Originally billed as a portable PS3 powerhouse, Sony’s Next Generation Portable may be going under the knife to reduce the final retail cost. According to 01.net (who has a great track record with Sony’s announcements in the past), the NGP SKU lacking in 3G could also see a significant decrease in RAM, from 512MB built-in, to 256MB. The 16MB of flash memory on the device could also be axed for cost as well. The site seems to hint that only the base model of the device will see the downgrade, although that would be first in gaming portable design if implemented.
If true, this sucks. Having half the ram will make the games look less good, and will perform less. Personally, they should ax that back touch pad, as that will save on money. I know they are using the back touch pad for an anti-batter removal device, but it just ads to the price. Besides, RAM is cheap so I don’t understand why that would be axed.
All will be told next week.