Sony has given the strongest hint yet that we will be paying a higher than expected price for the NGP when it arrives late this year, or more likely early 2012.

In a recent interview hosted by Fast Company with Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) president Jack Tretton, he hinted towards a price of  several hundred dollars.

Until now we’ve heard conflicting rumors and suggestions as to what the NGP will cost. Sony’s European boss has said talk of a $599 price point is crazy, GameStop has already listed the device briefly at $299, a survey suggested it could be $250, and Sony has admitted it cut features to keep the device affordable. All that points to a sub-$300 price as far as I can tell.

But the latest comments from Tretton during the interview reference the pricing of the iPhone and iPod touch, and he states that you have to look at it as an investment for a number of years before saying “people are used to spending several hundreds of dollars” when referring to portable devices. Just as importantly he refers to the value of the whole package rather than just the hardware, and says a pricey platform will find an audience once the content is in place.

NGP features:

• Multi-touch 5-inch organic light emitting display (OLED) as the front display
• Multi-touch pad on the rear of the device
• Dual analog sticks
• Two cameras (front and rear)
• Software titles on small, dedicated flash memory-based cards
• Three motion sensors, gyroscope, accelerometer and electronic compass
• Wi-Fi and 3G network connectivity
• PlayStation Network access, including ““LiveArea™”, “Near” and “Activity” log features Trophy Support
• NGP will be able to play PSP titles, minis, PS one classics, video and comics from the PlayStation Store.

Now, the technical specs:

It's all you need to know right now.