Rumor: NGP Specs Dowgraded, 2011 Release in Japan
The NGP will release this year in Japan and next year in the rest of the world according to 01.net, a French site tech with a history of reliably reporting leaked Sony information. That same site leaked accurate specs of the NGP weeks before the devices unveiling in January.
According to 01.net's information, non-3G models of the NGP will be priced competitively with the 3DS. Meaning we can expect that the low-end model will cost around $250-$300. In order to reach that price window some sacrifices had to be made. While earlier reports pegged the new handheld as sporting 512MB of RAM, the newest information suggests that Sony has cut that number in half to 256MB. In order to compensate for the loss, the company reduced the size of the OS footprint in memory. 26MB of the 256 is high-speed RAM that can be used for certain tasks that require quicker access to system memory. The 128MB of graphics memory are still in place; however the planned 16MB of internal flash memory have been removed in favor of cheaper external storage.
While none of this information has been confirmed by Sony, 01.net's track record with Sony information lends credence to their claims. One way or another, we'll find out at E3.
