Hasta La Gadget!

Okay, now this is getting ridiculous. It’s been literally less than 48 hours since we saw the first in-depth Chinese-language preview of Sony’s still yet-to-be-confirmed PlayStation Phone, and believe it or not, we’ve got another one. (Our resident translator Richard Lai suggests this might be the same PS Phone just being passed around the various websites.) It’s just as long and arguably just as in-depth with an absolute ton of comparison pics with the PSP Go, the Xperia lineup, a DSi, a Droid… the list goes on. Much of what’s written is the same, and the PlayStation Pocket app is still a mystery. The preview does say a third-party emulator was downloaded and tested, with 70 percent success, but that doesn’t actually tell us anything. Anyway, even if you don’t know Chinese, hit up the source and bask in the glory of a ton more pics.

[Thanks, Shaun]

PlayStation Phone sized up with numerous devices in another in-depth Chinese preview originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 23:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, that was quick. It was just two days ago when the elusive PlayStation Phone popped up on a Hong Kong forum, and now it’s back again in full exposure thanks to Chinese website IT168. It’s now confirmed that said Xperia-branded device is powered by a Qualcomm Adreno 205 GPU, along with what’s likely to be a 1GHz Snapdragon QSD8255 as featured on the HTC Desire HD. Interestingly, Neocore is reporting an impressive 59.1fps benchmark, which is a huge improvement from our exclusive look back in early December. Quadrant also reports a high score of 1,733, but hey, there’s no saying that this is the final build, so the graphics performance may get even better.

Other tidbits found in the latest leak include the generous battery capacity of 1,500mAh, the 854 x 480 resolution on a 4-inch LCD, a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash sans 720p video recording (although it’s probably just that the leaksters didn’t look in all the submenu in the camera app), 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM, a microSD slot, SIM slot, micro-USB, and a second mic on the back for active noise cancellation à la Nexus One. Interestingly, the still-empty game launcher app is now called “PlayStation Pocket.” We’re still unclear just what the app will run; will it be PSOne games (the company has written an emulator before), PSP games, or an entirely new lineup? (In contrast, the PSP Go has a 333MHz processor, 64MB RAM, and a 3.8-inch 480 x 272 display — albeit on different, not-quite-comparable architecture.) Hopefully we’ll know soon enough, eh Kaz? Anyhow, you can peruse some pictures and videos below, and definitely check out IT168 for the full skinny on this (somewhat tick) device.

[Thanks, Dave]

Continue reading Sony’s PlayStation Phone gets in-depth preview in China, PlayStation Pocket app in tow

Sony’s PlayStation Phone gets in-depth preview in China, PlayStation Pocket app in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The PlayStation phone keeps popping up time and again, and still no one at Sony is going to flat-out admit anything — but that hasn’t stopped playful speculation. Even SCE chief Kaz Hirai is joining in the fun. “We don’t want gamers to be asking, what’s the difference between that [a PS phone] and a PSP… we have to come up with a message that users will understand,” he told The New York Times. “It would have to be a product that keeps the PlayStation’s strengths intact.” So that’s the issue, then, differentiating a new PSP and a variant with phone capabilities — nothing a good marketing campaign can’t fix, if you ask us.

But enough about the phone, what of the PlayStation’s portable brand in general? Hirai seems to fancy touch controls, actually. “Depending on the game, there are ones where you can play perfectly well with a touch panel,” he said, adding that “immersive games” — the ones he think are Sony’s focus, vs. the more casual fare offered by Apple and Android — do well with physical buttons, and that some games work well with the two. We can’t help but notice he said touch panel and not touch screen, which reminds us of the touchpad we saw on the PS phone leaks, but we wouldn’t want to harp too much.

Sony’s Kaz Hirai talks up virtues of touch controls, weighs in on PlayStation phone originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Dec 2010 22:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re of a certain age, there was one console you wanted more than any other: a Neo Geo. It was so big, so dark, and so freaking expensive it was like a gadget from another time — yet there it was, looking down at you from behind the counter at Babbage’s. $649 in 1990? Yeah. Ouch. Anyway, people today can now experience that machine’s greatness for a much lower price, with the PlayStation Network receiving 10 of the system’s greatest hits, each selling for between $6.99 and $8.99. Yes, these games were already available on the Wii Virtual Console, but the PSN versions will support online competitive and co-operative play, which is truly worth getting excited about. All games will be hitting the PS3 on December 21, while Fatal Fury and Metal Slug will be hitting the PSP then as well. For other games, like Magician Lord and Super Sidekicks, you portable folks will just have to wait until January.

Neo Geo games hit PSN, add online play, ditch the gigantic cartridges originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Dec 2010 11:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s quite fitting for a device that’s purportedly codenamed Zeus to make its first video appearance somewhere in the wilds of Greece. What we have here is the apparent full motion debut of Sony Ericsson’s big crossover device, the PlayStation Phone, one half portable gaming console, one half Android smartphone. Unfortunately, we never see it flexing out its slider to reveal that delicious control pad, but judging from its curves and little design details, it does indeed look to be the real deal. Techblog.gr reports that it’s dubbed the Sony Ericsson Z1 and comes with Gingerbread on board — something that meshes well with earlier indications that some Zeus devices in the wild are already running Android 2.3 (and above) — while the screen is a 4-inch panel that apparently offers great touchscreen responsiveness. See the mythical creature for yourself after the break.

Continue reading PlayStation Phone espied in Greece, said to have Gingerbread and 4-inch screen (video)

PlayStation Phone espied in Greece, said to have Gingerbread and 4-inch screen (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 06:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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