PSP2 screen an "inch larger" than PSP's

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 25 October, 2010

"Sharper," too.

The PSP2's screen is an inch larger and "sharper" than the PSP's, according to a report.

Sony described the screen during behind closed doors meetings at the Tokyo Game Show as high definition, Kotaku reports.

"The screen itself is not only sharper than the current PSP's, but about an inch larger. The larger screen means that the PSP2 will be larger as well. In the private meetings, Sony is touting the screen as 'HD'."

Kotaku's sources back up PSP2 information gathered by Eurogamer over the last 18 months, including the existence of a touch screen panel on the back of the device.

"The touch panel was described as looking like a big mouse trackpad," Kotaku said. "When Sony showed the PSP2, it did not provide concrete details regarding how the trackpad will be implemented in games and instead is leaving that to the discretion of game developers."

The hardware, as we know, is currently not finalised, and specifications are expected to change.

In August Eurogamer brought you the news that Sony's vision for the next-generation PlayStation Portable was roughly the same size as the PSP-3000 and had touch controls on the reverse of the unit.

We learned that Sony was showcasing the unfinished handheld to publishers using several first-party games and had already settled on its business model for the device.

One source told us he expected it to launch by the end of 2011. Flash media support, similar to the PSPgo, seems most likely.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (51) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • karooo #1 2 years ago

    Give it to meeeeeeee Sony.

    1) Dual analogue please
    2) Decent pricing
    3) PS3 compatibility
    4) Trophies
    5) Decent specs and size

    and you have a buyer.

  • youhavenomail #2 2 years ago

    PSP2: for men with small dicks.

  • randompanda #3 2 years ago

    So it's not small enough to be portable (my PSP was never pocket-sized!) and it's not big enough to be a tablet competitor?

    Is this another 'experiment' like the PSPGo?

  • karooo #4 2 years ago

    @youhavenodick. Why is that?

  • Widge #5 2 years ago

    Still an epic wtf at reverse side touch controls.

  • smirny #6 2 years ago

    well it was never going to be a lower resolution was it...

  • StolenGlory #7 2 years ago

    "PSP2: for men with small dicks."

    Or just for forum trolls who have jack shit to say about anything.

  • raloB #8 2 years ago

    If PSP2 is not a phone with a little green alien on it has failed.

  • sfp_noodle #9 2 years ago

    Please don't make it download only. It's fail. The PSPGo told you that. Plus your PSN pricing is ridiculous and needs to be sorted out. Dual analogue is a must. It's not even something that needs to be said. It's a no brainer. It's probably going to be 3D. Sony won't want Nintendo to have even one major advantage over their console in terms of specs. But I'm not too bothered about that. Give me physical media, decent price, dual analogue and a shit tonne of awesome games at launch all 3DS and I'm in.

  • Lunastra78 #10 2 years ago

    Why isn't it a phone already? If I was in control of Sony I would have one Sony and one Ericsson employee executed daily until this was a reality.

  • Widge #11 2 years ago

    If download only makes it more portable, thats a plus.

  • mkreku #12 2 years ago

    Make it powerful enough for 1280x720, put a HDMI port on it, make it compatible with the Dualshock 3 and it would be the coolest thing ever. You play a game on the commute and when you get home, you just plug it into your TV and continue from your sofa, now with a controller in hand.

  • solidSnake04 #13 2 years ago

    This screen need to be on par with the iPad screen (not size, just sharpness and resolution-wise), otherwise ...

  • MadDave123 #14 2 years ago

    "...it did not provide concrete details regarding how the trackpad will be implemented in games and instead is leaving that to the discretion of game developers."

    This seems to be a worrying trend with new hardware (Kinect, I'm looking at you). The creators hope what they've made is good, but leave it to the developers to be creative and do all the hard work. A little guidance wouldn't go a miss here Sony.

  • cybertenchi #15 2 years ago

    If they can manage a unit with less dead pixels on the panel (when brand new) we might have a deal. My first PSP when purchased brand new was peppered with them. More of an irritant than anything else, but still.

  • slippysloppy #16 2 years ago

    If it does more than play games and movies and is a genuine iPad contender I could be in. If not and it means binning all my PSP games and films as there's no provision for UMD backward compatibility then I'm sorry Sony, you're not tying me in to your pricing structure.

