The folks over at Engadget have dug up spy shots of a prototype that purportedly is the long-rumored PlayStation Phone. It allegedly boasts a Qualcomm MSM8655 CPU rated at 1GHz, 512MB of RAM, 1GB of ROM, and a screen that measures between “3.7 to 4.1 inches.” The OS running on-board is reportedly Android 3.0.

As far as ergonomics are concerned, it sports a design similar to that of the PSPgo, with a directional and control pad tucked underneath the sliding screen. There’s also two all-familiar shoulder buttons.

Assuming Sony Ericsson plans to release this to market, speculation points towards a 2011 release. We’re still left wondering what this thing will actually play, outside of Android market games. PSP titles will not run as-is due to several architectural differences. At the very least, we could see emulated PSOne classics on it.

Although the timing is convenient, it’s unlikely that this device has any connection at all to the PSP2. The fact that Sony Ericsson is at the helm of this initiative is telling enough. SCE and Ericsson are separate devisions, for one. There’s also the fact that it runs Android. It’s hard to see Sony’s gaming division deviate from a closed platform approach. Regardless, it’ll be interesting to see what comes of this.

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