Sony Project Q Handheld Rumored to Offer Just 3 or 4 Hours Battery Life

Sony Project Q handheld
(Image credit: Sony)

Last week Sony took the wraps off its Project Q handheld. A lot of questions about the device were answered during the showcase event, however, a vital handheld specification wasn't provided — battery life. Now Tom Henderson, a games industry tipster with a long track record, has gone public to assert that the Sony Project Q will only last for three to four hours between charges.

Sony's latest handheld could be described as a 'dumb' device, in that it doesn't have onboard processors for tackling PlayStation gaming content. All the onboard processing power needs to do is handle games streaming and user inputs without detrimental lag. It is possible to enjoy PS Remote Play streaming on gadgets like mobiles, tablets, and so on as the PlayStation game processing is done in the cloud, but Sony thought a dedicated device like the Project Q is the best way to do justice to its games catalog.

(Image credit: Sony)

With its light processing burden in mind, one might expect it would be relatively easy for the Sony Project Q to offer extended battery life, as the Logitech G Cloud can. However, if Henderson is right, users will get a desperately short unplugged experience here. Sony must have decided this was enough, and/or the decision was steered by the overall weight, size, or cost of the handheld.

To put the claimed Sony Project Q handheld battery life into some perspective, let us compare it with a mix of contemporary handheld gaming and smart devices:

  • Logitech G Cloud: 'all day' 12+ hours claimed
  • Apple iPad 10th Gen (2022): about 10 hours
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Plus (2023): about 9 hours
  • Nintendo Switch OLED: between 4.5 and 9 hours
  • Valve Steam Deck: usually 2 to 6 hours observed in our review
  • Asus ROG Ally: PC gaming 1.43 hours, web activity 5.51 hours in our review testing

In the above examples, you can see devices like the ROG Ally really eat through their batteries when games are using the local CPU and GPU power (actually the AMD Ryzen A1 Extreme APU). However, it looks like it would be able to stream games for nearly six hours. This kind of local processing vs streaming battery life usage differential is a big reason why the touted Sony Project Q handheld battery life is so disappointing. The source takes a swipe at Sony, by adding that "at least Project Q is on brand with the DualSense having a short battery life." Hopefully, Henderson's information comes from a pre-release testing unit with a smaller battery, or there is another pre-release hardware issue at play stunting the battery life.

Another factor that will be important to the success or failure of the Sony Project Q will be pricing, which was also held back from the unveiling event. Henderson expects the product release to be sometime in November, and we should get pricing nearer that time.

Mark Tyson
News Editor

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

  • PlaneInTheSky
    Another fat handheld with horrible battery life.

    Come out with something the size of a Switch Lite and give it 10 hours of battery life, and I might be interested. Otherwise keep your bloated battery hogging Steam Decks and Playstation Q.
    Reply
  • RedBear87
    I'm half suspecting that they're just trying to make look the PS Vita a resounding success, if retrospectively compared with this Project Q.
    Reply
  • JTWrenn
    This needs to be $100 to $125 max for it to make any sense in a home. Anything more than that and the low ends of more capable devices make way more sense.
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    PlaneInTheSky said:
    Come out with something the size of a Switch Lite and give it 10 hours of battery life, and I might be interested. Otherwise keep your bloated battery hogging Steam Decks and Playstation Q.
    this product is trash, but your statement is also dumb conclusion.

    Switch is vastly different from steamdeck and other PC handhelds.

    Consoles (of which switch is) are a lot more efficient than any PC device due to only being made to do what it does.

    Let alone Switch is made of hardware thats 6yrs old. Its vastly less powerful (and thus not as much of a battery hog)

    JTWrenn said:
    This needs to be $100 to $125 max for it to make any sense in a home.
    $100 tops is even pushing it.
    Reply
  • RedBear87
    hotaru251 said:
    $100 tops is even pushing it.
    With the DualSense selling for $70 even $100 is a stretch, let's keep in mind that this is basically a DualSense controller with an 8inch screen slapped in the middle. It's more likely that Sony will sell it for around $200, making it another case of "DOA".
    Reply
  • txfeinbergs
    PlaneInTheSky said:
    Another fat handheld with horrible battery life.

    Come out with something the size of a Switch Lite and give it 10 hours of battery life, and I might be interested. Otherwise keep your bloated battery hogging Steam Decks and Playstation Q.

    Thanks. I will keep my Steam Deck. I attach it to this: https://www.anker.com/products/a1289?variant=41974285041814&utm_source=google&utm_medium=pmax&utm_campaign=us_anker_charger_conversion_pmax_ganprime_purchase_ost&utm_content=ganprime&utm_term=%7B17859178243%7D_%7B%7D_%7B%7D&gclid=Cj0KCQjw98ujBhCgARIsAD7QeAguTt3Lj5E50k1spgV4_3j77SCHPJCy3vUwnOHpKyIQDHYL-i3T9LMaAh8tEALw_wcB&discount=WSCPUKAVLT
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    RedBear87 said:
    With the DualSense selling for $70 even $100 is a stretch, let's keep in mind that this is basically a DualSense controller with an 8inch screen slapped in the middle. It's more likely that Sony will sell it for around $200, making it another case of "DOA".
    except my dualsense controller last over 4hrs.
    point was this is so niche a product that its cost wont be worth it and only ones who will buy it are the devotes who have more money than sense. (goes same for all bad products not just Sony)
    Reply