Sony Ericsson PlayStation Phone on sale March 2011 tips insider

An inside source at Sony Ericsson has supposedly confirmed that their PlayStation Phone will be released in March 2011, having made its official debut the month previous at Mobile World Congress 2011. According to ITProPortal, the Android-powered gaming smartphone will apparently be branded the PlayStation Phone, rather than – as had previously been suggested – falling under Sony Ericsson's XPERIA umbrella.

Previous rumors had suggested that Sony was uncomfortable with its cellular branch using the well-established PlayStation branding, over fears that it could dilute and – if the handset was ill-received – damage its reputation among gamers. We'll likely have to wait until MWC 2011 (or, at least, until the first promotional material inevitably leaks) to find out for sure what the handset will be called.

The Sony Ericsson PlayStation Phone is expected to have a 3.7-inch touchscreen display along with a slide-out gaming control panel, and run the recently announced Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Digging through the Gingerbread SDK has already turned up what look to be PlayStation-style gaming controls.

[via Android Community]