At Sony’s recent press conference in Japan all the rumors and speculation on their next handheld were brutally squashed by confirmations and whatever it sounds like when legions of nerds gets excited at once. The PSP 2 has been unveiled, though it’s going under the codename of NGP right now, and it’s rather fantastic.

There’s been plenty of theories as to what the console would be able to do and what it would look like but the image you see above is the final product and I think it’s safe to say the NGP is looking rather snazzy. Continue after the jump to get all the info on the handheld including some damn exciting games that will be releasing on the platform, its features and when we can expect it on store shelves. As you can see from the picture above the NGP will finally give us the dual analog sticks we’ve all been asking for since the original console’s launch. On top of that the NGP will have a stunning 5″ OLED display with a 960 x 544 resolution (that’s four times the resolution of the current PSP) and looks great from multiple angles. That screen also happens to be a touch screen and on the back of the console is a touch pad that also measures in at 5″. The most impressive thing about this thing is how amazing the games look on it, which are close to PS3 quality visuals.

That’s all fine and dandy, what about playing with friends? Well, the NGP will have both 3G and Wifi functionality that will let you communicate with friends, play games online and use the PlayStation Store. This also means the handheld is the first of its kind to be able to connect to mobile networks.

So does it use UMDs like the PSP or is it all digital like the PSP Go? No UMDs here, the NGP is flash memory based and will utilized a yet to be revealed “new media.”

Do you like to put yourself in the game, maybe you enjoy shaking your handheld like a nanny with a baby? That’s great because it will also have a Gyrosensor that will be able to read and recognize those movements for the games that take advantage of it. Plus, if you get lost you can always use the ultra handy electronic compass. I usually don’t stray too far from the comfort of my beanbag chair so that feature’s wasted on me, but I’m sure there are some active gamers out there that will make good use of it.

There’s also front and rear cameras, so you can take naughty pictures of yourself and when you get sick of the console and decide to trade it in some poor child can buy it pre-owned and bear witness to said raunchy pics. There’s good fun to be had there. Oh, and did I mention it’s out this year? Well, it will be, sometime around the holidays, so start saving up now. No price has been unveiled yet but it’ll undoubtedly cost you a good chunk of that hard earned drug money.

Then there’s Near, an application that has leaderboards for your area, including the most popular game in a certain location. With Near you can also find information on the games you’re interested in (or potentially interested in) as well as a slew of other social gaming features like seeing what your friends have been playing and things of that nature.

But a console is only as good as the games you can play on it, and from the handful of titles that are planned so far, this thing is excelling in that department. you can expect a few new titles like Hot Shots Golf, Gravity Daze, Hustle Kings, Reality Fighters and Broken, but those aren’t the most exciting announcements, oh no sir. Add to that the confirmation that Killzone, Call of Duty, Resistance and Uncharted will be making their way to the platform and you have yourself a definite contender against Nintendo’s 3DS.