A new leak claims Sony’s PS5 Power Saver push is seemingly the groundwork for the PS6 handheld codenamed “Canis,” with dev docs hinting at fewer CPU threads and new Low Power Modes.
Rumors around the PlayStation 6 have been coming in fast lately, and the handheld side of it is starting to sound less like fan fiction and more like a plan. The current leak pile includes a PS6 home console reportedly codenamed Orion, plus a native handheld codenamed Canis, both tied to AMD Zen 6 CPUs and RDNA 5 graphics.
On the handheld hardware side, the same reports have suggested a portable system built around Zen 6c CPU cores, RDNA 5 compute units, 16GB of LPDDR5X memory. There are also repeated claims that Canis would support PS5 and PS4 backward compatibility, with a USB-C setup that could potentially allow TV play.
The most recent rumor before today was claimed Sony is strongly encouraging studios to support PS5’s “Low Power” mode, and not in the lazy “just cap it at 30 FPS” way. The claim was that Sony wants games to hold 60 FPS by dropping resolution and trimming CPU usage, basically to make sure PS5 titles behave on a lower-power profile later.
Now, well-known hardware leaker, Moore’s Law is Dead, is back with some new leaked details around the PlayStation 6 handheld.
PS5 Power Saver Mode Might Be Sony’s Handheld Compatibility Plan
In the new Broken Silicon episode, MLID says a source told him Sony patched all PS5 dev SDKs back to version 1.0 to add Power Saver support, despite being “currently on 12.0.” He also claims Sony did not do this kind of backporting work even for PS5 Pro support, which is why he argues Power Saver support is the bigger priority internally.
He then points to a CPU optimization document that allegedly mentions more Low Power Modes coming “eventually” and “directly suggests” games should be runnable on only eight CPU threads. The line he quotes from the document is: “new operation modes may be supported in the future and applications may run in environments with different available CPU configurations.”
MLID also says his source wanted one point emphasized: Sony has “directly told them” this work will support new CPU architectures, and devs “cannot assume” the same thread counts forever.
Here’s the full on-screen quote shown in the video from the leaker’s source:
“Sony just patched all of their SDKs for PS5 game development back to 1.0 to support Power Saver Mode (they’re currently on 12.0). To be clear – they didn’t even do this for PS5 Pro support – if you had an old launch game on SDK 1.0 or 2.0, they’d tell you to ‘update to the latest SDK’ if you wanted to start working on adding direct PS5 Pro modes to your game. That means Power Saver Mode support is more important to them than Pro support!
“Additionally, one doc talking about CPU optimizations mentions that there are new Low Power Modes coming eventually, and directly suggests that your games should be runnable on only 8-Threads…it even at one point states: ‘new operation modes may be supported in the future and applications may run in environments with different available CPU configurations’…Sony is definitely preparing a Canis Handheld!”
If any of this is real, the implication is that Sony may be trying to make “PS5 Low Power” a common compatibility target, so a handheld can run more PS5 games without each title needing a special, painful rewrite.
Sony PlayStation 6 Handheld Leaked Specs
As for how beefy the PS6 handheld reportedly is, here are the leaked Canis specs being circulated right now:
- 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)
For timing, the earlier Canis leak claims manufacturing in mid-2027, with a launch in late 2027 or early 2028, possibly a little after the home console.
What do you think about this? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