  • des #17 2 years ago

    So this is like a mini-tablet now?lol
    No dual analogs,no buttons...no buy
    Edited by des at 25/10/10 @ 12:20

  • TopKatt #18 2 years ago

    Well I want a PSP2 and I have a huge penis.

  • rivuzu #19 2 years ago

    I don't understand peoples desire to rely on physical media. I've got a PSPGo purely for the fact of DDL games. I've not looked back once since doing so. The benefits of lack of battery drain, loading times, save states, and relatively well pricing (I'm using an American account, as opposed to the UK Store) just sell it all for me.

    Edit: Slightly more relevant to the article I suppose... I'm interested in the PSP2. Would prefer it more in a Go shape, with its slide function. Not sure about this touchpad though...
    Edited by rivuzu at 25/10/10 @ 11:59

  • GamesConnoisseur #20 2 years ago

    Is iPad or iTouch fail as download only? If Sony pushes PSP2 hard with serious set up ie dual analog, 3D, mechanism for ownership and transfer of UMD etc, Sony could becomes the leader in digital market with movies and music as well as games.

    SO why would they stick to UMD which was a bloody millstone? Hacked PSP works well as it's doesn't rely on UMD and downloads only.

    Sony needs to outcompete the benefits of hacked PSP1 and also fair and hassle free DRM system.

    Today Apple and others are dictating the market and where so Sony want to go from their also ran position currently?!

  • Psychotext #21 2 years ago

    I don't know why TopKatt is being negged, he really does have a huge penis. MASSIVE infact.

  • youhavenomail #22 2 years ago

    ""PSP2: for men with small dicks."

    Or just for forum trolls who have jack shit to say about anything."

    Or for people who equate bigger screens to bigger cars for a joke and then have to sit back and watch 26 people misunderstand and get upset over nothing.

  • RobTheBuilder #23 2 years ago

    Simple business model analysis:

    PSP2 (Download Only) = Mega fail
    PSP2 (Memcard/download) = Win

    Iphone might work with download only, but it's not a dedicated games machine.
    Edited by RobTheBuilder at 25/10/10 @ 12:14

  • TonyHarrison #24 2 years ago

    I like how EG left out the part of the Kotaku article that described the "issues" Sony are having balancing the power and the battery, which is apparently causing overheating...

  • darth_paul #25 2 years ago

    unless its also 3D, Sony is going to get seriosuly hurt

  • StolenGlory #26 2 years ago

    "Judging by the resolution of the current displays of that size, I'm going to guess it'll be 852x480. In which case, advertising an 852x480 display as "HD" is about as ridiculous as saying the Wii is HD. (Hint: The Wii also outputs 852x480.)

    Why do companies insist on misusing the term "HD" to describe everything that doesn't have anything to do with it? Look at how many "apps" on the iPad call themselves "HD", even though the iPad's resolution is 1024x768 (a resolution most of us used on our PCs in 1998). What's next, will the Gameboy's 160x144 be considered "HD"?"

  • Razz #27 2 years ago

    Call me unimaginative, but I don't see how this device even unfinished could compete with the 3DS

  • Mono_X #28 2 years ago

    @GamesConnoisseur
    "Is iPad or iTouch fail as download only?"

    The difference is that the Apple brand is really strong and a lot of people are willing to pay a 'premium' for that brand. And it's a brand associated with other products/services.

    If the PSP2 is DL only, then it's price will have to be much higher as retailers will not have software to sell (currently retailers make little profit on hardware, but lots on software). The PSPGo was £250 at launch? How much will the PSP2 go be if it's got to have all these bells and whistles that people want? £300? Is the PSP brand strong enough to command a price that high?

  • IronCladChicken #29 2 years ago

    "misusing the term "HD""
    The term HD is just for marketing.
    The XBox & PS3 are generally considered HD consoles - Though most of their titles use sub-HD screen resolutions.

  • Razz #30 2 years ago

    Exactly, even SEGA said the fucking Megadrive had HD Graphics lol. Don't believe the hype.

  • TopKatt #31 2 years ago

    Thank you psychotext. Course the people negging might have seen me when I locked myself out a few nights ago. But that night was very, very cold.

