Sony NGP (aka PSP 2) Announced – Impressive Handheld Console Features!

Written by Ender on January 28, 2011 · Filed under Games 

Nobody can say that they were surprised at this announcement. But it’s now official, Sony’s new handheld is coming and will be called NGP (Next Generation Portable).

Many thought that it would be called Sony PSP 2 from previous rumours, but maybe they moved away from the PSP name to distance the NGP from the under performing sales of the PSP. Whatever the reason, it looks bloody fantastic.

There were rumours of the NGP being as powerful as the PS3 which had people scratching their heads as to how it could be. Well it looks like it so far! So what can we expect from the NGP, what games are going to be released and what’s the price going to be?

The NGP will sport dual analogue sticks, a huge 5 inch OLED touch screen on the front and a touch panel on the back. Front and rear cameras, Six Axis controls and flash memory. There will be multiple SKU’s with all of them having Wi-Fi but only one of them having 3G, of which there will be an additional charge.

No price has been announced yet, but people reckon it will be between £200-300 which I think it quite reasonable for what’s on offer.

Check out the rest of the specs below:

CPU
ARM CortexTM-A9 core (4 core)

GPU
SGX543MP4+

External Dimensions
Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)

Screen
5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED

(Touch screen)
Multi-touch screen (capacitive type)
Rear touch pad
Multi-touch pad (capacitive type)

Cameras
Front camera, Rear camera

Sound
Built-in stereo speakers
Built-in microphone

Sensors
Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass

Location
Built-in GPS
Wi-Fi location service support

Keys / Switches
PS button
Power button
Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left)
Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square)
Shoulder buttons (Right/Left)
Right stick, Left stick
START button, SELECT button
Volume buttons (+/-)

Wireless communications
Mobile network connectivity (3G)
IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1×1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode)
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR ?A2DP/AVRCP/HSP?

So what about the games I hear you ask? Well, I’m not sure if you’ve heard of a little game called Uncharted, but apparently that is going to be making appearance of the NGP, as well as Little Big Planet, Resistance, Killzone, oh and another little title called Call of Duty. Heard of it?

These are just a few of the games that have been announced, but already my mouths watering more than a leaking pipe, and from some of the videos of the NGP running Uncharted you will see why.

The battery life is better than I thought it would be as games will no longer be released on UMD. Instead, games will be released on Flash memory cards as well as being able to download titles. With the NGP having an OLED screen as well, the battery should last around 4-6 hours which is similar to that of the upcoming Nintendos 3DS. And yes, the Trophies will be making an appearance on the NGP which is something a lot of people have been wanting to see on the PSP.

So when can we expect to see the NGP hitting the shelves? Sony have said that it will be on shelves “in one territory” by the end of the year. Let’s just hope that it’s Europe who finally get something first.

So what do you think to the Sony NGP features and will it end up being called the PSP 2? Excited by what you’ve seen/read? Think it’s going to be too overpriced? Or another ‘flop’ like the Sony PSP and PSP Go? Whatever your thoughts, let us know in the comments below.

Via – Computer and Video Games