I've Played Sony's NGP

About an hour ago, following Sony's PlayStation Meeting 2011 in Tokyo where they announced their new NGP (next generation portable) handheld, I walked into an interview with Sony Computer Entertainment president of worldwide studios Shu Yoshida. Much to my surprise, I had no sooner entered the room than Yoshida asked me if I would like to try out the new handheld device.

Here's a word I promised myself I would never use to describe an electronic device: sexy. Nevertheless, the second I had the NGP in my hands, this is the first adjective that flashed across my mind. It's skinny, sleek, and feels great. I wasn't able to get a hard number for the weight of the device, but it was definitely lighter than my first-gen PSP, much more in line with the feathery feel of the PSPgo. I guess not having a bulky UMD drive will do that.

Since the controls are laid out almost exactly like a PS3 controller, I was able to jump into Uncharted with almost no learning curve, using the controls just as I would on the console. (NOTE: stay tuned for further impressions of Uncharted on the NGP.)

One kind of surprising but important difference is the analog sticks. Rather than being pulled over directly from the PS3 controller, the analog sticks on the NGP have been redesigned and feel a little more like the analog sticks on an Xbox 360 pad -- concave rather than rounded. (UPDATE: Based off some of the screenshots, it seems like the sticks may not actually be concave -- blame my terrible memory and the short time I spent with the system. Regardless, they felt better than I'm used to from the analog sticks on a PS3 controller during the brief demos.)

The rear touch pad on the system has a cool PlayStation logo design but is smooth, so swiping your fingers across it feels approximately the same as doing so on the screen itself. The PlayStation button used to bring up menus is placed underneath the left analog stick rather than in the middle, which seems like it leaves some room for accidentally pulling up the menu when you're really pulled into a game. That said, I didn't run into that problem during my short playtime, so I could be worrying over nothing.

One other note worth stressing is just how clear and crisp games looked on the system. During the PlayStation Meeting, Sony representatives kept repeating this point, but seeing it in person, I can understand why. No matter what angle I viewed the handheld from, the image looked virtually as good as anything I'd play on my HDTV at home.

Obviously, we're going to need a lot more time with the NGP and its games and a lot more info -- such as pricing -- before we can reach any sort of early conclusion about how viable and worthwhile the new handheld is at launch. However, I can safely say that I'm much more impressed by my first look than I expected. I admit that I may be suffering from a bit of new technology excitement, but even months before launch, the NGP already feels like a sleek, mature portable device with some very promising projects in the works.

Stay tuned for continuing NGP coverage and news as quickly and comprehensively as we can bring it to you.