The Sony Xperia PLAY has really stepped it up a notch from the previous X10 model.  This new Sony model entitled the PLAY is suitable, considering it has been dubbed as the Playstation phone.  This isn’t an unsuitable name, as the PLAY is compatible with a variety of Sony licensed games.  Now almost every phone on the market has games on it and the ability to purchase more games for the phone.  The Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY just happens to be the first phone ever specifically geared towards gaming.  However this is not just a phone which includes a top of the line gaming experience, as it has the full capability of a smart phone and may be preferred by many regardless of its gaming capabilities.

After having experienced the plethora of 4G phones on the market, they seemed to give me more problems than it’s worth.  With the 3G capabilities of the PLAY it seemed to work quite fine with a firmware that is trouble free.  The Xperia PLAY has done away with previous features of the older operating system, giving it the most sleek, flowing and easy to use interface running the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread Platform.  Android 2.3 has an enhanced and easier to use virtual keyboard, better voice actions, over 150,000 applications in the Android Market and more.

Sony has managed to include a 1GHz CPU with its dual-channel Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, which no phone should be without in today’s age, as well as an Adreno 205 graphics processor.  It all allows for top of the line mobile gaming and we can’t forget about multiplayer with super fast Wi-Fi at 802.11n.  This lets you download games and apps in a flash.  The feature packed Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY has a 4″ touch screen that is super responsive, especially in comparison to previous models.  It has five home screens that you can customize with icons, widgets and more.  The phone is slightly bigger than your average smart phone because of the drop down Playstation like controller.  This controller is key to the gaming on the phone as it really makes it feel like you are playing a portable Playstation Gaming Device.  There is even the addition of dual analog controls, however they are touch pads. It’s a great idea, but it takes some getting used to.  Thankfully most games give you the option to use the d-pad instead. More serious gamers will adjust to the touch pads quickly, though there is no doubt that actual mini analogue sticks would have been preferable.

To run down some of the additional specifications of the the Xeperia PLAY, in terms of Memory it has 512 MB RAM/512 MB ROM with Memory Expansion of 400MB built in with an 8GB microSD card included. The PLAY will support up to a 32GB microSD card for maximum space.  As mention the phone has duel cameras with a front 5 mega pixel LED Flash camera as well as a front VGA video camera for recording those special moments on the go.  Video playback is a standard MPEG4 quality making it easy to sync and watch right on your computer while not viewing it on your phone.  The Xperia PLAY has 2.1 Bluetooth, WiFi a/b/g/n and a commonly seen micro USB 2.0 port.  For those still in need of more specifications the Network technology is as follows – GSM 850,900,1800,1900 (HSDPA 7.2 Mbit/s) HSUPA as well as an A-GPS system.  With a 480 x 854 display (4.69 x 2.44 x 0.63) and a battery life that provides an 8 hour talk time, the PLAY is quite an extraordinary phone the has a gaming experience like no other phone on the market.

Initially upon testing the phone I expected a portable gaming device with phone capabilities, but I was certainly taken back by all the smart phone capabilities that the PLAY has.  The phone has a rear facing 5 megapixel auto focus camera with a LED flash and a front facing VGA camera.  Aside from being one of the best phones on the current market, the PLAY is something that any respectable gamer should own, with an ever growing library of games included a bundle of pre-loaded games.  It comes pre-loaded with:

• Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior
• FIFA 2010
• Sims 3
• Star Battalion
• Tetris
• Asphalt 6

Other games are available such as Shooters like Modern Combat Black Pegasus which could not have played better with the left and right trigger buttons.  Ports like Crash Bandicoot are also available with all of them having no lag whatsoever with superb graphics. Every week more games seemed to be added to the Xperia Play Marketplace as exclusives that are not available anywhere else in the mobile market.  With a price tag of $200 with a contract the Sony Ericson Xperia PLAY is a steal in itself, so do yourself a favor and pick this bad boy up and if you happen to be a gamer, there is not another phone on the market that you should own.  The list of games currently available include the following.

