Well, that was unexpected. We all know that the PlayStation Vita, previously known as the Next-Gen PSP (NGP), is almost ready for public consumption, but not everyone is prepared to fork out the $249 starting price for the hot new handheld. So, Sony has just announced a cheaper version called the PSP E-1000.

Maybe this is in response to the recent price drop on the Nintendo 3DS. In any case, the cheaper PSP E-1000 has received a retail price of just 99 Euros, which works out to be just under $150 US. Not surprisingly, some features get stripped away at this lower price point. There’s a UMD drive compatible with legacy PSP titles, but they’ve done away with the Wi-Fi.

Gamers can still get their downloads, but they have to do so by physically connecting the PSP E-1000 to a web-connected computer, and utilizing Sony’s Media Go service. We’re hearing it gets a matte black finish and will hit shelves this fall. It’s unclear whether the cheaper model will be compatible with higher-end titles to be released on the PS Vita, but I imagine that it must. After all, you’d otherwise be stuck with just old PSP games and, in that case, you’re probably better off just buying an old PSP.

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I wandered my way into a Costco yesterday and emerged with a $170 Nintendo 3DS. They did the price drop early and I couldn’t help myself. Maybe that’s a good thing, because I’d be left waiting all the way until some time next year if I wanted to get the Sony PlayStation Vita instead.

Sony has revealed that its next generation PSP won’t be heading to the North American and European markets until some time in 2012. That doesn’t mean they’re not launching it yet; Japan will start receiving its first shipments of the PS Vita later this year, making it on to the Christmas wish lists of the gamers in Tokyo, but not the ones in Toronto.

Kazuo Hirai, Sony’s Executive Deputy President, said that it’s unfortunate they’ll miss the holiday rush on our side of the planet, since “that’s when you do half your year’s sales.” As expected, the WiFi version of the PS Vita will retail for $249, whereas the 3G equipped version will list at $299. How that will fly in an age of gaming on smartphones remains to be seen. After all, Nintendo wasn’t exactly all that successful at the $249 price point for the 3DS.

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I play a lot of games on my smartphone. The trouble is that a smartphone was never really designed for serious video game playing, and that’s where the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is supposed to come into the picture. It’s PlayStation certified and is purpose-built to give gamers what they want while still doing the usual Android smartphone thing too.

We caught brief glimpses at this phone earlier this year, but it has now launched through Rogers Wireless in Canada, 3, Orange,  T-Mobile and Vodafine in the UK, and Verizon Wireless in the USA. Is the so-called PlayStation Phone worth all these years of waiting? Let’s find out.

Specs at a Glance

The version that I received to review is white, but they’ve also got the regular black version as well. The two colors are functionally identical. And, not surprisingly, the most notable feature on this smartphone is the set of slide-out gaming controls.

We’ve seen these kinds of sliders in the past, but they’ve always revealed hardware QWERTY keyboards. That’s not the case you. You get a set of controls that mirrors what you’d get on a PlayStation gamepad: four directional buttons, four face buttons (X, O, triangle, and square), start and select. Instead of thumbsticks, you get a pair of optical thumbpads. There’s also a menu button on the face, as well as L and R buttons on the shoulders.

Doing a quick run through the rest of the spec sheet, we find a 1GHz Scorpion processor (Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon), Android 2.3 Gingerbread, 400MB internal memory, 512MB RAM, microSD slot, HSDPA/HSUPA support, 802.11b/g/n, 5MP camera, front-facing camera, aGPS, and a 4.0-inch 480×854 touchscreen display.

Build Quality and Design

The overall design is in line with other Xperia smartphones from Sony Ericsson. This was built to look more like a phone and less like a PSP, though there are some similarities to the PSP Go. The back is rounded, as are the top and bottom contours. Because of the sliding mechanism, the Xperia Play (at 16mm) is far from the thinnest phone on the block. It’s also not the lightest at a considerable 175 grams of heft.

The sliding mechanism feels reasonably solid, but I’d imagine that this will wear down over time. The gaming buttons feel very solid and should be able to stand up to the same kind of abuse you’d normally give your PSP. I did find the plastic back was a little too slippery, though, especially when in gaming position. Having the volume rocker between the L/R buttons is an interesting choice too.

