Sony Ericsson finally unveiled Xperia Play – the official title of the long-rumoured PlayStation Phone – at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last night.
As previously reported, the device has a four-inch, 854x480 resolution multitouch screen, a single-core processor and runs on Android’s Gingerbread OS. The screen slides out to reveal a d-pad, four face buttons and two analogue touchpads. Battery life when playing games is five and a half hours.
“Today is a very proud moment for Sony Ericsson as we bring something truly revolutionary to the market,” said Rikko Sakaguchi, Sony Ericsson’s executive VP and chief creation officer. “Living up to our vision of Communication Entertainment, Xperia Play will forever change the way people think about smartphones and mobile gaming.”
Set for global release in March, Sony Ericsson promised 50 games would be available for Xperia Play at launch, six of which will be preloaded on the phone. FIFA, The Sims 3, Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell were all announced or shown off on the show floor and Sony has the likes of Digital Chocolate, EA, Namco Bandai and PopCap on board.
Speaking to the BBC, Sony Ericsson’s UK and Ireland managing director Nathan Vaultier was dismissive of Microsoft’s partnership with Nokia that it announced last week. As part of the deal future Nokia handsets will ship with Windows Phone 7 but Vaultier is convinced that Android remains the better option. “Android is the fastest-growing mobile ecosystem that exists,” he said. “There’s so much excitement from a developer perspective in getting involved on Android. I’m absolutely sure we’re backing the right horse.”
The Xperia Play is also the first device to benefit from the PlayStation Suite system announced by Sony last month, which will see PSOne and original games made available on assorted devices thanks to a hardware-neutral development framework.