Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design - Gizmodo Comments

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

Jmyk — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 23:38:53 EDT

The design really sucks, its even scary. its like a high tech nuclear bomb detonator. what are they thinking?! The swiveling screen isnt cool, not even close. I can see it could be so bulky. and yah, no one would want a UMD on the PSP anymore.how can u say its "universal media disc" when you can only play it on PSP? Sony is monopolizing with this. I think i would only be interested in buying a PSP phone if they would make it
1. touch screen with handwriting recognition
2. retain the old design or make it slimmer and lighter much like the upcoming new PSP
3. A camera at least 3.2 megapixels
*i like the idea of a game phone, honestly iv been waiting for this since i purchased my PSP. I dont mind the price, though the average consumer does. JUST MAKE IT WORTH THE MONEY..!!!

Jmyk

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

VakeroRokero — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 16:35:40 EDT

If they can get the price of something like this to $200 or less and avoid silly propietary discs, I'm there.

VakeroRokero

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

jonestkbz — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 01:26:25 EDT

Id buy a PSP phone if it had a touch screen. Sony should consider dropping the UMD and going with a 2GB drive and an SD slot. If you take out the video and encode all the music, I think you can shrink down game sizes significantly. Honestly this shouldn't be considered a DS competitor. Its a convergence device and $99 price range is just not feasible. Sony should target ~$300, and make it a sidekick/helio competitor. I really think a multimedia/gaming phone is an untapped market. Someone just needs to get the formula right. I agree the phone does look hideous, but that could be fixed.... how about a slider that reveals gaming buttions or a keyboard/button mix and dual analog sticks? Alright Sony. Get this right and my money is yours.

jonestkbz

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

jonestkbz — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 01:02:30 EDT

If it could play PSP games and had a touch screen, I'd buy it. Id dump my windows mobile 5 in a heartbeat.UIQ probably has all the software i need anyway. I doubt UMD will be a part of it. Take out the video + encode the music and you could probably shrink down most PSP games to a decent size. Add a 4GB drive (ala iphone) and you could have one decent multimedia beast. Granted the blueprint looks ugly... but that can be fixed. Obviously size and cost matters. Keep it around 300 and you put it in the helio/side kick audience. One more note, N-gague (which i have read over and over again to be a terrible phone) still seems to have a strong following. So I wouldnt rule out game phones.

jonestkbz

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

halogeton — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 22:38:05 EDT

I like the idea. Sure it would be large for a cell phone, but not so much that it is rendered useless. Also, running games off flash memory is not so far fetched, there is a large number of people running eh "home brew" games off flash already. Also, if it is compatable with the psp+ps3 remote play functionality (ability to access mp3s & vids from your pc at any hot spot) - that alone would make it a phone worth owning. At least, for me it would.

halogeton

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

DorkusMalorkus — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 16:16:37 EDT

If this is the "roumored" PSP2 I will be PISSED!

DorkusMalorkus

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

Terp4Life — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 14:07:45 EDT

I completely agree with Matt7277. What purpose does the rotating screen serve? I know it reveals the speaker, but speakers are so small that the can be put almost anywhere. Much like LG's VX9400, this rotating screen accomplishes nothing.
KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!

Terp4Life

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

blitzkrieg999 — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 13:21:10 EDT

I honestly don't see this working. Sony Ericsson's latest phones have been very stylish, very functional. That blueprint looks epically ugly! And without a touchscreen keypad, the buttons don't appear to be very intuitive, either.

Granted, thats just a patent blueprint and they could prove us all very wrong with a beautifully designed, fully-functional PSP phone... but I doubt it.

blitzkrieg999

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

Karttikeya — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 13:06:37 EDT

Too thick.

Karttikeya

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

BillyShears — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 12:48:52 EDT

Make it compatible with all of today's PSP games and Sony Ericsson might give the Nintendo DS some competition.

Not a chance. The U.S. market alone is so hostile to both phone makers and cellular customers that it'd be about as successful as the N-Gage.

That, and the DS is a hell of a lot cheaper than any unlocked phone.

