PSP Phone? Powered by Android 3.0

An exclusive from Engadet tells us that Sony-Ericsson is infact working on a PSP / Phone hybrid, which will be a PSP Go style slider with Playstation controls. With a 3.7 or 4″ touch screen. Its going to also be based on the up and coming Android 3 platform. Its said to be like a Samsung Galaxy S and PSP Go combo. Which is great, lets hope Sony get hold of that Super AMOLED screen tech from Samsung as its the best mobile screens out there.
We have heard the rumors for a long time that Sony wanted to break into the mobile market with Playstation Gaming. Well finally its happening. And I’m all for it, as an Android user and Galaxy S owner myself, the system has the power. We even have a PSX emulators that run PSX games just fine on Android. However there is one fatal flaw when it comes to gaming on all phones. While online touch screen controls might work fine, its just not the same. And I know first hand, I find the touch screen controls unconfortable and just wish I had an anlog stick or two with some decent hardware buttons. Sony can fill that gap and they will…
If done correctly Sony could make one hell of a system. Just image an Android 3 power smartphone, with a 5mp or 8mp camera with 720p video LED Flash. Bluetooth 3, Wifi N, and online stores for both Android apps and Playstation games.. All in a nice 3.7-4″ touch screen package you got a winner!
I have been dreaming of such a combo for a long time and finally its coming, what are your thoughts? Would you get one? Below is the some of the source quoted from Engadet.
Here’s what we can tell you about the hardware: if you’re a gaming fan, this is exactly the kind of phone you’ve been waiting for. The device is described as cross between the Samsung Captivate and the PSP Go — in other words, it’s a landscape slider with game controls in place of the typical QWERTY keyboard. The D-pad is here, but instead of the small joystick, the device will have what was described as a “long touch pad” for analog controls, along with standard PSP buttons and shoulder buttons. The phone has a large display, described as being between 3.7 and 4.1 inches with WVGA or better resolution, a 5 megapixel camera that we’re told might not be final, and it’ll likely have a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU on board. The phone is mostly black with some silver highlights, and the gamepad area is white / silver in color. Apparently it’s currently branded as a Xperia device, but it looks like it will carry PlayStation branding as well. Those who’ve seen the phone say it looks “pretty damn sexy.” The mockup above probably doesn’t do the actual hardware justice, but it should give you an idea of what you’ll be dealing with.
On the software side, it looks like the device will be running Gingerbread (Android 3.0) with a phone-specific skin, and there will be a new area of the Android Market specifically for the games. That content will be initially accessible only by the halo device, but from the sounds of things, these titles might be made available to other Android phones if their specs and button layouts meet requirements. Games will be graphically in the range of PSX or PSP games, meaning true 3D gaming is headed to Android. Titles currently being shown off seem to be focused around some older PSX as well as new PSP offerings, with God of War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and LittleBigPlanet possibly on tap, and future plans for titles which incorporate augmented reality features.
In terms of release, it’s possible that the phone and ecosystem could be introduced as early as October of this year, but we have yet to confirm.