Verizon To Launch Sony Ericsson's PlayStation Phone Later this Month

Verizon has just announced the release date and price for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, an Android smartphone that will also be a portable gaming console. The games that will come pre-installed on this device have also been announced.

Verizon first committed to offering the Xperia Play way back in February, but at that time would only say it would be out in early spring. Three months later, it's finally about to launch.

The smartphone will be available for pre-order from verizonwireless.com starting this Thursday, May 19. It will be in stores a week later, on May 26. It is going to sell for $200 with a new two-year wireless service agreement.

Games, Games, Games
The Xperia Play is going to have a set of PlayStation gaming controls on a slider, and its target audience is mobile gamers. To sweeten the deal, it's going to come with seven game titles, including, Madden NFL 11 (EA Sports), Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior (Digital Legends), Asphalt 6: Adrenaline (Gameloft), The Sims 3 (EA), Star Battalion (Gameloft), Crash Bandicoot (Sony Playstation) and Tetris.

Users of this model will be able to choose from more than 50 game titles available at launch for download via Verizon's app store, V CAST Apps.

The Specs
The Xperia Play is going to run Android OS 2.3 (Gingerbread) on a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon II processor with Adreno 205 GPU. Because it's going to run Google mobile operating system, it will come with more than just games -- it will be bundled with a collection of communication and entertainment apps. And users will be able to easily add more from the Android market.

This smartphone will have a 4-inch multi-touch capacitive display, and a slider with the controls PlayStation fans are used to:  (D-pad, and X, O, square and triangle action buttons. A small touchpad has also been added.

Sony Ericsson is including a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a VGA front-facing one for still shots and video chatting.

The Xperia Play won't be able to connect to Verizon's 4G network, but it will have 3G support. It's also going to have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and will be able to share its 3G connection with a mobile hotspot app.