With Sony’s unveiling of the new NGP (Next Generation Portable) console, the battle for dominance in the handheld market is about to heat up. Tom Hoggins reports from Tokyo.
NPG meets NGP: With their Next Generation Portable Sony have redrawn the battlelines in the handheld console war.
Sony’s NGP will cost somewhere between “affordable” and $599, according to PlayStation execs. The latest SCE honcho to comment on the handheld’s potential price point is Shu Yoshida, president of worldwide studios.
“From the very beginning of the project – since 2008 – pricing was one of the considerations that we had,” he told Game Informer.”
“Hopefully when we announce the price, people will see the proper value,” he added. “It’s not going to be $599.”
Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter told us earlier today that he believes PSP2 could sell for $250/£200, while Lazard Capital Markets’ Colin Sebastian is anticipating a $299 “or higher” price point.
* Price (approximately)
– $250/£250 or maybe around the £279 area.
* Release (approximately)
– 1-4 months before Christmas ’11 (a long way to go!)
* Battery life (approximately) – more below (bottom)
– 4-6 hrs
* 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?
Sony officially announced the device first thing this morning, confirming that it has two touch-screens on the front and back of the device, two thumbsticks and a five inch OLED screen.
NGP (or PSP2) will have a battery life of between four and six hours, if Sony hits its target. SCE Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida told Kotaku that the new portable’s battery life target is the same as that of the existing PSP-3000 model. If achieved, it’ll also be comparable to the battery life of Nintendo’s upcoming 3DS, which has been pegged at three to five hours.
Sony officially announced NGP during a special PlayStation event in Tokyo this morning.
Photos;
Photos by ComputerAndVideoGames.
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