Sony to Release New Device for Games, Music & Video

Early adopters of the PlayStation Portable don’t have much to shout about at the moment when it comes to games, so you’ll often hear them trumpeting the device’s subsidiary capabilities. But the shiny PSP is not the only piece of Sony consumer electronica that can play music, videos and games.

Of particular interest is the newly announced and catchily-named Sony Ericsson W900i, the first 3G phone in their Walkman range of phones. Applying their Walkman brand to their phones was a long overdue no-brainer for Sony, and the W900i bears more than a passing resemblance to a certain popular Apple MP3 player. As well as playing music, it’s got an Internet, a nice big screen for watching videos and a 2 mega pixel camera. And you can use it for making phone calls, even futuristic phone calls in the ‘3G’ video style, if you don’t mind not looking where you’re going.

The reason we mention it is it can also be used to play videogames, in 3D and everything. On its side, it even looks a bit like handheld console – and as well as looking a bit like a tactile iPod-style circular Feeling Wheel, the navigation button looks like a half passable d-pad too. If only they’d thought to put a button or two at the other end of the screen! A keypad that swivels out from underneath provides more buttons, so there could be some way to use it to play games with two hands. The future of handheld gaming? Probably not. But it’s got more potential than your average mobile can muster.