The original PSP was only offered in black. Then, they came out with certain special editions and other iterations that outfitted the portable gamer in a variety of colors and designs. The Xperia Play is barely out of the gate, but Sony Ericsson is already breaking out the paint bucket.

We thought that, at least in the short term, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play would only be offered in the standard black. We thought wrong. If you happen to be in the UK and you like O2, you might be pleased to hear that the device formerly known as the PSPhone is also being sold there in white. And it’s exclusive (or Xclusive, if you prefer) to O2.

Aside from the paint job, there really isn’t anything different with the white version, but it does look sleeker in white. The almost ironic thing? The Xperia Play beat the iPhone 4 to the punch in the battle of white paint. Go figure. No word on whether the white Xperia Play will be offered outside the UK, but I imagine someone else will get it eventually.

[via BGR]

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We were all thumbs over the possibility of a PlayStation Phone for a very long time. We had the teaser stuff during the Super Bowl, but now Sony Ericsson has officially come forward with an official announcement for the Xperia Play.

The good news is that this is the world’s first PlayStation-certified smartphone. It’s also good that they finally ditched the all-caps XPERIA in favor of the more normal-looking Xperia. As expected, the Xperia Play runs on Android 2.3 and takes advantage of the recently announced PlayStation Suite initiative. That’s like PSN, but not really.

There weren’t any real surprises with yesterday’s announcement. We see the slide-out controls, 1GHz processor, Adreno GPU, and a wide range of content partners that include EA, Gamehouse, Glu, Namco Bandai, PopCap, and Unity Technologies.

Rogers Wireless has the Canadian exclusive on the Xperia Play, while the phone is destined for Verizon Wireless south of the 49th parallel. Both carriers are expected to launch the gaming phone in March. Let’s just hope for Sony Ericsson’s sake that this doesn’t become their version of the N-Gage.

[Sony]

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We already know all of the most important specs for the upcoming Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play, but we’re missing one very important tidbit: which carrier is getting it? Well, it looks like one retailer already knows.

The handset previously known as the PlayStation Phone, which is now all thumbs, is apparently making its way over to join Big Red. This comes by way of some sources at Wirefly.

Aside from the Motorola Atrix 4G, it looks like Verizon is really looking like the Android place to be these days. It started with hot devices like the DROID Incredible and now we’re on the cusp of a Verizon-happy XOOM, DROID Bionic, and so on. The XPERIA Play sounds like a natural fit, no? Or would you rather get an NGP instead?

[Mobile Burn]

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An official commercial for the upcoming gaming smartphone is being shown off on the Sony Ericsson Facebook page and it offers some creepy, almost SAW-inspired hack job. They’ve sown on a pair of human thumbs onto our little green friend, saying that Android is now ready to play.

Weird, I know. As far as the XPERIA Play itself goes, it’s everything we’ve been seeing thus far with styling somewhere between the X10 and Vivaz Pro, adding in slide-out gaming controls. An “official” announcement for the phone is set for February 13 (at 1800 GMT) and I guess that’s when we’ll learn about content delivery, pricing, and all that jazz.

Personally, I’m somehow less stoked about the PSPhone today than I was a year ago when it was little more than a rumor. What’s that they say about reality never living up to your dreamy expectations?

[Giz]

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Update: Sony has announced the official PSP2, called the NGP.

It’s getting closer. After months of hearsay and years of rumors, the Sony PlayStation Phone is nearing its official launch under the name XPERIA Play.

You already know about the PlayStation-style slide out controls (does anyone else think this is kind of like the old Sony Mylo, except with game controls?) and the four-inch multitouch 854×480 display, but what else is going on under the hood? We’re hearing that it gets a 1GHz processor of unknown origin and Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

There’s likely a custom UI in place, as well as some sort of integration with PlayStation Network. Other specs include the Adrenos 205 GPU, 512MB RAM, 5MP camera, and just one shoulder button per side. I hope the optically-oriented thumbpads work as good as their thumbstick counterparts.

Early hands-on sessions have noted “balance issues,” due to the top-heavy display, but the real test will be to see how it runs native games; everything in tests have been through emulators thus far. After all, if the gaming experience sucks, the PSPhone (XPERIA Play) really stands no chance against the iPhone as the “funnest” gaming phone ever.

[Giz via Engadget]

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According to the rumors, Sony is hosting an event in Tokyo on January 27 and it is there that they will take the cover off the of the real next-generation PSP. Rememeber that the current PSP Go isn’t really a PSP2. Even Sony itself has been quoted as saying that the PSP Go is more akin to a PSP 1.5 than anything else.

