Well, Sony’s announcement press conference is over; we covered it live this morning but if you’re just joining us, here’s what you need to know about the New Gaming Portable (or NGP). It’s still uncertain whether “NGP†is the final name or just a code name.
A lot of the rumoured hardware features from the last few months have proved accurate. The device looks quite different to “leaked†images, but it’s roughly the same size as the original PSP was. Possibly the most enticing part of the reveal is just how easy it is for developers to port PS3 titles over to the handheld. In order to do that, Sony had to develop a new storage medium.
Here are the specs from Sony’s sheets:
- CPU: ARM® Cortex™-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)
- 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)
The new storage medium is a flash-based memory card so no more UMDs and no UMD2 either. The new type of card is specific to the NGP, but because it’s flash-based the storage medium can be written to as well. This means that all of your saved games and DLC will be stored on the game’s memory card. The other neat feature is that Sony will be able to offer increasingly larger memory cards, which means developers will not be limited by a fixed amount of storage space.
Source: Kotaku
Pics: US PlayStation Blog
Last Updated: January 27, 2011