Two Wi-Fi certifications point to a second-generation PlayStation Portal

When someone plays on a PlayStation Portal, the game is running on a PS5 somewhere else in the house or on Sony's cloud. The handheld shows the frames that arrive over Wi-Fi ^[3]. Two parts of the device decide how that session goes: the screen in the player's hands and the radio behind it.

The certification documents describe the radio. According to The Verge, they list 1x1 Wi-Fi on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, with no 6GHz support and seemingly no extra antennas ^[6]. Gizmodo reported that the documents do not divulge the devices' other specifications ^[5].

Everything said about the screen comes from leakers. KeplerL2 said earlier this year that Sony was working on "another version" of the Portal for this year, an "OLED version," The Verge reported, citing VideoCardz ^[4]. Another leaker put the new screen's maximum refresh rate at 120Hz, double the current Portal's, according to Gizmodo ^[8]. That puts today's ceiling at 60Hz ^[11].

So the rumored gains are in the part a player looks at. The filings describe the part every frame has to pass through before it reaches that screen ^[3].

Sony has made its own case for the category. Streaming can make for a far more affordable device than one that runs games natively, The Verge wrote ^[10]. "Cloud streaming also requires minimal memory, making it an increasingly attractive low-cost thin client device in the current market environment where memory prices are rising," Sony said in June ^[7]. Gizmodo expects the opposite on price. It wrote that with tech component prices still ballooning, the new devices are sure to cost a pretty penny ^[16].

Two certifications filed together show that at least one successor is close. Gizmodo called the release timing "very much up in the air," though it said the registration points to sooner rather than later ^[17]. It also floated the idea that the second device could be a true handheld that runs games itself, while allowing that both could be new Portals ^[15]. The Android 15 listing on both units fits the streaming side of that split ^[2]. I think the evidence supports a narrower claim than a wider hardware line: Sony is continuing the Portal. Two Portal models and a Portal plus something else both fit what has been filed.

For a buyer deciding whether to wait, the test is whether the fix they want shows up in a filing or only in a leak. If the current picture is what disappoints you, you are waiting on leaks: OLED and 120Hz, on devices Sony has not announced ^[1]. If your stream drops or stutters, there is a filed spec to read. The Verge's reading of it is that the new models do not look like they are getting dramatically improved Wi-Fi for streaming ^[6].