You wait forever for a new handheld and then two come along at once.  Hot on the heels of the hoopla over Ninty’s 3DS, comes details about the long-hyped PSP2 or, rather, NGP as it is now codenamed.  That stands for Next Generation Portable, in case you were wondering.  The sexy looking gadget boasts dual analogue sticks, Six Axis controls, front and rear camera, front and rear touch pad and a bigger screen than its predecessor.  What is perhaps the most welcome piece of news though, is that Sony have done away with the UMD and introduced flash memory.  Finally.

Before Sony fans begin throwing stones at the 3DS crowd however, in the opening salvo of the next fanboy handheld pissing contest, it should be noted that the NGP fares no better when it comes to the all-important question of battery life.  With Nintendo’s offering coming in at a disappointing 3 – 5 hours, Sony have revealed that we can expect between 4-6 hours from the NGP.  So, aside from the predictably underwhelming battery (perhaps understandable for such a powerful beast), what else can we expect under the hood?  How about a four core CPU?  We jest not, seriously, here is the official spec list from Sony:

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

Games revealed as coming to the NGP so far are as follows:

• Killzone
• Call of Duty
• LittleBigPlanet
• Uncharted
• Resistance
• WipEout
• Monster Hunter Portable 3
• Hot Shots Golf
• Gravity Daze
• Reality Fighters
• Smart As
• Broken
• Little Deviants
• Dynasty Warriors
• Epic Citadel (Epic)
• Dungeon Defenders (Epic)
• Lost Planet 2 (Capcom)
• Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima)
• Yakuza 4 (Sega)

How many and which ones will be launching with the NGP, we don’t yet know, but expect it to be some of the big boys at least… our best guess is either Metal Gear, LittleBigPlanet, or Uncharted.  So, when can we expect to see one?  Well, not until the end of the year according to Sony… so the cynics among us can expect it to arrive in Europe later, perhaps Spring.  As for price?  Speculation is rife, with Gamestop opening up pre-orders for a whopping $999 (subject to change – that’s okay then), but more sensible suggestions coming in at between $250 to $599.  Expect to shell out a good few hundred quid at least when it eventually hits UK shores.  The specs are impressive, the hardware looks sexy as fuck, but can it beat Nintendo on turf that they have successfully defended for years?  Console history, at least, tells us that ‘yes, they can’ – whether history will repeat itself again, who knows; after all, Nintendo’s sway over the handheld market has always been unshakable, more so than their console history when Sony arrived and snatched their crown.  We’ll see, but for now, we’ll just go back to stroking pictures of the sexy new hardware.

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