  • Ryze #32 2 years ago

    I'll wait and see what the software and services are like.

    No chance I'll be an early adopter of this one.

    edit: one of the reasons that iPhone is fine without physical media, is that iTunes is an esablished success. People are accustomed to using it.

    Sony don't have such an established equivalent. They have to start from scratch, or if you like, from MediaGo's installed base. I wonder how many people have actually made a purchase via MediaGo?

    I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was less than a million people worldwide.
    Edited by Ryze at 25/10/10 @ 13:21

  • FutureDave #33 2 years ago

    Back touch pad sounds very intriguing.

  • TheEnforcer000 #34 2 years ago

    It's too late for me. I'll stick with portable gaming on a phone.

  • Sunworship #35 2 years ago

    @youhavenomail

    English is a "transmitter oriented" language, especially on the internet: i.e. it's up to you to make yourself understood rather than up to the listener to tease out your meaning.

    Your post got the response it deserved, as most do.

  • youhavenomail #36 2 years ago

    @Sunworship

    It's no big deal if people didn't get it. It's all harmless and perfectly self-explanatory to anyone who isn't overly sensitive to such matters.

  • udat #37 2 years ago

    "HD" is purely marketing. It means nothing in this context. In a TV context it means "Anything higher than SD" so the various Xbox and PS3 games running at slightly less than 1280*720 (say) are still "HD".

    Comparing resolutions for in-hand devices and televisions or monitors is equally nonsensical unless the discussion is about fill-rate or something equally technical. When comparing "sharpness" of display then dot-pitch is more meaningful, but even then the distance to screen is important.

  • JonFE #38 2 years ago

    "I don't know why TopKatt is being negged, he really does have a huge penis. MASSIVE infact."

    @Psychotext:
    I hope, for your sake, that you came upon such sensitive information on one of those nightly adventures with the night-vision goggles of yours.

    ;-)

  • Widge #39 2 years ago

    Actually some here about it being a bit more iPad-y. I’d be more interested in it if it was a larger sized beast with the ability to view web pages/view ebooks etc. decently. It would really need an app store to go along with that and would also kind of negate it as a “whip it out of the pocket” machine.

  • FladgeMangle #40 2 years ago

    Actually, the iPad's screen is 960x640 but never mind that.

    From what I'm hearing from the foaming ether, this new PSP is a curious beast indeed. Reports about the screen, overheating and the anaolog touchpad on the back... It sounds like somebody trying to describe a elephant, when they can only see it through the lens of a telescope.

    My opinion - It's probably going to be quite nice.

  • Uncle_Spanks #41 2 years ago

    Is this still about TopKatt's penis?

    Yes if you believe it has grown by 1 inch in certain areas, is touch sensitive in parts, and comes with 2 analogue nubs.
    Edited by Uncle_Spanks at 25/10/10 @ 14:25

  • zedzee #42 2 years ago

    So it's a PSPgo with a bigger screen or will there be no slide-out?

    Personally, by making it (and going after) download only, it kills it for me. Not sure what will happen to UMD by the time it comes out though - Sony might , yet again, bulldozer over those users and just declare a UMD-free future.

    Let's not even talk about costs...!

  • vizzini #43 2 years ago

    Is it possible the size increase is relative to the PSP Go? and would occupy the same form factor as the front pocket PSP Go? but would have a rectangular shape instead of a stretched ellipse.

    When Sony say HD in today's market, they probably mean Full HD, or HD ready with 2^(12bit x 3RGB) = 68.7 billion colour shades, instead of 8bit colour which most manufacturers mean.

    I also suspect the screen will be using some form of power efficient OLED technology, built on the 11” screen R&D experiment(£2,500)Sony XEL-1 from a few years back.

    Either way, I'm interested in this new handheld and the 3DS, but the quality of the PSP Go that I recently bought is so good, that it is a year too early for me to buy one(most probably).

  • Skinme #44 2 years ago

    @Vizzini

    I guess he could've been referring to the PSPgo, but you'd think he'd have mentioned that model specifically, as when people talk about the PSP it's the 1/2/3000 series that normally comes to mind.

