Sony has not officially announced the new PlayStation handheld that people online are already calling the PSP 3. Everything known about it comes from a few words by the head of PlayStation and several waves of leaks that outlets keep retelling one after another, sometimes passing off guesses as facts. Here it is in order: what Sony said, what leaked, who leaked it and when, and where the speculation begins.
First, an important mix-up. Two different devices are going around under the name "new PlayStation handheld": a refreshed PlayStation Portal with an OLED screen, which still only streams games from a PS5, and a proper handheld console codenamed Canis that runs games itself. The name PSP 3 did not come from Sony but from the site GameGPU, which used it for its September piece about Canis.
What Sony itself has said
The official words are few, and they all come from one appearance. In early June 2026, at an investor meeting after the gaming division's presentation, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino said the next generation of PlayStation should deliver "a seamless experience that can be enjoyed naturally beyond the living room", and that the company will build future consoles by "leveraging technologies that can be used in various forms and locations".
Nishino also said a console is necessary for playing games, so the bet is not only on the cloud, and gave a number: in January 2026, one and a half times as many people used cloud streaming on PlayStation Portal as in December. He never said the words "handheld" or "PS6 portable". It is a hint, not an announcement.
Timeline of the leaks
| Date | Source | Claim |
|---|---|---|
| July 30, 2025 | Moore's Law Is Dead | Sony is preparing two AMD chips: Orion for the PS6 and Canis for a handheld. Canis runs PS4, PS5 and PS6 games and launches alongside the PS6 in 2027. |
| August 28, 2025 | Moore's Law Is Dead | A detailed Canis spec sheet: a 3 nm chip of about 135 mm², 6 Zen 6 cores, 16 RDNA 5 compute units, 24 GB of memory, a docked mode. |
| January 30, 2026 | KeplerL2, NeoGAF forum | A PlayStation Portal with an OLED screen will launch in 2026. A separate handheld console will use RDNA 5, with fewer than 40 compute units, possibly as few as 16. |
| February 2026 | Bloomberg | Because of the AI-driven memory shortage, the PS6 could slip to 2028 or even 2029. |
| September 17, 2026 | GameGPU, via IBTimes UK | "PSP 3": 540p rendering upscaled to 1080p with PSSR 3.0, targeting a late 2027 launch. |
Moore's Law Is Dead correctly leaked the PS5 Pro specifications in the past, and KeplerL2 has a reputation as one of the most reliable sources on AMD hardware. That is no guarantee, but these are not random people in a comment section. Later retellings, however, often glue their claims together with their own estimates.
Canis specs according to the leaks
- Chip. A custom AMD design on TSMC's 3 nm process, about 135 mm².
- CPU. Four Zen 6c cores for games and two low-power Zen 6 LP cores for the system.
- Graphics. 16 RDNA 5 compute units: 1.2 GHz handheld and 1.65 GHz docked.
- Memory. 24 GB of LPDDR5X on a 192-bit bus.
- Power. 15 to 25 W.
- Compatibility. PS4, PS5 and PS6 games run on the device itself, no streaming.
Be careful with the teraflops. According to the leak, Canis has 4.91 teraflops handheld and 6.75 docked, but those figures count RDNA 5's dual-issue FP32, so they cannot be compared directly with the PS5's 10.28 teraflops. The "10 to 11 teraflops handheld and 14 docked" figures making the rounds are not a leak but GameGPU's estimate, adjusted for what the PSSR 3.0 upscaler might add. According to KeplerL2, Canis should beat the Xbox Series S in rasterization, with a bigger lead in ray tracing.
Where the facts end and speculation begins
- Fact. Sony talks about PlayStation "beyond the living room" and technologies "in various forms". It was said out loud, but no specific device stands behind the words.
- Likely true. The Canis codename and RDNA 5 graphics: Moore's Law Is Dead and KeplerL2 said this independently of each other.
- Uncertain. A late 2027 launch. The leaks name it, but the same memory shortage that, according to Bloomberg, could push back the PS6 also hits a handheld with 24 GB of memory.
- Speculation. A price of around 500 dollars from Moore's Law Is Dead, GameGPU's "effective" 14 teraflops, and claims that PSSR 3 will beat DLSS 4.5. None of it has been shown or measured.
- About the Portal OLED. KeplerL2 promised it for 2026. As of October 3, Sony has not announced it, with three months of the year left.
If you are choosing a handheld now, there is no point waiting for Canis: even by the most optimistic leaks it is more than a year away, and with today's memory prices that date can easily slip. What to buy from what is already on sale is covered in our guide on how to choose a handheld console, and why all hardware is getting more expensive in our piece on the memory shortage through 2028.
Sources
Hideaki Nishino's comments: TechRadar, GamesRadar+ and Push Square, June 2026. Moore's Law Is Dead leaks: TechPowerUp, July 30, 2025, and OC3D, August 28, 2025. KeplerL2's leak on the Portal OLED and RDNA 5: TechPowerUp, January 30, 2026. Possible PS6 delay: Bloomberg via TweakTown and TechRadar. "PSP 3", 540p and PSSR 3.0: GameGPU via IBTimes UK, September 17, 2026. PS5, PS5 Pro and Xbox Series S performance: Sony and Microsoft figures.
Photos: Wikimedia Commons. The PSP and PS Vita photos were taken by Evan-Amos and released into the public domain, the PlayStation Portal photo was taken by ArlindoPereira, license CC BY 4.0.
