Sony have unveiled its latest portable gaming device, which is currently under the codename of NGP (Next Generation Portable). The NGP will be released at the end of 2011.

The device comes with 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity and various applications which let users "encounter," "connect," "discover," "share" and "play" with friends wherever they are. As has already been mentioned in our previous report, the device will come with an 5 inch OLED (organic light emitting display) touch screen on the front and a multi-touch pad on the rear allowing for games with "touch, grab, trace, push and pull" moves of the fingers.

NGP will mimic the oval design of the PSP and is described as being designed to fit comfortably in users' hands and has 2 Analogue Sticks to allow a wider range of games on the system. It will come with two cameras on its front and rear, as well as three motion sensors, gyroscope, accelerometer and electronic compass.

Sony have also revealed LiveArea, which provides every game on the NGP with space to let users share the "fun and excitement with other players". It will also provide connectivity to the PlayStation Network and a log of all the accomplishments from users who are playing the same game, which in turn can trigger active real-time communication among users.

A new location-services based application, called Near, is installed on every system and lets players battle and communicate with other players virtually regardless of their location, it also provides friend updates giving details of what they are currently playing or what they last played.

Sony have dropped the cartridge and disc based formats for the NGP, instead the new game medium will be flash memory based cards which allows save game data, addons and more to be stored directly onto the flash card holding the game. It is also meant to be future proof providing greater capacity flash cards to be used in the future allowing for larger and more immersive games.

Here are the specs of the NGP:

CPU

ARM® Cortex™-A9 core (4 core)

GPU

SGX543MP4+

External Dimensions

Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)

Screen (Touch screen)

5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED

Multi touch screen (capacitive type)

Rear touch pad

Multi touch pad (capacitive type)

Cameras

Front camera, Rear camera

Sound

Built-in stereo speakers

Built-in microphone

Sensors

Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass

Location

Built-in GPS

Wi-Fi location service support

Keys / Switches

PS button

Power button

Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left)

Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square)

Shoulder buttons (Right/Left)

Right stick, Left stick

START button, SELECT button

Volume buttons (+/-)

Wireless communications

Mobile network connectivity (3G)

IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1x1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode)

Bluetooth 2.1+EDR (A2DP/AVRCP/HSP)