Sony PSP Black Console
- Processor: 333 MHz MIPS R4000
- Display: Widescreen TFT LCD
- Platform: PlayStation Portable (PSP)
- Console Type: Handheld
- Gaming Type: Online Gaming Multiplayer Gaming
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PlayStation Portable - Can Sony Dethrone Nintendo with the PSP?
Pros
great third party support, LCD screen is very detailed, powerful
Cons
screen is vulnerable to extensive damage, expensive, games are same price as regular games
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
You want sleek? sexy? shiny? Go PSP!
Nintendo has been an important staple in the handheld market ever since the original Gameboy was released in the 80's. Actually, Nintendo is the only staple in the market, and has literally smashed any competition. When Sony announced that they'd be releasing a portable system to put the heat on Nintendo, I was skeptical. Releasing in the USA just before a month that hardly has any new releases, the PSP is actually quite good. It has its flaws, and Sony has got the worst customer service, but the PSP may actually be the first portable to ever make Nintendo's sweat glands nervous.
PSP Value Pack:
- PSP
- AC Adaptor
- Battery Pack
- Headphones
- soft case
- soft cloth for wiping the screen
- 32mb Memory Stick
- Sampler Discs (no playable demos)
- Spider-Man 2 (hurry though, it's only packed in with the first 1 million units sold)
PSP - System
The first thing that most people will notice first about the PSP is how sleek it looks. At approximately 6.7" wide, 2.9" tall, and 1" thick, the PSP definitely has flashy style. The second thing would probably be the 4.3" wide (16:9) LCD screen, which compliments the PSP's sexy design with poise. One of the things I was worried about was that the PSP would be difficult to hold, but the button layout isn't all that bad.
Sony went with a horizontal design for the PSP, with most of the unit being covered by the LCD screen. The LCD can display approximately 17 million colors, and is very easily damaged and easy to smudge the screen. I'm worried about the durability of the PSP's screen more than the Nintendo DS's screens, and one of the DS's screens is a touch pad. While the DS has a clamshell design to protect the Dual Screens, the PSP's screen is vulnerable to more damage. In the past month, I've heard more about the PSP having multiple dead pixels in the screen than I've heard of the DS having any dead pixels since it came out in November. The DS has had a few default units, but Sony really screwed up with PSP's release, pretty much telling some people if they get dead pixels, tough luck.
The left side of the unit has the Sony traditional 8-way directional pad, L-trigger, and a single analog stick that is quite oddly placed. The button layout on the left of the unit reminds me of the Gamecube controller, only switched. While the Gamecube has the dinky little directional pad placed where it's difficult to use, the PSP's analog stub will take a little bit of getting use to. The right side of the unit has the square, triangle, circle, and X buttons, as well as the R-trigger and power button. The home, volume, display, sound, select, and start buttons are located along the bottom of the PSP, below the screen.
The PSP has two built in stereo speakers, one on each side of the unit. Surprisingly, they are actually fairly loud and clear. Like the minidisks, Sony opted for a different kind of medium for the games, in the form of Universal Media Discs, or UMD. The UMD's have about 1.8gb of space, which is more than enough to reach near-better PS2 graphics (early generation titles). The UMD slot is on the back of the PSP, and the eject button is very close to the right trigger. I don't have incredibly big hands, but with the PSP my hands rest to where I have accidentally pressed the eject button, rather than the trigger. This can cause some problems. UMD's are a read-only format, so the PSP must use a Memory Stick Duo to save, which are actually fairly expensive. If you're just going to game and not worry about the other PSP features, a 32 or 128mb card should suffice for a while.
PSP - Multimedia Gaming
As nice of a game system the PSP is, its also able to play MP3's, Mpeg4 video, image gallery, and it is even seen as an external hard drive when you hook it up to the computer through USB. I haven't tried the MP3 or any of the other features, and I don't even have a digital camera to store photos on my computer in the first place, so the PSP's gaming functionality is all that matters to me.
In order to use MP3, Mpeg4, or the image viewer, you have to have a memory stick to save them to. This means that if you're going to use PSP for more than its games, you're going to have to invest some money in some memory sticks (128mb stick costs about $70-90). In the PSP value pack, Sony packaged in Spider-Man 2, which looked really nice on the PSP's colorful and vibrant screen. Right now, Spider-Man 2 is the only movie released on UMD. Others to be released soon include Hellboy, Saw, Open Water, Terminator 3, The Punisher, and the one I'm looking forward to the most, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. When traveling, the PSP is an awesome equivalent to a portable DVD player, and can fit in the palm of your hand. For the most part, the picture quality is beautiful except for certain fast-action scenes where the processor can't keep up with the action, and causes something called "ghosting" to occur. It's not terribly noticeable, so it shouldn't disrupt your viewing pleasure unless you've got eyes that automatically pick out those sorts of things.
