Sony may not be releasing the Playstation Portable (PSP) handheld gaming platform in the United States until well into next year, but the buzz and the hype about the product have grown to the point where it's worth a preview.

Released in Japan earlier this month, industry experts and gaming fans feel Sony's foray into a market dominated by Nintendo's GameBoy line — most recently the Nintendo DS, released last month — has the potential to be a major hit in the personal electronics category. It will also likely be marketed to a more mature audience than the Nintendo DS, much as the original PlayStation gaming console sought an older audience than Nintendo's then-dominant, teen-focused platform.

The Sony PSP features a 4.3-inch LCD display screen in widescreen TV's 16:9 format. It will display 16.77 million colors in 480 x 272 pixel resolution. Aside from playing games, it will also play back video downloaded from a computer onto Sony Memory Stick cards. It also has built-in stereo speakers and a headphone connector and can play digital music files.

Another noteworthy feature is parental control settings to prevent children from playing games with mature content.

The PSP supports Wi-Fi wireless Internet connectivity for head-to-head gaming, has a USB 2.0 port, a Memory Stick slot and 32 MB of built-in memory. Games and other video content will be available for the PSP's UMD drive, an optical disc format similar to DVDs but smaller.

The PSP weighs nine ounces and is 6.7-inches wide by 2.9-inches high and just under an inch thick. Sony has not yet announced a price for the American version.

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