I’m not entire surely what to expect with the next-generation PSP, but I imagine the form factor will remain much the same. They might toss in a touchscreen, but for the hardcore gamers in the audience, a second thumbstick would be much more appreciated.

On a related note, the rumors are saying that the XPERIA Play will make its debut at MWC 2011. That happens from February 14 to February 17. I wonder if the new PSP2 will have pre-emptively taken the wind out of the PSPhone’s sails by then.

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Likely to be sold as the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play, the so-called PSPhone being showcased in the demo video below looks to be in line with all the leaked shots and rumors that have filtered their way through the Internet. You get the gaming controls and a couple of touch-sensitive pads to replace the conventional thumbsticks of a Dualshock controller.

There are at least two things of note in this video. First, the XPERIA Play looks to be quite thick. It’s obviously not one of the thinnest phones on the market and it has the same characteristic “curve” in the back as, say, the Vivaz Pro. The beefier profile might actually be good for gaming, especially if there really are trigger buttons in place.

Second, you’ll notice at around the 0:50 mark of the video that the sliding mechanism seems to be a little on the stiffer side of things. From what I can see, it’s not spring-loaded and it’s possible that the two halves are being situated too close together. If you recall, this happened with the W580 years ago and it sometimes resulted in cracked keys. I hope that’s not the case here.

In any case, what do you think? Is this PSPhone going to dethrone iPhone as the gaming phone of choice?

[Mobile Crunch via eprice]

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About a month ago a few grainy pictures of what looked like a PSP2 were leaked, and following that the rumor mill started to buzz with speculations on what the actual product will look like. Now we have been treated to clearer, more official looking images of a mock-up PSP2, though take note that these images are not from Sony.

They were commissioned by PSM3, and were made by a third-party designer, to add to their recent magazine article highlighting and speculating on the PSP2 and the unofficial PlayStation Phone. The designer looks to have used the earlier released photos and recent rumors as a base to create the mock-ups.

They do look official and had it not mentioned many would have taken it as that. It seems to follow the direction that PlayStation took with the PSP Go, using the slider to conceal the actual controls of the system, giving it a very sleek and smooth look. The mock-up also sports the much-anticipated dual joysticks, which will give the handheld a much more console gaming feel, to the delight of casual and hardcore fans alike. And a newer addition to the system, the handheld mock-up includes a large touch screen on the back of the system.

Whether or not this mock-up is going to be an accurate representation of what we can expect from Sony, is up in the air until we get our first official look. But for now it is just nice to be able to put a face to all the rumors that have been circulating.

[Gizmodo via PSM2]

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Confused? You betcha! Kazuo Hirai is the big cheese at Sony Computer Entertainment and he recently had an interview where he was to discuss the PSPhone (or PSP phone, if you prefer). In the interview, he basically confirms that they’re working on such a device.

That’s the good news. The slightly confusing news is that he says, “We don’t want gamers to be asking, what’s the difference between that and a PSP.” In this way, it is more than likely that Sony is still working on a proper PSP2, but the PSP Phone is a separate project.

I’ve heard some rumors swirling around the Internet that the so-called PSPphone won’t really be a PSP Phone at all. Instead, it’s being dubbed the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play to join the rest of the XPERIA smartphone line. It’ll probably have the PlayStation app, but the Android phone will also play some PSN download games too. Sony is more than happy to embrace casual gamers in this regard.

In any case, I’m hearing that Sony could be making some sort of formal announcement regarding one or both devices at CES in January. Till then, it’s all rumor and hearsay.

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I’ve got some good news and some bad news for all the PlayStation gamers in the audience. The good news is that Sony has formally come forward and announced the official PlayStation smartphone app. The bad news is that it’s not at all what we’re hoping it is.

Earlier this month, we caught the PlayStation buttons mentioned in the Gingerbread SDK, giving us good reason to believe that a real PlayStation Phone (or PSPhone, if you prefer) was just around the corner. With the announcement of the official PlayStation app, that sounded even better.

Unfortunately, this app is not going to let you play Little Big Planet and Gran Turismo on your Google Nexus S. Instead, the app works in much the same way that the Xbox Live app works in Windows Phone 7. Instead of checking up on your Xbox friends’ achievements, you can look up your PlayStation buddies’ trophies. Sony is also giving you the app to sell you on the newest games, news, and hardware for the PS3, PSP and even the PS2.

The initial version of the PlayStation app, which is being made available on iOS 4 and Android 1.6+, is only being offered in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. They say they’re working on versions for other regions and those should follow shortly.

And here I was hoping for a real PlayStation phone ahead of schedule.

[PlayStation Blog]

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