The Playstation Phone is real

Playstation Phone.

Several blogs have reported that this is indeed a picture of the real and long-rumored Playstation Phone. It’s an Android model, not entirely unlike the new G2, though you can bet it will have some custom skin work to support Playstation branding.

Here’s what Engadget had to say about the phone:

The device snapped up top (and in our gallery below) is sporting a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 (a chip similar to the one found in the G2, but 200MHz faster), 512MB of RAM, 1GB of ROM, and the screen is in the range of 3.7 to 4.1 inches. Looking almost identical to the mockup we hit you with this summer, the handset does indeed have a long touchpad in the center which is apparently multitouch, and you can see in the photos that it’s still bearing those familiar PlayStation shoulder buttons. For Sony buffs, you’ll be interested to know that there’s no Memory Stick slot here, but there is support for microSD cards.

The particular model in these shots is still in prototyping mode. As such, the unit doesn’t have a custom skin (not even SE’s Timescape design seen on the Xperia devices), and is said to be rather buggy. We’re digging into more facts as we speak, but it’s likely that much of what we reported earlier is still accurate, and though the device could still be headed for a 2010 release, 2011 is looking much more realistic.

There are just a couple things worth thinking about for that kind of launch. First, the Verizon iPhone is supposed to land in early 2011, and Windows Phone just launched. While the second might be reason to get a competitor into the market, does Sony really think it won’t be completely eclipsed by a Verizon iPhone release?