The only thing about playing moves on the PSP that is a bit of a set-back is the prices of the movies. The PSP can only play UMD discs, and so if you want any movies for your PSP, you'll have to buy them for the same price as a regular DVD. If Sony would lower the price so that they didn't cost the same as regular DVD's that people most likely already have, the PSP would have an awesome movie selection. Sony's already making a butt-load off the PSP unit itself, costing almost as much as the PS2 and Xbox did when they were first released (1999 and 2001, respectively).
Accessories
I suggest making an investment in a screen cover for the PSP. As big as it is, and as wide open that it is, and not to mention expensive, it's easy to cause damage to the screen. MadCatz has a protective film you lay over the screen that protects smudging, as well as preventing dust from reaching the screen. Since the PSP does not have a clamshell design, the screen can be very easily damaged. You may want to buy a case to keep the PSP in while it's not being used, and the case included in the pack is pretty worthless.
There were a few accessories included in the value pack like a soft case, cloth to clean the screen with, a pair of (white) headphones with a remote, and a (white) lanyard for even more geekiness. Why Sony gives us the ugly white accessories to go with the sexy, shiny, black PSP - I will never know. In a way, Sony was advertising the Ipod and its bright pearly white case.
Battery Life
There are multiple things that can affect how much juice you can get out of the PSP before you have to charge it. First of all, the PSP has three adjustable screen brightness's. When on the lowest, you'll get more battery. When it's on high, it drains the battery faster. The battery also depends on whether or not you've got WiFi on or not. For playing games, you can get up to approximately 6 hours on one charge, though for MP3 and such it's closer to 7 1/2 - 8 hours, and about 2 1/2 - 4 hours of movie time which would allow you to watch Spider-Man 2 approximately two times before running the battery almost completely dry.
Extra batteries are about $50 (Lithium Ion, standard cell phone/handheld power source), and it would actually be a nice idea to buy an extra one or two so that you can always be playing one while another is charging.
Current Games
The PSP actually launched with a few good games. When Nintendo's DS came out, pretty much the only game for about a month or so to get was Super Mario 64 DS. The PSP has several good games, and a couple that go way beyond good and are just plain rad. The PSP launch titles accommodate several different genres, including sports, extreme sports, racing, RPG, fighting, puzzle, and action. Games like Twisted Metal: Head On (which can be played online through WiFi or wirelessly with local PSP's), Ridge Racer, Wipeout Pure, Need for Speed: Underground Rivals, Tony Hawk's Underground Remix 2, Lumines, Tiger Woods 2005, and Darkstalkers are just a few of the games available for the PSP right now, and so far it looks like the PSP might actually be a success.
There are two types of multiplayer play. The first is through ad hoc, or local PSP's wirelessly, and the second is through WiFi with a wireless router. I don't have a wireless router, nor do I have many people in my area that are my friends who have a PSP to play locally with, so I haven't really been able to experiment with any of the multiplayer. If it's anything like the Nintendo DS though, they'll be fun.
Handhelds are suppose to allow people to play games on the go, which means the Nintendo's Gameboy's have been perfect for the whole "time" thing. The PSP uses discs though, and so load times are inevitable. Most of the games I've tried so far have been good on load times, though some of them have taken up to around 7-9 seconds, which is entirely too long for a handheld. Compared to the Nintendo DS and Gameboy Advance, the PSP is very slow.
Upcoming Games
I'm very excited about the PSP's future, especially with the DS picking up speed as well. Some upcoming games that I look forward to the most include Grand Theft Auto (which hopefully isn't reverted back to 2-D for the PSP), Gran Turismo 4 Mobile (maybe with online play this time), and FFVII: Dirge of Cereberus. SCEA's also announced a portable SOCOM being released for the PSP along with SOCOM 3 this year. I have very high expectations with the SOCOM series, hopefully SCEA will pull it off on the PSP. I don't know about that analog stub though, I still haven't gotten use to it.
