Panther Lake handhelds vs PS6 Canis handheld: Latest leak compares efficiency of upcoming chips

Intel is betting on Panther Lake chips to usher in a new era of gaming handhelds. On the other hand, AMD is already working with Sony for a PS6 generation handheld powered by a custom chip codenamed ‘Canis.’ While very little is known about actual performance of these handhelds, a well-known leaker has shared a comparison between the two without any concrete details, but it gives an idea of what can be expected in terms of efficiency and optimizations.

Kepler_L2 has been quite prolific when it comes to leaks about the upcoming next generation of consoles, be it the new Xbox or the PS6. For the latter, Sony is expected to announce a PS6 handheld as well, and it will be capable of running PS5 games natively, though at lower fidelity. The latest information from the leaker is that the Panther Lake chips will offer very similar performance to the PS6 handheld’s Canis chip, but at double the power consumption.

Kepler states that while AMD’s Ryzen Z2 Extreme is too slow and Strix Halo is too fast, Panther Lake will be able to cover the middle ground. That being said, the performance it will offer at 30W is what the Canis chip will offer at 15W. On paper, those numbers don’t seem to bode well for the Panther Lake handhelds, but there’s more to the story. Notably, the custom AMD APU in the PS6 handheld will be tuned for running games with a proprietary OS, meaning, it can deliver more performance from relatively less powerful hardware.

Panther Lake handhelds, on the other hand, will handle gaming differently as they will run a wider range of games and programs, as well as a relatively heavier OS. Therefore, higher power consumption is to be expected. Furthermore, latest leaks and rumors point to dedicated gaming chips called Intel Core G3 series that are based on Panther Lake and designed exclusively for handhelds. These will be more optimized for gaming and are expected to deliver solid performance in the 15W to 30W range.

As for how soon we will see these handhelds in the market, speculation suggests that the first Panther Lake powered handhelds will arrive in mid-2026. The PS6 handheld, however, is expected around late 2027 or early 2028, given that November 2027 will mark the seven-year console cycle that Microsoft and Sony typically stick to.