PSP2

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The race is on for the next portable gaming device. Right now many mobile phone manufacturers are trying to get into the gaming market by putting in 3D chips. However, none of them are as powerful as the PSP's in 3D capabilities, which means the PSP still has life left in it before the PSP2 comes out with the next generation device. It would have to have very fast 3D in order to stay competitive. Obviously it would have to support 1920x1080p and be able to connect to an external HDTV display (some sort of mini HDMI?). But before this PSP2 is available, a lot of devices with mobile phone features will try to compete in the arena. One of the minimum features that these devices must be capable of having is native 720x480 display. Also, it must be able to output 720x480 so it can connected externally to SDTV displays. (The PSP is able to do this today but games in 720x480 are non-existing, and only homebrew games have been able to output this resolution like AgenaWorld. The PSP outputs games in 480x272 stretched or non-stretched with borders to 720x480). Another benefit for having 720x480 minimum resolution is that it would allow the vast library of games from older consoles to be able to fit into the LCD display without cropping. This would allow the whole PS1, PS2, SNES, NES, N64, GameCube, and even arcade games to be ported. So while the current generation of mobile phones with 3D chips are battling it out, the next generation of 1920x1080p mobile devices are coming around the corner. It is very likely the PSP2 will have this output natively, and with advances of 200ppi displays a commonplace, even the LCD reaching 1920x1080 is possible. Anything less will disappoint. Also, the 3D chip must
be very very fast. The only reason no other mobile gaming device is able to compete with PSP is because of the fast 3D. Even the iPhone and iPod are unable to match the PSP in 3D capability, even having been released many many years later.

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Achieving 1920x1080 lcd displays on small devices will be difficult because of cost, but the technology is already there.
Hyper Amorphous Silicon TFT (HAST) LCD can do 1920x1080 in 4 inches (546 pixels per inch). (the current PSP's have 4.3 inch display with resolution of 480x272). Which would mean that a PSP2 having 1920x1080 LCD display would have 4 times the horizontal and 4 times the vertical resolution of a regular psp (16 PSP screens would fit into one PSP2 screen of 1920x1080 display). But since silicon prices drop exponentially with regard to time and quantity, it will indeed be possible very soon.

The PSP has a 480x272 resolution display with 128 ppi: 4.3 inches diagonal
To keep the same 4.3 inches diagonal display, a 1920x1080 display would need to have 512 ppi.

Display technologies that can do 1920x1080 for mobile devices:
Hyper Amorphous Silicon TFT (HAST) LCD with 546 ppi: 4 inches diagonal
Transflective SOG LCD with 302 ppi: 7.23 inches diagonal

[edepot]

Apparently, Sony will probably release a PSP-4000 before the PSP2 comes out. Most likely it will be a conservative re-design, and the PSP display will probably not increase in resolution. If Sony is to follow Nintendo's lead with the DSi, the PSP-4000 will probably get a camera built-in. Touch screen, GPS, accelerometers, and vibration feedback may be easy to add, but it would depend on the aggresiveness of the designers. If they are not aggressive enough, Nintendo will always try to be one step ahead. The PSP-3000 tried to catch up with Nintendo DS by adding a microphone, which caused Nintendo to jump ahead with adding a camera in DSi. The ball is in Sony's court now, and their next iterative PSP design may try to match some features from the Nintendo DSi's feature list, or leap ahead with extra features.

Sony will try to keep compatibility in mind (like the addition of 32MB of ram for the PSP-2000 that did not break PSP-1000 UMD games). Because of these constraints, the PSP2 will probably be needed to forge a path for the future. In keeping with the current technology trends, it seems having 1920x1080p on the PSP2 is possible using 300ppi displays. The screen would be 6.2 inches across and 3.5 inches tall. If the PSP (any current model) is laid out on a table, and the rounded corners were made rectangular, the dimensions of the PSP is actually 6.5 inches horizontally across and 3 inches vertical. You would just need to increase the length a tiny bit vertically, and put the controls on a slide-down panel beneath the LCD screen and the PSP2 will have roughly the same size factor as a PSP (a little narrower in length and a little taller in height). It may even be possible to copy the NDS and have it fold up like a notebook computer to protect the screen. If this were to happen (the 1920x1080p display on PSP2), then there out to be a mini-hdmi output port so people can plug their PSP2 to their 1080p Full HD HDTV displays. Anything less would not make PSP2 a PSP2, but a PSP iteration.

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Here is a summary of the future competition of mobile smartphones. Emphasis is on screen resolution and digital camera resolution.

Emblaze Edelweiss: 854x480, 3.2 MPixel
Samsung Pixon12: 800x480, 12 MPixel
HTC Touch HD: 800x480, 5 MPixel
Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 (by HTC): 800x480, 3.2 MPixel
LG enV touch: 800x480, 2 MPixel
Sony Satio: 640x360, 12.1 MPixel
Samsung Omnia HD: 640x360, 8MPixel
Nokia Tube (5800): 640x360, 3MPixel
Palm Pre: 480x320, 3.2 MPixel
iPhone: 480x320, 2 MPixel

There are also some nice phones out there with good features, but their resolution was just too low to warrant listing. Anything lower than 480x320 were removed from the list. Even 480x320 is too low of a resolution on the iPhone in my opinion, but it provides a good cutoff point. It is likely the phone will feature wi-fi, bluetooth, TV/FM/AM reception, audio inputs, GPS, accellerometer, and a host of features. Most importantly mini-HDMI out.

The first PSP was released in 2004 with a screen resolution of 480x272, and almost 5 years later, the top selling iPhone which debuted much much later is only a little better at 480x320. It is hoped for that the PSP2 will have a screen that reaches HDTV resolution (1280x720, or even better 1920x1080 Full HDTV). Few phones in the above list matches or exceeds basic TV resolution (SDTV 720x480), and it may take awhile for industry to catch up with demand.

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As a followup on this forum blog. The iPhone 4 was released recently. Apparently, it is a step in the right direction.

The iPhone 4 has 326ppi (or dpi dots per inch). Unfortunately, because of the small screen, the iPhone 4 missed the 1920x1080p resolution. It actually has double the iPhone 3GS horizontally and vertically. At 960x640 pixels, it is very close to the form factor of achieving 1080p. At 326 dpi, the iphone 4 screen is currently 2 inches wide and 2.9 inches tall (or ~3.5 inch diagonally). Using the same 326 dpi, the screen would need to be 3.3 inches wide and 5.9 inches tall (or ~6 3/4 inches diagonal).

Therefore, if the iPhone 5 or PSP2 uses the same 326 ppi (or dpi), then the next iPad mini or SuperSize iPhone would be around 4 inches wide and 6.5 inches tall minimum (to take into account the material surrounding the LCD screen). This device would have 1920x1080p standard display, and be able to play back 1080p videos natively without scaling the picture.

Apple claims that at 12 inches from your face, the iPhone 4 has pixels that exceed the capability of your eyes (or retina). I happen to have very good eyes and for a test, I tried to see what distance would be needed for me to not be able to see the dot on the top of an "i" from a 21.5 inch 1080p monitor. It happens to be around 6 feet. I can discern it at 5 feet or less. The more interesting thing is, if I held up a iPhone 3GS in front of my face at 12 inches, the size of the LCD on the iPhone 3GS is exactly the same size as my monitor at around 5 feet distance. This means a true retina display (for me) would need to be 102dpi at 5 feet distance. A native 1080p PSP2 or iPhone 5 at 4.3 inches diagonal to 6.75 inches diagonal having between 326 to 500dpi could be the ultimate standard display. 3.5 inches diagonal is way too small of a screen in any case.