Overall - PSP
The PSP has a very bright future ahead of it. The PSP has recently shot up in sales in Japan to a resting amount of 1.07 units sold, and still behind the Nintendo DS by about 8 million units. I think there might be room for two handheld consoles as long as both the PSP and DS continue to release must have titles and not coming out with constant rehashes. The PSP is sleek, sexy, and shiny, and it's a gadget geek's wet dream. If you're into the multiple media functions the PSP has, you'll be very content with what the PSP has to offer. Much better than Nokia's N-BOMB, err, N-Gage. A friend of mine said it best when he said the PSP was a jack of all trades, yet a master of only one. If you've got the money ($250), the PSP is the ideal handheld to own. And if you've really got the money, go with both Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DS, and you're getting the very best of everything. Nintendo's got the innovation and creativity - the PSP's got the technical power to take us into the future.
happy gaming
Related Reviews:
Gameboy Advance SP
Playstation 2
PSP Value Pack:
- PSP
- AC Adaptor
- Battery Pack
- Headphones
- soft case
- soft cloth for wiping the screen
- 32mb Memory Stick
- Sampler Discs (no playable demos)
- Spider-Man 2 (hurry though, it's only packed in with the first 1 million units sold)
PSP - System
The first thing that most people will notice first about the PSP is how sleek it looks. At approximately 6.7" wide, 2.9" tall, and 1" thick, the PSP definitely has flashy style. The second thing would probably be the 4.3" wide (16:9) LCD screen, which compliments the PSP's sexy design with poise. One of the things I was worried about was that the PSP would be difficult to hold, but the button layout isn't all that bad.
Sony went with a horizontal design for the PSP, with most of the unit being covered by the LCD screen. The LCD can display approximately 17 million colors, and is very easily damaged and easy to smudge the screen. I'm worried about the durability of the PSP's screen more than the Nintendo DS's screens, and one of the DS's screens is a touch pad. While the DS has a clamshell design to protect the Dual Screens, the PSP's screen is vulnerable to more damage. In the past month, I've heard more about the PSP having multiple dead pixels in the screen than I've heard of the DS having any dead pixels since it came out in November. The DS has had a few default units, but Sony really screwed up with PSP's release, pretty much telling some people if they get dead pixels, tough luck.
The left side of the unit has the Sony traditional 8-way directional pad, L-trigger, and a single analog stick that is quite oddly placed. The button layout on the left of the unit reminds me of the Gamecube controller, only switched. While the Gamecube has the dinky little directional pad placed where it's difficult to use, the PSP's analog stub will take a little bit of getting use to. The right side of the unit has the square, triangle, circle, and X buttons, as well as the R-trigger and power button. The home, volume, display, sound, select, and start buttons are located along the bottom of the PSP, below the screen.
The PSP has two built in stereo speakers, one on each side of the unit. Surprisingly, they are actually fairly loud and clear. Like the minidisks, Sony opted for a different kind of medium for the games, in the form of Universal Media Discs, or UMD. The UMD's have about 1.8gb of space, which is more than enough to reach near-better PS2 graphics (early generation titles). The UMD slot is on the back of the PSP, and the eject button is very close to the right trigger. I don't have incredibly big hands, but with the PSP my hands rest to where I have accidentally pressed the eject button, rather than the trigger. This can cause some problems. UMD's are a read-only format, so the PSP must use a Memory Stick Duo to save, which are actually fairly expensive. If you're just going to game and not worry about the other PSP features, a 32 or 128mb card should suffice for a while.
PSP - Multimedia Gaming
As nice of a game system the PSP is, its also able to play MP3's, Mpeg4 video, image gallery, and it is even seen as an external hard drive when you hook it up to the computer through USB. I haven't tried the MP3 or any of the other features, and I don't even have a digital camera to store photos on my computer in the first place, so the PSP's gaming functionality is all that matters to me.
In order to use MP3, Mpeg4, or the image viewer, you have to have a memory stick to save them to. This means that if you're going to use PSP for more than its games, you're going to have to invest some money in some memory sticks (128mb stick costs about $70-90). In the PSP value pack, Sony packaged in Spider-Man 2, which looked really nice on the PSP's colorful and vibrant screen. Right now, Spider-Man 2 is the only movie released on UMD. Others to be released soon include Hellboy, Saw, Open Water, Terminator 3, The Punisher, and the one I'm looking forward to the most, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. When traveling, the PSP is an awesome equivalent to a portable DVD player, and can fit in the palm of your hand. For the most part, the picture quality is beautiful except for certain fast-action scenes where the processor can't keep up with the action, and causes something called "ghosting" to occur. It's not terribly noticeable, so it shouldn't disrupt your viewing pleasure unless you've got eyes that automatically pick out those sorts of things.
The only thing about playing moves on the PSP that is a bit of a set-back is the prices of the movies. The PSP can only play UMD discs, and so if you want any movies for your PSP, you'll have to buy them for the same price as a regular DVD. If Sony would lower the price so that they didn't cost the same as regular DVD's that people most likely already have, the PSP would have an awesome movie selection. Sony's already making a butt-load off the PSP unit itself, costing almost as much as the PS2 and Xbox did when they were first released (1999 and 2001, respectively).
