The rumored PlayStation phone has taken a lot of sh*t from gamers since it was announced. I mean, Sony IS pointing a gun to our heads and forcing us to buy it, right? So, of course, we have every reason to complain about something that isn't even out yet.

Anyhoozle, Engadget got an exclusive hands-on with the now titled Xperia Play showing its hardware and specs. Displaying on a 4-inch, 854×480-pixel LCD screen, the phone runs a 1 GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM. It looks pretty much like a PSPGo but with that oval touch pad we've seen standing in for the PS1/2/3's twin sticks. Engadget says it feels less balanced than the bottom-heavy PSPGo and the shoulder buttons could use more depth, but that would require a thicker body.

Since the thing isn't out yet (and technically hasn't even been announced) there aren't any games for them to test out, but they managed to install GBA and PS1 emulators. The games they tested it with included Ridge Racer Revolution, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, Gundam Battle Assault 2, and Super Mario Bros. 4 and were reported to play pretty well. All the buttons mapped fine except the touch pad. You can see a video of the emulated gameplay after the jump.

Frankly I think the phone looks fantastic. As someone who hasn't yet jumped onto the iPhone bandwagon (read: poor) I might actually pick one of these up. Also if you listen to any of our podcasts you know what a portable whore I am. Some of you may be thinking, "Why would I need anything like this in the world of the iPhone?" The answer to that is simple. Buttons, lad. Buttons.

Check out the full in-depth hands-on presentation with videos at Engadget and let us know if you plan on picking up the Xperia Play in the future.

http://www.youtube.com/v/WtVo9ugAEEs?fs=1&hl=en_US