Sony PSP

The Sony PSP is Sony’s first attempt at a hand-held gaming console. The product is based upon the incredibly successful Playstation 2, with such a good base for the PSP to be designed around it was always going to be of a fantastic quality. The PSP can be used to watch movies, listen to music, surf the internet, store files and photos and most importantly to play games. The PSP uses a UMD disk for both watching movies and playing games and with its software updates being distributed for free on UMDs, the PSP will probably be around for a long time to come.

A Quick Overview:

It may not be the best hand-held media product on the market, and the games lack the innovation of those for Nintendo’s portables, but as an all-in-one device, the Sony PSP is king of the hill. After a decade at the top of the home console industry, Sony decided to tackle the portable system market — one heavily fortified by Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance and the DS. Sony sought to take down Nintendo by adopting the tactic that made the Playstation 2 such a runaway success: by offering sophisticated, graphically intensive games and a heavy dose of multimedia functionality. The Sony PSP was first available online in a number of bundles. Two of the most common were the base model pack, which is just the console, battery and the AC adaptor, for around £150, and the Giga pack – which usually has a carry case, a pair of headphones and a 1GB Memory Stick Duo – for around £200. Games are around £30 and UMD movies around £17 for the latest titles

Design:

From an aesthetic perspective, the Sony PSP is a gorgeous device. It was one of the gadgets that I knew I had to have. It was the sort of thing – like with a new laptop – that you love to use, but are scared to break; fortunately, a simple neoprene slip cover was included with the £180 Value Pack. Weighing essentially the same as the Nintendo DS (176g, including removable battery) and measuring 170 by 74 by 23 mm, the body feels well built and solid in your hand. Although not a lightweight, it was by no means a brick, nor was it especially durable in a fall; you’ll want to treat the PSP just as gingerly as an iPod or a Palm-style PDA.

The centrepiece of the hand-held is especially impressive with a 109mm (4.3-inch) wide-screen display (480×272 pixels, 16.7 million colours). The screen is flanked by controls that are immediately recognisable to fans of past PlayStations: the directional keypad is to the left of the screen, and the familiar square, triangle, circle, and X buttons are to the right. Sony managed to include an analogue ‘joystick’ below the directional keypad. The stick wasn’t raised like the analogue controls on a PS2 or an Xbox, but it conveyed that multi directional element that gives it a joystick-like feel. The PSP only has two shoulder buttons but – due to the redesign of all the games for the new disks, and the fact that most companies simply brought out an exclusive PSP version of their games – this is not a problem.

The PSP uses Sony’s recently created ‘cross media bar’ interface. You use the directional keypad to horizontally navigate through Settings, Photo, Music, Video, and Game icons, and each section has other icons attached to it on a vertical axis. All in all, it’s a simple and elegant way to access the PSP’s many features.

The Slim & Lite:

In keeping with both the PlayStation and the PS2, 2 years after the release of the PSP Sony announced the new Slim and Lite.Sony decreased the weight of the PSP by 33% and made it 19% smaller.

33% is a reasonable weight decrease but 19% smaller? 19%?! Surely Sony could do better than 19% – and if not, why did they bother to develop the ‘Slim and Lite’. It doesn’t get better, either. Theres no longer a slide release for the UMD drive and the back of the hand-held is now made of plastic instead of the cool metal. The only new addition to the PSP is a TV out port – but no cable is supplied.

Personally I would place the PSP above the Nintendo DS any day, but in the reduction of their consoles’ size, Nintendo did a great job turning the DS into the DS Lite putting Sony well and truly in the shade with their attempt. If I were to look at buying a PSP now I would take myself to the gym and pump some iron so I could suffer the 33% extra weight and the insane 19% extra size (18% of which is the loss of the slide key) and save myself £70 with an original PSP from our favourite website ebay.

Summary:

Normally I’m not someone who rushes out to buy all the latest things like iphones and PS3’s, being a typically poor student with stingy parents I prefer to wait until the price is lowered. However with the PSP I bought it within a few months of it coming out. I know I’m not the only person who did that and now after over 2 years I am still not disappointed with the PSP. Its value in long journeys is unparalleled, the freedom to simply pass away the hours in a car or plane journey by sitting back with a few hours of Burnout or GTA, followed by a good film is fantastic – especially as it all fits in your coat pocket (trouser pocket would seem a tad risky what with the aforementioned fragility of the device).

The Sony PSP is in a class of its own and I would recommend it to anyone (except for maybe Satoru Iwata) and as much as I think it could be better in many small ways, for its sheer breakthrough genius at the time it was released. I give it a full 5 out of 5

Score: 5/5