We've known since March that the PlayStation Portable is getting itself a facelift, but things became a touch clearer today, with "several sources close to Sony" leaking the first few details about the new and improved PSP to US blog Kotaku.

Essentially, the revised PSP will feature the same fundamental innards as its predecessor; indeed, it seems to be the handheld’s exterior that’s going to see the more significant tweaks, starting off with a new LED screen that will apparently sport a sharper image, take up less space, and use up far less of the battery.

According to Kotaku’s sources, the battery life of the new model will last up to four times longer than the original PSP, and a lot of this is thanks to the new screen. There won’t be any aping of the DS’ touchscreen capabilities just yet, however - word is that we’ll be seeing that in Sony’s next handheld.

Aesthetically, the new PSP will be slimmer, though Sony is still umm-ing and aah-ing over whether to have a matte or gloss finish. While we’d enjoy not having our PSP coated in fingerprints, we’d kind of miss the glossy exterior - it does give Sony’s handheld a certain look of opulence and lavishness. The face buttons will also be in line for some changes, while the (frankly rubbish) directional pad is apparently going to be closer in feel to the PlayStation 3’s D-pad (what, no dual analog nubbins? - Ed).

Moving inside the updated handheld, there’ll be a faster UMD drive in there (with the aim being to reduce loading times, which have reached quite ludicrous levels in some titles) and a cool 8GB of internal flash memory. Yum.

So, when will we see this revised model? Apparently, quite soon - the Sony moles reckon the device will be officially unveiled at E3, with an August or September release date most likely. Finally, Sony is hoping to launch it at just $170 (£85 / €127 / ¥20,700) in North America, a bit of a snip.

For its part, Sony Computer Entertainment of America has refused to comment on the matter.

Spoilsports.