Sony´s Handheld, PSP

[Herr Matzat]

stolen from play asias newsletter, i bet you heard about that thing before

E3 News: Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable) design confirmed / titles announced. More info inside. (updated)

Fresh from the E3 we have received further info for what will be the next hot handheld gaming machines on the market. Sony's PSP as well as Nintendo's DS got their designs confirmed as well as release titles. We've also looking at a few confirmed games and further info for the devices. Sony's PSP is the allrounder of the new handheld consoles - allowing not only to play games but also to listen to music and videos.

The Hardware

Not for a surprise the design did not change much from the design studies from some months ago. Sony keeps their line in style and, that has to be said, does a very very good job on this.

Quick specs:

MAIN CPU R4000, 32-bit core,

333 Mhz, 8MB eDRAM memory

Media Engine CPU MIPS R4000,32-bit core

333MHz, 2MB eDRAM submemory

Memory: 32MB Main RAM, 4MB VRAM

Display: 4.3" LCD, 16:9 widescreen

480x272 pixels, 24-bit color depth

Connectivitiy: USB 2.0, Infrared

Dimension: 177mm x 70mm x 23mm

Weight: 260g

Battery: Lithium Ion Battery, up to 10 hours

The Software

We already look at a whopping list of confirmed games - Including some big big names like Gran Turismo 4 Mobile, Ridge Racer, Wipeout, Tony Hawks Pro Skater, Armored Core, Bust A Move etc.

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Media: Universal Media Disc (UMD), 1.8GB, 60mm

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Display: 4.5" TFT LCD, 16:9 Widescreen with Backlit

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Video Codec: Ability to playback MPEG4 encoded video

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Resolution: 480 x 272 pixels

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Graphics: 3D polygons and NURBS (Non Uniform Rational B-Spline)

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Superior graphics compared to PSOne standards

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Sound: PCM, built-in stereo speakers, stereo headphone jack

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Processor: 32-bit, architecture, 90nm technology

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Sound: 3D Digital ATRAC Audio

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Expansion: Can be connected with PS2 and other PSP using USB 2.0

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Memory Card: Sony's Memory Stick

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Battery: Rechargeable

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Territory: No regional lockout, can run games from all regions

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Anti-Piracy technology

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Plays around 2 hours of Full Motion Videos in DVD quality

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Control buttons will be similar compared to a Dual Shock Joypad

some ingame screens

promo video

http://c.streamingmovies.ign.com/psp/artic...1104_wmvlow.wmv

looks pritty kickass for a handheld, i dunno if it´s to cool to have discs instead of cardridges for an handheld but it seems to go that way.

I am genneraly not a fan of handhelds so my monney, for now will walk straigt into an iPod instead of waiting for this baby (it´s said to play mp3s to i think)

annyone heard how much they will charge for this thing ? I bet it will KO me.

Edited May 13, 2004 by Michael Matzat

[zero]

Hot damn that is beautiful... I like the idea of discs for a portable too, that's the next logical step. Looks like Nintendo could be in trouble if they truly are relying on their handheld market to stay alive.

[Guest Angry Baboon]

2.5 hours battery life is all it has. Sony can kiss my ass.

[Different Cloud]

Looks pretty damn sexy, better than I expected it would be.

[Herr Matzat]

Nintendo has another handheld planed as well ( must be like the 1 millionst they put on the marked in the last 5 years ore so)

the problem with discs is that you ither wast energy on anty shock ore, well get shoked (unless it comes with a hugh HD wich i somewhat expect, so you only have to install stuff and have the disc in for boot up purpus)

i am realy suprised how they got the grafiks to that standart ( at least from thes screens, havent seen the video yet, it looks a lot like they are waaaay abofe psone standarts, qualetywise even comparebell to the first ps2 games, well you don´t have to produce a 640 image so that might not be as hard as i imagin annyway, looks nifty)

2.5 hours battery life is all it has. Sony can kiss my ass.

well it´s up to 10 houres for whatever, the 2 houres video playback is BS, you can whatch one movie wow, i bet the videosuporting iPoD will kick more ass in that direction.

edit

video looks very nice as well, especialy the GT4 part

I just saw a TV bit about the nintendo one, grafiks look as kickass as this, but the casedesign just looks 1980 (if you remember thes old nintendo arcade handhelds)

Edited May 13, 2004 by Michael Matzat