Tonight Sony announced NGP, a codename for their Next Generation Handheld. Here’s what it’s made of…
Hardware
CPU: ARM® Cortex™-A9 core (4 core)
GPU: SGX543MP4+
Size: Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)
Screen: 5-inch OLED (16:9) 960 x 544 px. displays approximately 16 million colors
Touchpad: Multi touch pad on front, Multi touch pad (capacitive type) in rear
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 and left Dual Analog Sticks
START button, SELECT button
Volume buttons (+/-)
Communication
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)
Media
NGP uses "New Game Medium" a flash memory based card dedicated for the system. The card is writable and it allows users to store saved games and DLC directly onto the card.
A menu screenshot shows trophies will be part of the system’s interface. Two new social features were also announced for NGP. Livearea streams information about the latest games for NGP and allows players to see what their friends are up to via an activity log. Communication can happen in real-time so you can congratulate a friend for hitting a hole-in-on in Hot Shots Golf. Near (no relation to a certain Cavia title) is a local area feature that lets users scan an area to see what people are or were playing nearby.
LiveArea
Every game title for NGP will be provided with a space called "LiveArea" where users can share the fun and excitement with other players. Users will have access to the latest information of games provided from SCE and 3rd party developers and publishers through PlayStation Network. Additionally, NGP users will be able to view an "Activity" log that is constantly updated with accomplishments from users who are playing the same game, which in turn can trigger active real-time communication among users.
Near
SCE will also provide location-based services on NGP as part of the basic features utilizing PlayStation Network. The new application called "Near," developed specifically for this service and the network, will be pre-installed in the system to let users find out what their friends in the vicinity are playing now or what they were playing recently. Users can meet their friends and new players virtually, regardless of what games they are playing, simply by sharing their game information across different dimensions of time and distance.
NGP will be in stores by the end of this year. Sony did not announce a price or discuss battery life for NGP.
