New PS6 handheld leak claims Sony is quietly using PS5’s Low Power mode to get developers and their games ready for a portable PlayStation launch.
Rumors around Sony’s next generation have gone from quiet hints to a pretty steady stream over the last few months. We have reports of a PlayStation 6 home console, codenamed Orion, and a native handheld system codenamed Canis, both built around new AMD Zen 6 CPUs and RDNA 5 graphics.
There have been claims about Switch-style docked play, strong ray tracing performance, and even rough price targets for a cheaper “PS6S” console based on the handheld chip. On top of that, we have older leaks pointing to full PS4 and PS5 support on the handheld, a 3 nm APU, and a design that can hook up to a TV over USB-C.
Now there is a new piece of the puzzle from well-known hardware leaker Moore’s Law Is Dead, who has shared what one developer says Sony is doing behind the scenes with PS5’s Low Power mode to quietly prepare for the PS6 handheld.
Sony reportedly pushing PS5 Low Power mode to prepare PS6 handheld support
In his latest video, Moore’s Law Is Dead says he heard from a game developer working with Sony’s tools on PS5. According to him, Sony has been sending out emails that strongly encourage studios to support the console’s Low Power mode directly, along with tutorials and documentation.
Put simply, Sony is not just telling devs “turn on a power saving option and cut the frame rate.” The push, according to this report, is to keep 60 frames per second and instead reduce resolution and CPU use until the game fits the Low Power budget. Razor CPU, the internal CPU utility for PS5, is meant to help studios track down heavy CPU threads and trim them.
Here is the full quote he showed on screen, and what the leaker heard from his source:
“This week we [Game Dev] received emails from Sony pushing Low-Power mode hard… almost like they need us to support it directly eventually. They provided tutorials and instructions that outlined:
“We shouldn’t just lower framerates to fit LP Mode’s requirements, no, instead we should try to maintain 60 FPS by lowering resolutions. Razor CPU (This is a CPU Utility for PS5 Development) walkthroughs that aimed to help us find CPU bottlenecks so we can reduce CPU usage, and even look for ways to reduce how many threads are used by our game.
“It is becoming glaringly obvious that Low-Power mode is a Trojan Horse for getting PS6 Handheld support ready before its launch, and they honestly seemed a bit annoyed at how few devs directly support it so far.”
From Moore’s Law Is Dead’s point of view, this looks less like a green feature and more like a hidden compatibility profile for the handheld. If PS6 Canis really does ship with four Zen 6c “big” cores for games plus two small cores for the system, Sony needs a lot of PS5 titles to already be able to run well on a tighter CPU and power limit.
He also points out that on PS5 today, developers effectively have around six to seven Zen 2 cores available for gameplay once the operating system is taken into account. On the rumored handheld, games would use four stronger Zen 6 cores instead, while OS work moves to the two lower power cores. That should still be an upgrade in raw CPU strength, but only if studios are not hard-coded around higher thread counts and wasteful background tasks.
Of course, none of this is official. Sony has not said that Low Power mode is about a handheld at all, and the emails cited in the quote are from a single unnamed studio. It is still a leak, and plans can change.
PS6 handheld Canis specs and release window
Putting this new report next to earlier leaks, the rumored PS6 Canis specs can be found below:
- CPU: 4 × Zen 6c cores (3nm process)
- GPU: 12–20 RDNA 5 compute units @ 1.6–2.0 GHz
- RAM: 16 GB LPDDR5X-7500+ on a 128-bit bus
- Estimated Power Draw: 15 W thermal board power
- Performance Target: About half the PS5’s rasterization performance, but potentially stronger in ray tracing due to RDNA 5 improvements
- Backward Compatibility: PS5 and PS4 support, with PS5 “Low Power Mode” for better performance matching
- Storage Options: MicroSD slot and M.2 SSD slot
- Display: Touchscreen
- Other Hardware: Dual microphones, haptic vibration, USB-C with fast charging and video output (speculated to allow docked play on TVs)
On timing, Moore’s Law Is Dead has been consistent that Sony and AMD are working toward production in the middle of 2027, with a launch for PS6 and the handheld around fall 2027. There have also been rough price targets floating around, with the handheld model placed in the $399 to $499 range, though again, these are models, not final RRP.
As always, it is worth taking all of this with a grain of salt. The idea of a PS6 handheld that shares architecture with the main console lines up across several reports, but specific clocks, memory amounts, and prices are exactly the type of detail that can change during development.
What do you think about Sony leaning so hard on PS5’s Low Power mode to get the games ready for launch? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
