Sony's new PlayStation Portal gets more storage for mysterious future features, but still no OLED

Sony has announced a revised PlayStation Portal with additional internal storage, although the company isn't saying what it intends to do with it. Playing games natively is out of the question because an initial teardown revealed it to be running a mid-range Qualcomm chip, which is woefully inadequate for any gaming-related workloads. Local multimedia storage could be an option, though. 

According to Sony's Japanese PlayStation Blog, the new PlayStation Portal includes additional onboard storage intended to support future functionality. The company says more information will be shared once its plans are finalised. Interestingly, Sony's Korean announcement describes the change as an expansion of existing internal storage. That's an important distinction because the original PlayStation Portal already had onboard flash memory for its operating system. In 2024, security researchers reportedly found approximately 6 GB of free space while getting a PSP emulator to run on the device. For now, the PlayStation Portal remains a streaming-focused handheld, supporting PS5 Remote Play and cloud streaming through PlayStation Plus Premium.

The hardware is otherwise unchanged. Sony has retained the 8-inch, 1080p LCD capable of displaying games at up to 60 fps, alongside adaptive triggers, haptic feedback and 3D audio support. Sony has also officially shortened the product's name from PlayStation Portal Remote Player to PlayStation Portal Player, reflecting its expanded cloud-streaming capabilities.

The Midnight Black model launches on December 10 for ¥39,980 ($252) in Japan and ₩378,000 ($280) in South Korea. Preorders begin November 13, and both versions include one month of PlayStation Plus Premium. Both variants are restricted to their respective languages and PlayStation account regions. Sony hasn't announced wider availability for the revised hardware.

That also means the OLED upgrade previously rumoured for the PlayStation Portal is nowhere to be seen. However, this announcement doesn't necessarily rule out a separate OLED-equipped model arriving later.