Sony have revealed some more details about their up and coming PlayStation Portable 2, which has been nicknamed an NGP or “Next Generation Portable”. With a powerful new chip, dual cameras, and rear-mounted touch-surface, this device looks like a great alternative to the new Nintendo 3DS.
The details about the Portable 2 emerged at a press conference in Tokyo, as did information about different versions of the device and some vague information about release dates “around the end of the year”. It looks like there will be a few variations of the NPG on offer, all of which have WiFi but one which comes with 3G.
The NGP is based on a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor, together with a SGX543MP4+ graphics processing unit. Sony’s LiveArea will act as the main interface, which is different from the XrossMediaBar GUI which is used in the original PSP and PlayStation 3.
The front screen is 5 inches with a resolution of 960 x 544 pixels, and will render about 16 million colours. That’s not all though, it’s also a capacitive multitouch display, and will allow users to articulate multiple finger input by touching, grabbing, pushing, or pulling the screen. Also, the rear of the device is a capacitive multi-touch surface that is also touch sensitive, so it will be possible to control games with two touch surfaces simultaneously – wow.
Other features include a six-axis motion sensing system that consists of a three-axis gyroscope and a three-axis accelerometer, a three-axis electronic compass and a built-in GPS. Games will be delivered on proprietary Flash cards.
The NGP doesn’t feature 3D, however Sony think they have good reasons for staying away from the troublesome third dimension. “The opportunity of 3D is there, but it might be too early, and I think Sony will look at what the – Nintendo – 3DS does and, if it radically exceeds expectations, you might see a change in the next version of the NGP,” said Louis Ward, a research manager at IDC.
“You can’t do touchscreen with 3D and that’s why the top screen of the 3DS is not touch-sensitive but the lower screen is,” Ward explained. “Tapping on a 3D screen will damage it.” However, despite no 3D, the rear mounted touch surface looks very cool indeed. As long as it functions half as good as it looks, Sony look like they are on to a winner.
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