UPDATE: Check out our Hands on: Sony Ericsson Xperia Play review.
It's been rumoured for some time - Sony was blabbing on about a "seductive" PSP/Phone hybrid back in 2007 - but it's no longer a rumour: Sony has indeed locked a PSP Go and a smartphone in a dark room full of aphrodisiacs and Barry White CDs.
The result is the Sony PlayStation Phone, or PSP Phone, an Android-powered device that's half PlayStation and half phone.
Indeed, the CEO of Sony Ericsson mobile phones has responded to the PlayStation Phone rumours by saying that there is "no smoke without fire."
So what do we know about it?
The PSP Phone might actually be called the Sony Ericsson Z1
On 1 December 2010, Techblog.gr showed off a spy video of the PSP Phone in action and is claiming that it will actually be called the Sony Ericsson Z1.
The video shows someone using a device that looks very similar to the 4-inch Android phone shown off by Engadget, despite not ever being slid open to unveil the gaming keys.
The shape and button layout is very close to that shown off previously, but lest we forget that the Asian markets are highly adept at turning round knock-off designs very quickly, and this could be nothing more than that, especially given the blurry video on offer.
And on 6 December 2010, the PSP phone / Sony Ericsson Z1 was shown off again in another video. This time, the extending game pad was detailed.
The PSP Phone runs Android
The Sony PlayStation Phone OS will be Android, most likely the Android 3.0 release.
The PSP Phone specifications are pretty impressive
According to Engadget, the PlayStation phone specifications include a 1GHz Qualcomm CPU, a 5 megapixel camera, 512MB of RAM and a 3.7" or 4.1" display with WVGA resolution or better.
Rather than a QWERTY keyboard the PSP Phone slider reveals the familiar D-pad and buttons from the PSP Go together with a wide touch pad in the middle that supports multi-touch gestures. Unusually for a Sony device it's expandable via MicroSD cards rather than Sony's own Memory Sticks.
The PSP Phone images may be fake
Engadget is confident that the images it's published are the real thing - albeit images of a pre-production prototype - but Sony Europe is calling shenanigans.
The PSP Phone interface hasn't been leaked yet
Engadget's prototype is "still in prototyping mode", which means Sony hasn't yet applied its own skin to the Android operating system. It "is said to be rather buggy" too.
PSP Phone release date
A 2010 release date has been rumoured since we first heard that Sony might make a PlayStation phone, but given that we're already in November - and that Android 3.0 hasn't shipped yet - that's looking pretty unlikely. A 2011 release date is much more realistic. We'd have had it earlier if it weren't for a bad case of office politics, it seems.
UPDATE: It's looking likely that the PSP Phone might make an appearance at Mobile World Congress in February 2011.
UPDATE 2:
An invitation to a launch event in France has leaked on to the web, which points to a 9 December release date for the PSP Phone.
How do we know it is the PSP Phone? Well, the invite is adorned with PlayStation button icons and another icon with a phone inside.
Well, 9 December has been and gone, and the above event didn't happen. Mobile World Congress is again looking like a likely place for the PSP Phone to appear.
PSP Phone games might be cheaper
The rise of the iPhone and Android app stores mean phone users are used to paying pennies for games. Will Sony slash the price of its portable games, or will it try and persude punters to keep paying thirty quid for blockbuster titles? As Screen Digest's Ed Barton told us in August, "the average sales price of iPhone and other mobile games is much lower… does Sony want [the PlayStation brand] to rush headlong into a development environment where the consumer expects games priced at 59p to £5.99?"
PSP Phone games will look like PSP and PSX games
Engadget reports that Sony PlayStation phone "games will be graphically in the range of PSX or PSP games, meaning true 3D gaming is heading to Android." Such games will be in a PSP Phone-specific bit of the Android Market, although it's possible that the games might be made available for other Android devices in the future.
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Your comments (1) Click to add a new comment
bananaoomarang
October 27th 2010
1. Maybe it'll take off but I still think the 3DS might be better tailored to 'gaming', I think one device should stick to doing ONE thing well. I like android though, so we'll see how this does it for promoting games on android, their PSPGo digital content plan should work better competing with the iphone anyway.
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