Since the premature discontinuation of the PS Vita in 2019, Sony seemed to have abandoned the portable console market for good. This is why the announcement of Project Q, stale it is true by some rumors, surprised the community. This console, designed to run PS5 games, sports a nearly identical design to the official DualSense controller, with all its features such as touch panel, adaptive triggers and haptic feedback.
Its portable aspect is reinforced by the presence of a beautiful 8-inch screen displaying a resolution of 720p and clocked at 60 Hz. Based on these technical considerations alone, the Project Q seems to be well equipped for Sony to regain its place in the handheld console market.
Not so nomadic as that
Attention, if you thought that the Project Q will allow you to undermine the tyranny of Odin in God of War Ragnarokor to annihilate the threat of the machines of Horizon Zero Dawn Forbidden West live from the beach, you might have to think twice. Indeed, the Project Q is not as autonomous as a Nintendo Switch can be, which can run games without being connected to another machine or the Internet. Project Q is more of a remote screen since it needs to be connected to a PS5 to express its potential.
It is the home console that takes care of the calculations and the results are transcribed on the screen of the Project Q. In return, the manipulations of the player on the controller of the Project Q are sent to the PS5, and so on. following. For everything to remain playable, you therefore need a stable and strong Internet connection, which is not necessarily the case where the Project Q would be most useful: away from home, in public transport for example. What’s more, the latest rumors evoke an autonomy altogether limited to 3 to 4 hours. Again, these are just speculations, which Sony has neither confirmed nor denied.
Console or device?
We are finally quite far from a device that would be self-sufficient, like the Switch or the Game Boy. The Project Q is closer to a high-end gamepad that allows you to do without the screen on which the PS5 is connected, which must imperatively work simultaneously in order to play. It will be impossible to enjoy PS5 games with a Project Q not linked to a PlayStation 5 console.
Sony’s return to the battle for handheld consoles is not quite a reality yet.