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[Takao]

How does Marcus feel about this?

"Playing big boy games, and texting your grandma! This PSPhone is the business!"

Kevin Butler: "Told you buttons were important"

 

[Lonely1]

So, bad drivers? Doesn't sound great for developers.

 

[∀ Narayan]

What in Hell.

 

[Tobor]

If I had to guess, I suspect it's the 'center point' for pseudo analog sticks. That way you can find it via touch.

Yeah, that's definitely what it is. This is how you do touchpad camera control, by the way. None of that back of the device crap.

 

[Wolf Akela]

Touch pad instead of analog nubs... ugh, I hate my laptop's touch pad and I don't see how this is gonna be any better.

 

[charlequin]

This is a stupid SE project that has the PlayStation name thrown onto it, and the PSP2 is an actual SCE project. Basically if you like PlayStation, ignore this.

Thank you.

The thing in that picture is not the PSP2, dear lord. It's also not a "new revision of the PSP." This (assuming there's even a real product in play and not just an abandoned prototype) is just a different branch of Sony borrowing the PSP name and hardware for a bad-idea phone device that is not going to be particularly successful.

 

[GameSeeker]

What do you do if a string of games you want to play are exclusive to a certain phone's OS?
Do you buy that phone and sign up for that contract too?

Exclusive games tend to happen when a platform owner (typically Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo) either 1) pays a developer for an exclusive, 2) publishes the title or 3) the developer doesn't have the resources to develop on multiple platforms.

So far, neither Apple or Google (or their Android H/W partners) have shown a propensity for paying for exclusives and I believe that is a good thing for gamers. There are some reports that Microsoft paid for some Windows Mobile 7 gaming ports, so Microsoft may try and buy some exclusives in the future, but at this point that is speculation. Hopefully, multiplatform games will continue to be the rule, not the exception.

 

[slider]

Intrigued by the Sony "marketplace". I really hope it's not half assed as that sort of thing is a differentiator (although everyone has their own).

I'm pretty shit judging quality but is that screen looking good? Despite not having a great deal going on it looks pretty sharp to me.

 

[brain_stew]

As I said, the drivers will make or break this thing (as it has to live in a full-blown mobile OS environment), but that does not mean they (SE, qualcomm) could not get it right this time around.

Well I won't cast the final judgement just yet. I'm still not pleased they chose a family of SOCs that has horrific form in delivered graphics performance though. While I'd rather have something more elaborate for a 2011 device with a focus on gaming (anything less than an SGX543MP2 is inexcusable in my book), even something like a Hummingbird with its SGX540 would have been vastly preferable and that's been available in shipping phones for something like 6 months already now.

It doesn't have to end up completely horrible, but it could have been so much better than this.

 

[x3sphere]

What if it has a dual-boot OS?

Like, dedicated for gaming, and android for the rest.

And of course the user won't be able to choose, it's just automatic. And the android part cannot access all hardware features.

Isn't this how Linux and ps3 OS coexisted in first place?

Correct me if I'm horribly wrong.

That's certainly possible, I'm just going by what the Engadget report said. It made no mention of a secondary OS or anything like that. They would need to run Android under a PS3 Linux-like environment.

 

[Anonymous Tipster]

Thank you.

The thing in that picture is not the PSP2, dear lord. It's also not a "new revision of the PSP." This (assuming there's even a real product in play and not just an abandoned prototype) is just a different branch of Sony borrowing the PSP name and hardware for a bad-idea phone device that is not going to be particularly successful.

Because you don't want it to be?

I'm not saying it is, but I don't think you can really say what you are with any sort of clout either.

 

[Lonely1]

:lol True, but come on, I'd at least have thought they'd be able to overcome their driver limitations in their own benchmarking software. Although this is Qualcomm, I'm probably expecting too much. Still, the Adreno/Z430 architecture is several years old at this point if they have been utterly inept at driver development in all that time, what's to say they're going to turn it around all of a sudden?

Even without the driver issue, I still don't think the hardware is fast enough. The CPU and RAM are fine but this device will be going up against phones SGX543MP2 based phones around the time of its release and no amount of driver optimisation will overcome that. I guess I just expect a device that is gaming to focused to actually choose an SOC that actually emphasises GPU performance, not one where it is completely secondary to CPU performance.