BillyShears

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

majortom1981 — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:52:14 EDT

You do know that nintendo has patents on a phone also. Id rather have a nintendo phone that plays nintendo games then a sony phone that plays psp games.

majortom1981

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

weatherman — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:42:22 EDT

I second (third?) the above comments - I don't see how this would fly. I don't see a first analog stick, so compatibility with PSP games would be problematic. The large screen of a PSP is its main selling feature (IMO) and any phone with a screen that large would be far too large to be useful, while a smaller screen would undermine the purpose of a gaming devicce. A UMD in a phone would necessarily make it pretty bulky, and running games off memory stick would not provide the user with a lot of room for variety since PSP games are pretty large. All of which suggests that this would optimally be a PS1 emulated game player, which wouldn't be such a bad thing, but wouldn't take advantage of the natural pairing of a phone and gaming device, namely networked play.

Interesting to note is the inclusion of a TV tuner - something seen rarely in US phones though popular in Asian phones with their digital TV broadcasting networks. If this comes out, it's probably going to be Asia only. Even if it comes here, it's likely to be a flop. Compete with the DS-L? Not bloody likely. It might just take away 10%-20% of the N-Gage market though. I'm sure Nokia's running scared!

weatherman

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

Sifu — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:30:40 EDT

Long time reader, first time commentator here!

I don't own a PSP but, even if the PSP is a slim device, the phone design that it's incorporated into looks very bulky.

I'm not convinced if a phone gaming device will ever take off because of size, battery life and the fact that it's another gaming platform you need to shell your hard earned cash for.

I'd rather have a great mobile and a DS Lite instead of a hybrid machine.

Sifu

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

Windhawk — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:06:53 EDT

Until it is so big that it needs its own back pack its just not a phone.

A mobile PS3 with a 50" plasma is a good candidate for a phone.

Windhawk

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

anfauglir — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:04:17 EDT

I still don't see the second analog stick.

anfauglir

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

bmg50barrett — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 10:51:58 EDT

yeah....things that need to go to even compete against DS:

1) First and foremost, price: For the price of that phone (im guessing), you would be able to buy a 99$ DS (actually 89$ now in some places) and an awesome phone like a Samsung SCH-A950 with a new plan.

2) Target Audience: That phone is only going to be afordable by people with jobs and good jobs. AKA, not younger kids or teenagers working the register at BK.

3)Not so much important, but still important: Style. Face it, that thing looks ugly, and looks uncomfortable to hold when the screen is flipped sideways (i dont think its supposed to stay like that though...).

4)UMD!!! The Not-So-Universal media disc never took off. The disc is just to unique that a lot of things wont play them. They look cool, and the CD is protected and everything, its just that normal CDs have such a large marketshare already...a.k.a. all of it.

5) Finally, its a phone. No matter who makes it, game phones just dont do well. They are usually good at one thing or the other, not both. And is they try to do both well, it usually brings the entire product quality down.

I mean, the big thing is the price, if you can get beyond that, than i think it has a decent shot.

bmg50barrett

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

jabber — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 10:25:47 EDT

Parsec? Man, I'm so out of the loop. I thought that was "Defenders."

jabber

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

tzakiel — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 10:11:27 EDT

It's just not a PSP phone. Not everything with a rounded rectangle shape is a PSP. Also, any D-Pad with seperate little buttons will fail.

tzakiel

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

Juneau.what — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 09:14:51 EDT

Who cares? It plays Parsec!

Juneau.what

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

Snapper — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 09:02:42 EDT

Price will be the killer... If they can get close to the DS then they might have something. Get rid of the UMD and I would buy one.

Snapper

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

strider_mt2k — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 08:48:00 EDT

The concept is cool, but you'll never see a UMD in a phone, that's crazy.
Scary crazy.

I don't think anyone is up to the task of DRM-ing Sony's PSP games for flash storage or distribution either.

It could leverage the PSP's rep as a capable media player though.
THAT game is gonna come down to storage.

strider_mt2k

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

matt7277 — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 08:47:56 EDT

whats the purpose of this rotating screen if its not hiding some number keys or something?

matt7277

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

Ph30nix — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 08:36:06 EDT

something other than a psp that uses the UMD format? psh, call this one BS already. it's never gonna happen.

Ph30nix

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

mangochutney — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 08:33:39 EDT

Ok, so this thing will be how thick (in terms of thickness)?

mangochutney

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

elbweb — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 08:31:43 EDT

"Make it compatible with all of today's PSP games and Sony Ericsson might give the Nintendo DS some competition. What do you guys think?"

I'd agree except for the fact that anything nintendo makes has one point that sony ericsson will never be able to copy: price.

elbweb

Sony Ericsson Shows Off its PSP Phone Design

BlindsidesDork — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 08:30:49 EDT

I know that is not final and I don't know the dimensions but that thing looks HIDEOUS!

BlindsidesDork