And that’s the real crux of why someone would be the least bit interested in the Xperia Play. You can play all of the usual Android games — Angry Birds, YooNinja, etc. — but the key is playing games that are “optimized” for the Xperia Play. It is a PlayStation certified device, after all, even if it’s not a real PlayStation Phone per se.

What’s cool is that when you slide out the gaming controls, the handset automatically goes to the Xperia Play interface where you can choose your games. These are shown as fairly large tiles on the touchscreen, but what’s odd is that not all of your games show up here. I had other games that were supposed to be optimized for use on the Xperia Play, but I could only access them through the usual Android menu.

As far as controls, while I liked the idea of the optical trackpads in place of true thumbsticks, they didn’t work quite as well as I had hoped. I’m unsure whether they’re too sensitive or not sensitive enough, as I just didn’t get the level of precision and responsiveness that I need when I’m playing games. I tried Star Batallion (a flight shooter) and Hockey Nations 2011 for this purpose and I ended up resorting to the d-pad for the former. I mostly used the optical trackpad for hockey, but it still wasn’t perfect.

I’m not sold on the optical trackpads, for this reason, but I am sold on gaming on this phone. Madden was enjoyable, Crash Bandicoot was a hoot, and emulators would surely be a hit too. Battery life has me worried, though, since the phone could barely last a day even with very, very light usage.

So, How Does It Game?

Camera Quality

Other smartphones may have been upgraded to 8MP or even 12MP shooters, but the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is largely able to hold its own with the five-megapixel camera in tow. The flash is quite powerful and while the images will never compete with a “real” camera, they’re comparable to similar smartphones with similar specs.

• Sample Photo #1 (indoor, flash on)
• Sample Photo #2 (indoor, flash off)
• Sample Photo #3 (outdoors, cloudy)

What’s interesting is that while Sony Ericsson stuck with that TimeScape UI (albeit a fair bit simplified from its Xperia X10 days) for part of the core interface, the company didn’t do anything to skin the camera app. It’s the vanilla Android camera app, which has some options, but not really enough. I’m sure you could find some fun things in Android Market to help you with that, though, should you feel so inclined.

Conclusion

I get what Sony Ericsson was trying to accomplish with the Xperia Play. We’ve been wanting a real PlayStation Phone for quite some time and this is supposed to be it… except that it’s not. You see, Sony has the PlayStation Vita coming out pretty soon and it’s much more of a PSP than this phone can ever hope to be. The current crop of “PlayStation-certified” games that are “optimized” for this platform aren’t bad, but they aren’t that great either. For the most part, they’re still “just” cell phone games.

If someone really wants to play real PlayStation games on the go, they’ll pick up the NGP PS Vita. I think that if the Xperia Play came out a couple years ago, it had a real fighting chance of attracting some more interest. As it stands, I expect it to end up in the same pile as the N-Gage. The poor battery life certainly doesn’t help either, especially if you plan on playing any games at all for any duration of time.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is available now through Rogers Wireless for $99.99 on qualifying three-year contracts.

Manufacturer Specifications

* Battery performance does vary greatly on network and phone usage.

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If you’re an avid reader of sites like Mobile Magazine, there’s a good chance that you prefer to be on the bleeding edge of technology. If you’re getting an Android phone, you want it to have the latest release from Google, right? And so, are you even the least bit interested in a price drop on the PSP?

Granted, it’s not realy the original PSP-1000, but it may as well be. It’s not even the PSP Go (that not too many care about either). Even so, Sony wants to clear out a bunch of its old stock, so the regular old PlayStation Portable is getting slashed by forty bucks, bringing the sticker price down to just $129.99. That’s starting this Sunday.

At the same time, I guess we have to realize that the PSP2 (NGP) probably won’t be hitting store shelves for a while yet, so at least you have a few months to twiddle around with the single analog stick-equipped PSP for now. And at least Sony is doing something about pricing. Nintendo seems to be mostly holding firm on its DS Lite, DSi, and DSi XL pricing leading up to the launch of the Nintendo 3DS next month.

