Last week, Sony unveiled its Project Q handheld. Many questions about the device were answered during the showcase event, but one key handheld spec – battery life – was not provided. Well, long-time gaming industry tipster Tom Henderson has publicly stated that Sony’s Project Q will only last two more years. 3-4 hours while charging.
Sony’s latest handset is a “dumb” device in that it doesn’t have an onboard processor to tackle PlayStation gaming content. All the onboard processing power needs is to handle game streaming and user input without harmful delays. The PlayStation’s game processing happens in the cloud, so gadgets like phones and tablets can enjoy PS Remote Play streaming, but Sony says dedicated devices like the Project Q will make the most of their games. I thought it was the best way. catalog.
Bearing in mind its light processing load, one might expect the Sony Project Q to achieve the same extended battery life as the Logitech G Cloud with relative ease. But if Henderson is correct, users will get a hopelessly short unplugged experience here. Sony must have decided that this was enough. Alternatively, the overall weight, size and cost of the handset must have driven the decision.
To put the Sony Project Q handheld’s battery life into some perspective, let’s compare it to a modern handheld gaming/smart device combination.
- Logitech G Cloud: Billed over 12 hours “all day”
- Apple iPad 10th generation (2022): about 10 hours
- Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Plus (2023): about 9 hours
- Nintendo Switch OLED: 4.5-9 hours
- Valve Steam Deck: Reviews typically take 2-6 hours.
- Asus ROG Ally: 1.43 hours of PC gaming and 5.51 hours of web activity in our review test
In the example above, we can see that a device like the ROG Ally is actually draining the battery when the game uses local CPU and GPU power (actually an AMD Ryzen A1 Extreme APU). However, it appears to be able to stream games for nearly 6 hours. This difference in battery life between local processing and streaming is a big reason why the advertised Sony Project Q handheld’s battery life is so disappointing. The source criticized Sony, adding, “At least Project Q has DualSense with short battery life.” Hopefully, Henderson’s information came from a pre-release test unit with a smaller battery, or there could be another pre-release hardware issue that slows battery life. I have.
Another key factor in the success or failure of the Sony Project Q is pricing, which was also put on hold at the launch event. Henderson said he expects the product to be released sometime in November, and prices should be closer to that time.
