Sony Computer Entertainment made formal announcement today of its next generation PlayStation Portable system. The system currently goes by the code name "NGP," or "Next Generation Portable" and will make its debut by the end of the calendar year.

In its press release announcing the hardware today, Sony made note of the following features:

OLED Screen

The system's 5 inch OLED display and high performance CPU and GPU will allow for high quality visuals.

User Interface

Front and rear touch panel allow for such interactions as touch, grab, grace, push and pull via finger movements.

Super Oval Design

The system's shape was designed to fit comfortably into users' hands.

Dual Analog Sticks

Two sticks will allow a broader range of games to be brought to the portable format.

Live Area

This is a space provided to all NGP games. Players will be able to access information on games through here, and can view an activity log of others that could trigger real time communication between players.

Near

NGP will have location-based services, one of which is a pre-installed app called Near. Players can use this to find what friends in the vicinity are playing now or were playing recently.

New Game Medium

NGP uses a new game medium, small flash memory cards that are dedicated for NGP software titles. The cards can store the full game along with save data content and add-on game content. The flash format will also allow sony to provide higher capacity in the future.

Cameras and other Interfaces

The system has rear and back cameras and three motion sensors: gyroscope, accelerometer and electronic compass.

PlayStation Suite

PlayStation Suite, announced today, is a cross platform framework that will bring PlayStation content to Android mobile devices. All PS Suite titles released on Android devices will be playable on NGP. Sony says that it believes this will give the system the casual experiences that typify the mobile market place.

The system's announcement came at today's PlayStation Meeting 2011 event in central Tokyo. For all our coverage from this event, see our event index page.

Sony has opened an official site for the event. This has specs and system images, and a concept video.

The full specs, as shared by Sony today, are as follows:

CPU

ARM CortexTM-A9 core (4 core)

GPU

SGX543MP4+

External Dimensions

Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)

Screen (Touch screen)

5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED, Multi touch screen (capacitive type)

Rear touch pad

Multi touch pad (capacitive type)

Cameras

Front camera, Rear camera

Sound

Built-in stereo speakers, Built-in microphone

Sensors

Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass

Location

Built-in GPS, Wi-Fi location service support

Keys / Switches

PS button, Power button, Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left), Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square), Shoulder buttons (Right/Left), Right stick, Left stick, START button, SELECT button, Volume buttons (+/-)

Wireless communications

Mobile network connectivity (3G), IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1x1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode), Bluetooth 2.1+EDR (A2DP/AVRCP/HSP)