Accessories
I suggest making an investment in a screen cover for the PSP. As big as it is, and as wide open that it is, and not to mention expensive, it's easy to cause damage to the screen. MadCatz has a protective film you lay over the screen that protects smudging, as well as preventing dust from reaching the screen. Since the PSP does not have a clamshell design, the screen can be very easily damaged. You may want to buy a case to keep the PSP in while it's not being used, and the case included in the pack is pretty worthless.
There were a few accessories included in the value pack like a soft case, cloth to clean the screen with, a pair of (white) headphones with a remote, and a (white) lanyard for even more geekiness. Why Sony gives us the ugly white accessories to go with the sexy, shiny, black PSP - I will never know. In a way, Sony was advertising the Ipod and its bright pearly white case.
Battery Life
There are multiple things that can affect how much juice you can get out of the PSP before you have to charge it. First of all, the PSP has three adjustable screen brightness's. When on the lowest, you'll get more battery. When it's on high, it drains the battery faster. The battery also depends on whether or not you've got WiFi on or not. For playing games, you can get up to approximately 6 hours on one charge, though for MP3 and such it's closer to 7 1/2 - 8 hours, and about 2 1/2 - 4 hours of movie time which would allow you to watch Spider-Man 2 approximately two times before running the battery almost completely dry.
Extra batteries are about $50 (Lithium Ion, standard cell phone/handheld power source), and it would actually be a nice idea to buy an extra one or two so that you can always be playing one while another is charging.
Current Games
The PSP actually launched with a few good games. When Nintendo's DS came out, pretty much the only game for about a month or so to get was Super Mario 64 DS. The PSP has several good games, and a couple that go way beyond good and are just plain rad. The PSP launch titles accommodate several different genres, including sports, extreme sports, racing, RPG, fighting, puzzle, and action. Games like Twisted Metal: Head On (which can be played online through WiFi or wirelessly with local PSP's), Ridge Racer, Wipeout Pure, Need for Speed: Underground Rivals, Tony Hawk's Underground Remix 2, Lumines, Tiger Woods 2005, and Darkstalkers are just a few of the games available for the PSP right now, and so far it looks like the PSP might actually be a success.
There are two types of multiplayer play. The first is through ad hoc, or local PSP's wirelessly, and the second is through WiFi with a wireless router. I don't have a wireless router, nor do I have many people in my area that are my friends who have a PSP to play locally with, so I haven't really been able to experiment with any of the multiplayer. If it's anything like the Nintendo DS though, they'll be fun.
Handhelds are suppose to allow people to play games on the go, which means the Nintendo's Gameboy's have been perfect for the whole "time" thing. The PSP uses discs though, and so load times are inevitable. Most of the games I've tried so far have been good on load times, though some of them have taken up to around 7-9 seconds, which is entirely too long for a handheld. Compared to the Nintendo DS and Gameboy Advance, the PSP is very slow.
Upcoming Games
I'm very excited about the PSP's future, especially with the DS picking up speed as well. Some upcoming games that I look forward to the most include Grand Theft Auto (which hopefully isn't reverted back to 2-D for the PSP), Gran Turismo 4 Mobile (maybe with online play this time), and FFVII: Dirge of Cereberus. SCEA's also announced a portable SOCOM being released for the PSP along with SOCOM 3 this year. I have very high expectations with the SOCOM series, hopefully SCEA will pull it off on the PSP. I don't know about that analog stub though, I still haven't gotten use to it.
Overall - PSP
The PSP has a very bright future ahead of it. The PSP has recently shot up in sales in Japan to a resting amount of 1.07 units sold, and still behind the Nintendo DS by about 8 million units. I think there might be room for two handheld consoles as long as both the PSP and DS continue to release must have titles and not coming out with constant rehashes. The PSP is sleek, sexy, and shiny, and it's a gadget geek's wet dream. If you're into the multiple media functions the PSP has, you'll be very content with what the PSP has to offer. Much better than Nokia's N-BOMB, err, N-Gage. A friend of mine said it best when he said the PSP was a jack of all trades, yet a master of only one. If you've got the money ($250), the PSP is the ideal handheld to own. And if you've really got the money, go with both Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DS, and you're getting the very best of everything. Nintendo's got the innovation and creativity - the PSP's got the technical power to take us into the future.
happy gaming
Related Reviews:
Gameboy Advance SP
Playstation 2
