PlayStation Portal this year, after the original was more successful than expected.

The PlayStation 5 has been a dominant force in the current generation of consoles, but one of Sony’s more unexpected hits has been a handheld accessory.

The PlayStation Portal, which launched in November 2023, is used to stream games from your PlayStation 5 console via remote play. According to recent reports, the device has sold around 2 million units in the US alone, with a 7% attachment rate to PlayStation 5 hardware.

As a result, Sony has described the PlayStation Portal as a ‘huge success’, so you might be unsurprised to hear the company is apparently planning a new, updated model.

According to known tech insider KeplerL2, Sony is set to launch an OLED PlayStation Portal at some point in 2026. The original handheld device is only available with an LCD screen, so an OLED version will make the graphics pop even more.

Kepler doesn’t give any indication as to the price of the OLED version, but the current model is £199.99, so we imagine it would be somewhere close to £250.

The current PlayStation Portal model became even more useful following a recent update, which added cloud streaming to the device – allowing players to access games without connecting to a PlayStation 5 console.

While Sony largely ditched handhelds following the failure of the PS Vita, all signs suggest it is planning on returning to the space in a big way for the next generation.

A new PlayStation handheld has been rumoured for some time, which is apparently separate to the PlayStation 6 home console and comparable in power to a PlayStation 5.

Last year, Sony itself said they ‘remain committed’ to the handheld space and are ‘exploring’ other new ways for players to ‘access our content and services’.

The recently launched Power Saver mode for the PlayStation 5 is widely speculated to be a Trojan horse for the portable, since it allows existing games to run at lower resolution and detail, which would be very useful for a portable, that would have difficultly matching the power of a home console.

However, with reports the ongoing memory shortage could delay the next console generation, it’s unclear if this will have a knock-on effect on Sony’s handheld plans as well.

It may be that a portable PlayStation 5, similar in concept to a Switch 2, is more practical, in terms of manufacturing in the short term, but it’s currently unknown when Sony might start talking about its next gen plans in detail.

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