• Dungeon Defenders: Second Wave from Trendy Entertainment
• Galaxy on Fire 2 from Fishlabs
• Assassins Creed from Gameloft
• Need for Speed SHIFT from EA Mobile
• Worms from EA Mobile
• Nova 2 from Gameloft
• Modern Combat Black Pegasus from Gameloft
• Guns n Glory from Handygames
• Reckless Racing from Polarbit
• Real Football 2011from Gameloft
• Gun Bros from Glu Mobile
• Racer Luma from Arcade/Unity
• Cordy from SilverTree Media
• Aporkalypse from Handygames
• Brothers in Arms Global Front from Gameloft
• Guerrilla Bob from Angry Mob Games/Unity
• Let’s Golf 2 from Gameloft
• Zenonia 2 from Gamevil
• Cyberlords from Handygames
• Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock Mobile from Glu Mobile
• Age of Zombies from Halfbrick Studios
• Spectral Souls from HyperDevBox Japan
• Splinter Cell Conviction from Gameloft
• Air Attack from Art in Games/Unity
• Armageddon Squadron from Polarbit
• Uno from Gameloft
• InfeCCt from Handygames
• Spiderman total Mayhem from Gameloft
• Millionaire City from Digital Chocolate
• Avatar from Gameloft
• Raging Thunder 2from Polarbit
• Homerun Battle 3D from Com2us Games
• Aftermath XHD from Jakyl
• I Must Run from GameLion
• Baseball Superstars 2011from Gamevil
• Ground Effect Pro from Jakyl
• ZeNonia from Gamevil
• Super KO Boxing 2 from Glu Mobile
• Farm Story from Team Lava
• Wave Blazer from Polarbit
• Soccer Superstars from Gamevil
• Battle Bears from Skyvu
• Tower Blocks New York from Digital Chocolate
• Super Dynamite Fishing from Handygames
• Iron Sight from Polarbit
• Toonwarz from Polarbit
• Restaurant Story from Team Lava
• Escape from AMA
• Raving Babies from AMA
• Bakery Story from Team Lava
• Denki Blocks! Deluxe from Jakyl
• Rollercoaster Rush from Digital Chocolate

For games to come in the future exclusive designed the the PLAY system are soon to come, here are a few:

● Battlefield Bad Company 2 by Electronic Arts
● Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Shadow Vanguard by Gameloft
● Desert Winds by Southend Interactive
● Ruined by Bigpoint
● Icebreaker by NaturalMotion
● Sleepy Jack by SilverTree Media
● Cracking Sands by Polarbit
● Armageddon Squadron 2 by Polarbit
● An unnamed fighting game from Khaeon Gamestudio

EndGadget says it has its hands on four videos of the PlayStation Phone thanks to the Chinese website IT168, and they have dropped the full specs of the device.

EndGagdet claims that it’s not confirmed that the “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.” Neocore reports a 59.1 frames per second figure, and Quadrant reports a high score of 1,733.

Other information taken from a variety of resources is that the phone will have a resolution of 8454 X 480, a 4″ LCD screen, a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with an LED flash but without the ability to record HD videos (the latter part has not yet been confirmed), a battery capacity of 1,500mAh, a 512 MB RAM and ROM, a microSD slot, a SIM slot, a miro-USB slot, and a second microsophone on the back of the device for active noise cancellation. The device’s game running… thingie is called the PlayStation Pocket.

Well, now it’s more or less confirmed. Heck, it IS confirmed, albeit unofficially. Although, Sony did hint at it at their CES conference yesterday.

EndGadget also got their hands on new images of this PSP Phone earlier this week as well.

At Sony’s keynote CES speech earlier today, Kaz Hirai, PlayStation head, more or less confirmed the existence of the long-rumoured yet still unconfirmed PlayStation Phone. He said: “Sony’s strategy encompasses driving the development of a variety of new strategic products and services including tablets currently in development as well as smartphones, all the while of course integrating the know-how and the assets that we’ve accumulated from our PlayStation business.”