But what if they see the 3DS as their only real competition?

 

[H_Prestige]

Intrigued by the Sony "marketplace". I really hope it's not half assed as that sort of thing is a differentiator (although everyone has their own).

I'm pretty shit judging quality but is that screen looking good? Despite not having a great deal going on it looks pretty sharp to me.

It's probably a S-LCD. I'd prefer OLED to be honest.

 

[blu]

:lol True, but come on, I'd at least have thought they'd be able to overcome their driver limitations in their own benchmarking software. Although this is Qualcomm, I'm probably expecting too much. Still, the Adreno/Z430 architecture is several years old at this point if they have been utterly inept at driver development in all that time, what's to say they're going to turn it around all of a sudden?

Well, the SGX535 is about as old, and yet it lives happily in some very hip tablets, I hear ; )

Even without the driver issue, I still don't think the hardware is fast enough. The CPU and RAM are fine but this device will be going up against phones SGX543MP2 based phones around the time of its release and no amount of driver optimisation will overcome that. I guess I just expect a device that is gaming to focused to actually choose an SOC that actually emphasises GPU performance, not one where it is completely secondary to CPU performance.

While the x4xx may not be capable of hitting 540 overall levels, it can beat likely-clocked 535 in shader-centric scenarios due to a much beefier shader ALUs. The 535 still can be faster at shader-light pixels due to more pixel pipes, though (i.e. what people noramally call ROPs, though there's not such unit in these devices anymore). I.e. the YamatoDX is more shader-centric, the 535 is more max-fillrate-centric.

 

[Piggus]

People actually think this is the PSP2?

 

[Raistlin]

Uh, probably not. Those are just regular PSP games, albeit somewhat limited in a few areas. But I don't think this has enough horses to emulate the PSP (the PS3 barely does).

From my understanding, Mini's are actually running on a virtual machine. They should be able to get them working here.

Supposedly the issue with the PS3 version is that it isn't a dedicated virtual machine ... but a virtual machine, running inside of a PSP emulator :lol

Besides, that's a whopping 100 or so games, a good portion of which probably have Android versions.

While the supposed specs don't bare it out, I'm hoping the specs are wrong and this is effectively a continuation of PSP ... ie, can play Mini's, PSP, and PS1. That plus a phone would be INSANE.

 

[brain_stew]

So, bad drivers? Doesn't sound great for developers.

Well put it this way, the current drivers make something as simple as hardware accelerated Quake 2 a complete stutterfest. They've been using the same GPU architecture for several years and several generations of products now and yet the issues remain, its going to require a major turnaround for this to become a serious gaming device. Android gaming (especially 3D gaming) is a complete and utter joke atm.

 

[slider]

It's probably a S-LCD. I'd prefer OLED to be honest.

Sony (as opposed to SE) have them in small sizes on their MP3 players. Here's to hoping I guess.

 

[krae_man]

Looks like it will only play Droid games and maybe Minis and PSone games and not PSP games.

I keep a PSP Go in my pocket at all times so I would be interrested...if this thing wasn't going to be $600. I think the current price for smartphones and smartphone plans is just insane and I keep hoping someone will come along undercut everyone by at least 1/2 but it never happens.

 

[LiK]

It's probably a S-LCD. I'd prefer OLED to be honest.

OLEDs...uh, yea that

 

[brotkasten]

There are some reports that Microsoft paid for some Windows Mobile 7 gaming ports, so Microsoft may try and buy some exclusives in the future, but at this point that is speculation.

Oh, I'm pretty sure this isn't speculation. Not at all.

But what if they see the 3DS as their only real competition?

A phone with a slide-out game pad as a competitor to the 3DS? I don't see it.

OLEDs...uh, yea that

What's your point?

 

[Raistlin]

Qualcomm GPU? Really? FFS.

With the middling GPU hardware, the huge overhead that comes with an Android device and the much higher target resolution, games are going to end up looking much worse than 3DS titles on average.

It's possible the games will bypass the Android OS?

 

[Tobor]

From my understanding, Mini's are actually running on a virtual machine. They should be able to get them working here.

Supposedly the issue with the PS3 version is that it isn't a dedicated virtual machine ... but a virtual machine, running inside of a PSP emulator :lol




While the supposed specs don't bare it out, I'm hoping the specs are wrong and this is effectively a continuation of PSP ... ie, can play Mini's, PSP, and PS1. That plus a phone would be INSANE.

