At today’s Playstation Meeting 2011 event in Tokyo, the clear highlight was the announcement of their new handheld device codenamed “NGP” or “Next Generation Portable.”  The new device seems to answer many of the common complaints about the PSP and adds a whole bunch more awesomeness to the market dominated primarily by Nintendo.

NGP will mark the end of the much hated UMD format.  Games will now be stored on flash-based memory cards with enough room for DLC and game saves.  Sony has confirmed that NGP will also play PSP titles, minis, PSOne classics and display content from the PlayStation Store.

It’s worth noting that the body of the new device is slightly larger than the PSP—makes sense—since it features a five-inch OLED multitouch screen with four times the number of pixels than the PSP.  And, in case you can’t tell from the picture, the NGP features two true analog sticks (NGP Freeks, anyone?)!

Here are some specs:

Next generation portable entertainment system (codename: NGP)

CPU: ARM® Cortex™-A9 core (4 core)

GPU: SGX543MP4+

Dimensions: Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth)

Rear touch pad: Multi touch pad (capacitive type)

Front camera, Rear camera

Built-in stereo speakers, Built-in microphone

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

Buttons: 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 (+/-)

Built-in GPS, Wi-Fi location service support

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