He carried on: “In 2011, you will start to see an implementation of a strategy we’ve developed and continually refined over the past 18 months. And you will see this strategy executed in the form of great new products and services coming to market that leverage Sony’s strongest assets.

“In addition to launching a line of Sony tablets, we’ll be building upon the video, music, game and book offerings on our Qriocity and our PlayStation Network services to deliver a compelling, unique experience for Sony across a wide range of consumer electronic devices.”

New pictures of the PlayStation Phone were leaked by EndGadget earlier this week.

The PSP Phone, codenamed Zeus, has been leaked time and again, and still it is not officially announced. And now, EndGadget, the original “leakers” of the PSP Phone, have released a new set of pictures of the device, and the picture shows the Xperia logo on the bottom of the lower flap, and the trademark X, Triangle, Square and O PlayStation buttons on the right.

The Phone, according to the site, is running on Android 2.2, but rumours suggest it could also be running on 3.0.

We will keep you updated as we get our hands on more info.

Wow, too many crazy PSP2 rumors swirling all around the place. The one that is the most persistent though, seems to be the stance that the PSP2 will in fact be an incremental upgrade from the original PSP, as far as hardware and specs are concerned, and that it will in fact be an Android based Sony Ericsson phone.

I suppose it makes full sense- it simultaneously allows Sony to compete with the iPhone and the DS/3DS, the two markets into which we classify the PSP.

Now, as per an Engagdet report, the PSP Phone, which I will call the PSPhone for the heck of it, has been conclusively ousted. Its specs are speculated to be a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655, 512MB of RAM, 1GB of ROM, with a screen size of 3.7 to 4.1 inches. All in all, it’s no pushover, and is almost certainly more powerful than a 3DS.

We have no idea when the PSPhone is due. However, we can almost certainly be assured that the leak is legitimate. Sony is notorious for its product leaks before their official reveals, leaks which have in the past included high profile products such as the PSP, the PS3, the PS Move, PSN Plus, PSP Go and DualShock 3.  This one would almost certainly only be keeping with tradition.

We’l have more for you on this as it develops.

IMAGE SOURCE: Engadget

It actually makes sense, if you think about it, and in more ways than one- it would give a big boost to Android based gaming, which has been largely underwhelming so far. It might revitalise flagging sales of Sony Ericsson mobile phones, and give the company ammunition to survive the onslaught of Apple’s iPhone. It would certainly be the only sensible way the PSP brand could continue to be viable- the PSP handheld, succesful though it was, had dismal software sales, declining hardware shipments, and zero third party and consumer interest. A PSP phone would be just the thing that might make the platfor releveant again, particularly in an era of iPhone gaming, and it would help it stay afload and on par with Nintendo’s upcoming 3DS handheld.

Now for the phone itself- it allegedly shares the PSP Go’s form factor, and includes a sliding gamepad. The gamepad will be identical to the PSP Go’s existing gamepad, shoulder buttons and all, except for the fact that there is now no analog stick, and there is a touch pad there instead, similar to the ones found on laptops, for analog controls. Sounds sensible enough, so far.

The phone is equipped with a camera with a resolution that may be as high as 5 megapixels, a large display, between 3.7 and 4.1 inches wide, and a snapdragon 1 GHZ processor being pegged as ‘likely.’

The device will be powered by Android 3.0, and the Android Store will be given an overhaul to have an all new section dedicated to games.

By the way, this won’t be out of line with what Sony execs have themselves told us in the past. When questioned about the PSP’s future in an interview, he suggested that the PSP might be en route to being a smartphone soon.

As of right now, Sony has declined to comment on the rumour, although I don’t think we need their confirmation at this stage. ll evidence seems to point towards the rumour being fact, and the company certainly has a notorious reputation with keeping secrets- last year, for instance, both the PS3 Slim and the PSP Go were prematurely ousted.

It seems a PSP successor is on its way. And it may not be what we thought it would be.

We’ll have more for you on this story, so stay tuned.

IMAGE COURTSEY OF KOTAKU