I have a feeling you're going to be dissapointed. This will probably be Android games with tacked on controls.

 

[spwolf]

Well I won't cast the final judgement just yet. I'm still not pleased they chose a family of SOCs that has horrific form in delivered graphics performance though. While I'd rather have something more elaborate for a 2011 device with a focus on gaming (anything less than an SGX543MP2 is inexcusable in my book), even something like a Hummingbird with its SGX540 would have been vastly preferable and that's been available in shipping phones for something like 6 months already now.

It doesn't have to end up completely horrible, but it could have been so much better than this.

i wonder if it could be compatible with PSP Minis? As far as the phone goes, it is very different proposition - they are not going to introduce some crazy spec today and lose money on it, rather they will upgrade it in a year or so with better specs.

 

[kinggroin]

Does android have a good homebrew community (sort of like cydia/jailbreak). Itd be great to get emulators on there with the buttons

Friend, you have NO idea ; )

 

[KingDizzi]

Looks like a little project Sony Ericsson has put together and then used the Playstation name to gain some traction. I have to say it looks a very tidy little project which will have to be seen in motion before any judgment is made. This surely is not the PSP2 though, that is the device I continue to wait for patiently.

 

[dallow_bg]

I have a feeling you're going to be dissapointed. This will probably be Android games with tacked on controls.

Pretty much.

 

[spwolf]

I have a feeling you're going to be dissapointed. This will probably be Android games with tacked on controls.

what does that even mean? why wouldnt you want iphone games with proper controls?

 

[Ephemeris]

I am intrigued.

 

[kinggroin]

what does that even mean? why wouldnt you want iphone games with proper controls?

Do you own an android based phone? Gaming isn't exactly a strong point...

 

[H_Prestige]

Pretty much.

As per the original rumor of the SE playstation phone (which turned out right about the central touchpad replacing analog sticks), this will play ps1 classics and games specifically made for this platform (GoW, LBP). It should have full access to Android marketplace as well, since this will be an Android smartphone after all.

 

[Raistlin]

Yeah, that's definitely what it is. This is how you do touchpad camera control, by the way. None of that back of the device crap.

Good point. Me likey

Touch pad instead of analog nubs... ugh, I hate my laptop's touch pad and I don't see how this is gonna be any better.

:lol :lol :lol

 

[charlequin]

Because you don't want it to be?

Because the PSP2, even if we assume (which we shouldn't if we're giving Sony any credit at all, but it's not like with the PSP Go they've really earned it) it'll be a phone/handheld hybrid, will be a Sony-branded (not Sony-Ericsson) device with the PSP name (or close variant) prominently displayed on it, a form factor designed to integrate with the Playstation family, would be running a Playstation-themed interface (XMB or a restyled Android, not the ultra-generic Android we see here), and would at least kind of sort of try to match up with some of the leaks we've been getting about PSP2 from developers with dev kits. (Plus even from a company like Sony, we wouldn't be seeing a leak of the entire unit's design well before the system was even officially announced.)

It really doesn't take much effort at all to look at this thing, see that it isn't the PSP2, and narrow down on what other options make sense given the available information.

Oh, and also:

As per the original rumor of the SE playstation phone (which turned out right about the central touchpad replacing analog sticks), this will play ps1 classics and games specifically made for this platform (GoW, LBP). It should have full access to Android marketplace as well, since this will be an Android smartphone after all.

That too.

 

[brain_stew]

Well, the SGX535 is about as old, and yet it lives happily in some very hip tablets, I hear ; )

With decent drivers and an OS with an optimised ES 2.0 implementation, sure.

While the x4xx may not be capable of hitting 540 overall levels, it can beat likely-clocked 535 in shader-centric scenarios due to a much beefier shader ALUs. The 535 still can be faster at shader-light pixels due to more pixel pipes, though (i.e. what people noramally call ROPs, though there's not such unit in these devices anymore). I.e. the YamatoDX is more shader-centric, the 535 is more max-fillrate-centric.

