Next gen Sony PSP could be an Android 3.0 smartphone

Is Sony on track to release the next generation of their PSP portable gaming device as an Android smartphone?

It could very well be a possibility if you believe an exclusive report published a popular electronics website this week.

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Though they won’t name their sources, the staff at Engadget claims that they have been told of the plans with a complete description of the device and a possible release date.

From the article:

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“...it's a landscape slider with game controls in place of the typical QWERTY keyboard. The D-pad is here, but instead of the small joystick, the device will have what was described as a "long touch pad" for analog controls, along with standard PSP buttons and shoulder buttons. The phone has a large display, described as being between 3.7 and 4.1 inches with WVGA or better resolution, a 5 megapixel camera that we're told might not be final, and it'll likely have a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU on board. The phone is mostly black with some silver highlights, and the gamepad area is white / silver in color.”

The phone is said to run Android 3.0, and will have exclusive games for the platform which are on par with the quality of current PSP games. There is even speculation as to the possibility of 3D gaming capability with the device.

The report goes on to say that there is every reason to believe that this is not merely speculation, and that the actual device could be coming to market as early as October of this year.

We’re sure that this story is probably not something that Microsoft wanted to hear right now. Rumors have been circulating for over a year about a possible Zune handheld gaming device and an announcement was made this week regarding the launch of a Windows 7 mobile game studio. The upcoming Windows Phone 7 OS is also rumored to be integrated with Xbox Live features.

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Do we have a race on our hands between Sony and Microsoft to see which company can put out a handheld gaming smartphone first? Possibly so, but if the Engadget report turns out to be true it looks like Microsoft has some pretty tough competition on their hands.

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