We all know that PSP rules the hand-held roost when it comes to sheer processing power and screen quality as far as games are concerned, but the G10 from iRiver is being aimed squarely as a PSP beater. iRiver are better known for their range of MP3 and personal video devices, so you’ll be excused for never having heard of them before.

It will also be capable of video and audio playback just like the PSP, and it’s not a bad looking piece of kit. The keypad slides in and out under the screen, much like some of the newer mobile phones which have full keyboards. The screen is reported to have a resolution of 800 x 480 with 260,000 colours, and the device will have4-8GB of storage and run Windows CE 5.0.

It’s other unique feature is support for WiBro, an emerging standard for Wireless Broadband. The idea with this is that all games would be downloaded to the storage inside the device, rather than being shipped on a memory card or disc.

Personally, I think iRiver have their work cut out. PSP has the hi-tech end of the market sewn up, and has the magic word PlayStation in it’s name, which counts for a lot, especially amongst developers who after all will be needed to write the games in the first place. Also, both the images I’ve seen of the device so far show the exact same screen shot of a cute-style karting game, which suggests that there currently isn’t anything close to a fully playable game for the system yet.

Thanks to Engadget for posting about this piece of kit.

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