Thanks for insights into its nuances but I'm going to remain sceptical. I know the actual hardware itself is decent enough but its underperformed for so many years its hard to get rid of that doubt. Why take the risk of relying on Qualcomm finally delivering decent drivers after all these years when you can pick up an off the shelf SOC that already has decent drivers and actually has better hardware to start with (Hummingbird or Omap4)? Just seems like an unnecessary risk to me and not a decision that's really been taken with much consideration for gaming performance.

 

[Vilix]

Sony: Phoning it in on the PSP since 2008. Har-har-har. Seriously, though, Sony is going to try to go after the iPhone market and it going to be ripped to shreads.

 

[dallow_bg]

As per the original rumor of the SE playstation phone (which turned out right about the central touchpad replacing analog sticks), this will play ps1 classics and games specifically made for this platform (GoW, LBP). It should have full access to Android marketplace as well, since this will be an Android smartphone after all.

I can see that much happening, but that's about it.

Nice, but I'll probably stick to getting the Win 7 Phone next month.

:waiting for PSP2 announcement:

 

[LiK]

I can see that much happening, but that's about it.

Nice, but I'll probably stick to getting the Win 7 Phone next month.

:waiting for PSP2 announcement:

Win 7 Phone looks damn sexy compared to this.

 

[spwolf]

Do you own an android based phone? Gaming isn't exactly a strong point...

that would fix itself within few months, quite quickly.

 

[Graphics Horse]

It really doesn't take much effort at all to look at this thing, see that it isn't the PSP2, and narrow down on what other options make sense given the available information.

Playstation Phone maybe, but not PSP, Launching two unconnected PSPs would be daft.
Ok PSP could stand for playstation phone, but uh...

 

[Josh7289]

I've been thinking about it more and if Sony pulls this off right it could be very successful. It's the only phone (series) out there with real game controls. Partnering with Google and Android makes sense instead of Sony trying to build their own mobile OS. They're just contributing the game-style hardware, the ecosystem, and the games, of course.

They should make it have PSN functionality and such and really get it involved in the PlayStation brand, especially if they want to compete with Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 (which has Xbox Live functionality) and naturally, the iPhone and its library of games and Apple's XBL/PSN thing, Game Center.

Of course it will remain different from the main PSP line. PSP2 being the super powerful (and expensive, probably) but less portable dedicated game hardware, and the PlayStation phone series being the more portable but less powerful (and still expensive, haha, but hopefully less with contracts) gaming phone to be with you at all times. And the PS3 being the home console big screen HD/3D game experience thing.

 

[asdad123]

Friend, you have NO idea ; )

Mind giving a little list of whats possible lol?

 

[charlequin]

Just seems like an unnecessary risk to me and not a decision that's really been taken with much consideration for gaming performance.

Well, this makes sense if this is kind of a tossed-off Sony-Ericsson smartphone project that's just leveraging the PSP brand the way the Walkman, etc. phones did rather than a serious attempt by Sony's gaming division to create a gaming-centric phone.

 

[offshore]

People already forgetting this is a prototype...

 

[brain_stew]

i wonder if it could be compatible with PSP Minis? As far as the phone goes, it is very different proposition - they are not going to introduce some crazy spec today and lose money on it, rather they will upgrade it in a year or so with better specs.

I doubt it. PSP Minis are only playable on the PS3 through straight software emulation and that isn't going to be possible on a device like this. Minis also use the nub and shoulder buttons.

 

[Y2Kev]

*writes playstation on toaster*

ITS PLAYSTATION TOASTER!!!

 

[Graphics Horse]

I doubt it. PSP Minis are only playable on the PS3 through straight software emulation and that isn't going to be possible on a device like this. Minis also use the nub and shoulder buttons.

It has shoulder buttons, and some kind of nub emulation should work.

 

[Blablurn]

*writes playstation on toaster*

ITS PLAYSTATION TOASTER!!!

i buy 10.

 

[Tobor]

I doubt it. PSP Minis are only playable on the PS3 through straight software emulation and that isn't going to be possible on a device like this. Minis also use the nub and shoulder buttons.

This has the nub(touchpad) and shoulder buttons. Look at the other pics engadget has up.

You're right about the horsepower, though.

 

[charlequin]

Playstation Phone maybe, but not PSP, Launching two unconnected PSPs would be daft.

Okay, sure, Playstation Phone. Also possible, perhaps more possible given the lack of "PSP" branding.

 

[LiK]

People already forgetting this is a prototype...

it's just missing a few pieces.