Sony’s PlayStation Portable successor will include 3G wireless and an active matrix OLED screen, claims Japanese newspaper Nikkei. The latest rumor popped up just days before Sony is expected to unveil the PSP2 at a press event tomorrow.

    Nikkei claims the 3G service would allow consumers to play games online as well as download software and movies, but notes it won’t support phone calls. Whether that includes independent voice-over-IP apps like Skype — a service enthusiastically supported on the current PSP — remains to be seen.

    And whether 3G support would be enabled is another question no one else picking up the rumor seems to be asking. Nikkei reports Japan’s 3G provider will be NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest carrier, but the news service says nothing about Sony’s international plans.

    No one has leaked 3G service plans or whether 3G might be offered for free, as with Amazon’s Kindle, but then no one’s really talking in an official capacity about any of this.

    The other rumored report involves the PSP2’s display, which Nikkei says will sport a “larger than normal” OLED* (organic light-emitting diode). If true, the upsides of employing OLED technology in a PSP-style device could include lowered manufacturing costs, lighter weight, wider and brighter viewing angles, lower power consumption, and faster response rates.

    That last point should reverberate* with current PSP owners. The PSP 3000’s launch display had notable interlacing issues, suffering from visible “banding” across the screen during motion, particular when panning the camera around a 3D scene. Earlier models had response time or “ghosting” issues, resulting in visible screen blur.(SD-Agencies)