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The goods were shipped over as parts from Asia to be reassembled and labelled in L.A. before being sold in order to obscure the operation. Laid out on a table in typical drug-bust style, a Los Angeles Times photo shows piles upon piles of the PSPs, third- and fourth-gen Nanos and other goods set to be displayed in a press conference Monday.

“This was a well-funded operation,” said Ron Boyd, chief of the L.A. Port Police force. ”The counterfeits looked very authentic.”

Though they were deceiving to the eye, the iPods and iPhones, many of older generations, don’t work when hooked up to iTunes, he said. Investigators assume the recent shipment was timed to coincide with lingering electronics hype brought on by the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

The investigation also involved the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, the Border Enforcement Security Task Force, the California Highway Patrol’s Cargo Theft Interdiction Program and the Vernon Police Department.

This sort of thing is pretty commonplace in other countries — the word “Molino” comes to mind — so it’s good to see the integrity of the world’s most trusted industry defended in the U.S.A.

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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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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.

The post Sony confirms PSP phone, but doesn’t confirm PSP phone appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

In the United States market, the iOS range of devices has now overtaken the Sony PSP in the listing of the most popular gaming platforms. There are two main PSP products (PSP and PSPgo), whereas there are three core iOS products (iPad, iPod touch, and iPhone), but it’s still a reasonable comparison to make. In case you haven’t noticed, a lot of people are playing Plants vs. Zombies and Angry Birds these days.

Let me preface this by saying that I do not personally own an iOS device and am still partial to traditional control schemes for my gaming, but I can also recognize just how popular iPhone and iPad games have become. It also helps that there are a lot of free games for iOS and basically no (legitimately) free games for the PSP. That helps too.

Nintendo is still reigning supreme in the mobile gaming market, but Apple looks like it’s aiming for the spot of top dog. Can the iPhone really beat out the DSi and the upcoming 3DS for the portable gaming crown? Is the multifunctionality of iOS products misleading, since the PSP and DS are largely dedicated to gaming? Either way, I don’t think Nintendo is worried. They always find a way to print money.

[Game Pro]

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Heading over to Cologne, Germany for Gamescom this week, it seems that super select VIPs have been invited by Sony to test out the next-generation PlayStation Portable. They’ve been given some hands-on time with the prototype device and it has touch-sensitive controls on the back rather than on the front.

From what I can gather, this kind of interface could be very similar to something like the Motorola BACKFLIP with its touch trackpad on the back. Were also hearing about a “rich and detailed” screen, but no specific mention of technology used, pixel density, or resolution although it could have something to do with Samsung’s front and back touch capable screen. We do hear about dual cameras, four-cell processor, and embedded 3G connectivity though.

Considering that the Nintendo DS (and its successors) and Apple devices (iPad, iPod touch, iPhone) have all been doing the touch-gaming thing for a while, is Sony a little late to join the boat? Is this anything like how PS Move is supposed to be totally different from the Wii?

PSP Successor Has Touch Controls On Its Backside? [Kotaku]

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DoCoMo’s top dog Ryuji Yamada was caught saying that “videogame makers know that in order for portable game machines to take the next step forward, they need wireless communication. We are discussing this with various players.”  Yamada has that right, these gaming devices are quickly being threatened with each iteration and jump forward smartphone technology takes.  App store inventories are growing with hot titles every day, even ports by the very game creators themselves are on the iPhone, if game console manufacturers want to keep playing in the mobile arena they’ll have to make a drastic evolution.  We know the 3DS specs were announced and 3G didn’t make the list, Nintendo may take an Applesque approach to their hardware in the future, offering a range of models with WiFi only, WiFi + 3G, and various storage capacity options.  Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata was impressed by 3G being offered up for free on the Amazon Kindle.

“The distinction between gaming devices and mobile communication devices, like smartphones, are blurring. And it may eventually disappear” added Yamada.  Could that be hinting at much more than 3G connected gaming consoles, but consoles that are also our next mobile phones?

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