Sony has flirted with the idea of an Xperia Play-style handset that features both a gamepad and a physical keyboard pieced together through two sliding drawers tucked behind the phone's display.

The designs were revealed through recently published patents, which show Sony's gaming handset equipped with its familiar button bashing interface, as well as an additional Qwerty keyboard round the back.

The documents were originally sent to the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2010 when phones with physical keyboards were still ten a penny.

While the chances of this design finding its way into the next-gen version of the Xperia Play are fairly remote, it certainly presses my buttons and I'll keep my itchy trigger fingers crossed. ®