The PlayStation Portal might be getting a huge upgrade, if this rumor is true

Sony released the PlayStation Portal back in 2023, and while many people were excited that the company was finally getting back into gaming handhelds, it came with one major limitation: it’s a remote player. That means to play games on it, you needed both an internet connection and a PS5 at home to stream games from.

But late last year, two years after the Portal’s initial release, Sony dropped a game-changing update that added cloud gaming support. Which means that, with a PlayStation Plus Premium subscription, you can now stream games directly to the Portal without relying on a PS5. It’s still not the same as playing games natively on a handheld like a Steam Deck or Switch 2, but it makes the Portal far more versatile. And if this latest rumor comes true, I might finally be fully convinced to pick one up.

According to a leak shared on X by leaker Zuby_Tech (via Notebookcheck), Sony might be planning to release a refreshed PlayStation Portal model with a 120Hz OLED screen. The current model has a 1080p LCD screen at 60Hz, so an OLED upgrade with a higher refresh rate would be a major step up. OLED panels offer deeper blacks, better contrast, and more accurate colors, making games really pop — and that alone could make the PlayStation Portal a lot more enticing.

The leaker also stated that the new OLED model could be called the PlayStation Portal Pro, but they did not mention a potential release date or pricing.

I hope this turns out to be true

It’s just a leak after all, so take it with a grain of salt

While the possibility of the PlayStation Portal getting a refresh with a 120Hz OLED screen is exciting, it’s important to note that this is a leak after all, so there is no official confirmation that this is actually happening. My guess is that if it were to happen, it would likely happen later this year, closer to the holiday season and the release of GTA 6, which is sure to bring a lot of attention to PlayStation.

The PlayStation Portal currently costs $200, so if an OLED model were to come out, it would presumably cost quite a bit more, as the Nintendo Switch OLED did when it launched back in 2021 as an OLED refresh to the original LCD Nintendo Switch.

Personally, I really hope this leak comes true, as I’ve been tempted to pick up a PlayStation Portal recently to help start clearing my backlog of PS5 games to play, and an OLED model would certainly make playing games on the go a lot better, and with the Portal’s ability to play games on the cloud now, it would be a solid handheld, despite its shortcoming of not being able to play games natively.

That said, as someone with a lot of nostalgia for the PSP and PSVita era, I really hope that Sony does one day release a PlayStation handheld that can actually play games natively again, without relying on remote play or streaming. There are rumors that Sony is working on two new consoles right now, a handheld and a PS6, but both of those are still likely years away from seeing the light of day, and a lot could change between now and then. Additionally, with the ongoing RAM crisis, there’s a distinct possibility that the PS6, and even the next Xbox, could be delayed due to the exponential cost of RAM as AI data centers snap up all the available supply.