    Also, the likely hood of using 36-bit colour depth being used is slim to remote, especially when you factor in that only the most recent graphics cards incorporate true 30-bit and higher colour depths. The quotation of 32-bit is often a misnomer as it normally refers to 24-bit colour + 8-bit alpha data. Besides, they're talking about HD, which refers to resolution, not colour depth.

    As for OLED screens, this is probably true as Samsung mobile phones are now using Super AMOLED. Not sure why you referenced the Sony XEL-1 as it's an 11" TV that uses tech that is 3yrs old.The screen they'll use in the PSP2 will more likely be based on current mobile phone tech.
    Edited by Skinme at 25/10/10 @ 15:31

  • leketin #45 2 years ago

    AppStore compatibility, please!

  • vizzini #46 2 years ago

    skinme: when you factor in that only the most recent graphics cards incorporate true 30-bit and higher colour depth

    High dynamic range lighting on PS3 is using 128bit in the GPU as far as I'm aware. And I'm pretty sure that was what Sony & Mark Rein said in 2006 in the Unreal PS3 demonstration, the hardware was full 128bit throughout and commented that High dynamic range colour and sound is also part of the high definition experience.

    But talking about screens is slightly different anyway. Sony's flagship TVs use 12bit for each RGB pixel component (or maybe even 14bit in the latest ones), as do many plasma's. But an any-old-brand HD ready screen typically use 8bit per pixel component, massively reducing the colour gamut.

    The reason I mentioned the XEL-1 is that it was the first commercially available TV to use the organic LED technology and was/is the thinnest TV at 3mm thick. We know the PSP2 screen will be better than a any-brand portable screen in a mobile, just like the PSP Go's is.

    Sony have significant R&D, patents and manufacturing to use when it comes to screen technology and don't need to buy it in like Apple, Nintendo or Microsoft do. So expecting an amazing screen is normal from a PSP.

  • Loghorn #47 2 years ago

    @spf_noodle: I'm hoping that they don't go with discs again & will instead go with flash based media (cards/carts; like Nintendo is doing with the 3DS right now). It's a lot more cheaper now than it was back when the PSP launched. Not only will it hold more space for games, but as time goes on, the capacity of the size will increase, allowing 3rd party developers to create more larger games on the device later on down the road without having to go through limitations on certain games like they've done with the PSP, especially when trying to port PS2 &/or XBox games that carries more than 2 GB.

  • Simonkey75 #48 2 years ago

    @FladgeMangle

    "Actually, the iPad's screen is 960x640 but never mind that."

    Erm, no it's not. The iPad has a 9.7 inch 4:3 Aspect IPS LCD with a resolution of 1024x768. The iPhone 4's Retina screen, however, is a 960x640 res on a 3.5 inch screen - giving it a dpi of 326, apparently above the human ability to distinguish pixels, and better than printed magazines.

    But never mind that.

    Pedant's corner over. agree with those posters saying that the actual resolution - accepted "HD" or not - is immaterial in a handheld, it's the dpi. Sony shouldn't be putting a screen on it north of 3.5 inches, 4 max, otherwise it moves out of portable territory. They should be trying to match the iPhone 4's resolution though. That would be more than "HD" enough on a handheld.

    Of course, if Sony had any sort of sense in the current market, it would be a phone as well, but these days it seems to be one step forward - the PS3 Slim - to two bloody big steps back - the PSPGo counts as two :) - with them.

    Really struggling to see Sony making a success of this, esp. if they go bleeding-edge crazy again.

  • Psychotext #49 2 years ago

    "I hope, for your sake, that you came upon such sensitive information on one of those nightly adventures with the night-vision goggles of yours."

    You can't prove anything.

    /slinks into shadows

  • drumbaby #50 2 years ago

    Nothing I've heard so far about PSP2 has aroused any curiousity in me yet, except the reverse pad doo-dah thingummy wotsit. And that isn't really good curiousity. More 'wtf, how the hell would that work then'?

  • oerhoert #51 2 years ago

    @StolenGlory: "HD" has come to mean 'hi-res' for most intents and purposes. Of course such a hyped term would be hijacked. Money talks.

    The reverse touchpad sounds interesting. Maybe that could work, or at least, work better for some purposes than navigating cursors with the current nub.
    Edited by oerhoert at 26/10/10 @ 02:11