Hasta La Gadget!

Leaked videos showing the presumed forthcoming PlayStation Phone in action have found their way onto the internet. The handset is branded Sony Ericsson, and is running the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system. A gamepad slides out form under the screen much like a keyboard does on other phones.

Remember back before the iPhone, when everybody thought that it would just be an iPod with a phone keypad stuck on? Well, that’s the kind of thinking that passes for innovation at Sony these days, if these videos are indeed the real deal (more on that in a second). The fat box is about as imagination-free as it could get, a standard Android touch-screen handset with a joypad stuck on the back, swelling it the the size of a well-stuffed New York bagel.

It’s looking pretty certain a PlayStation Phone will turn up one day, but this one looks like an early prototype at best, and a good fake at worst. That gamepad is obviously unfinished, and the “proof” of its PlayStation-ness in the second video below is nothing more than opening a folder with a custom icon to find it empty.

Hopefully Sony can make the final PlayStation Phone a little thinner, and maybe not build its DRMed game platform on top of an easy to crack OS.

Sony Ericsson ZEUS – Z1-PlayStation Phone (spy) [YouTube via Apple Insider]