Rumor: Kotaku Breaks PSP Redesign Details

Kotaku's spies at Sony have been right before -- they did break Home, after all -- so there's reason to believe they may have the real dirt on a redesigned PSP, to be unveiled at E3 and ship this fall.

While the new PSP still makes use of the UMD drive, it will be a faster version and to help speed up loadtimes and gameplay, the portable will come packed with 8GBs of internal flash memory. Finally, the PSP's much maligned buttons have been revamped and the D-Pad has gotten a major overhaul, giving portable gamers something more like a Playstation 3
D-pad to play with.

Kotaku also says that the unit itself will be significantly slimmer thanks to thinner, lighter LED technology that will give the system about four times the battery life. Sony is reportedly still undecided on whether the unit should include a digital camera.

Everything here sounds pretty much on the level -- it doesn't have any of the unbelievably awesome or improbable revelations that usually mark a rumor as fake. A redesigned PSP at this point needs to be smaller and have onboard Flash, and that's about it. Pity it didn't come a little earlier, when it would have made a difference. Sony will certainly see a bump in sales this holiday because of the redesign, but it'll still take a pounding from the DS.

Rumor: PSP Slim Details Revealed [Kotaku]