Sony PSP
Feature
Sony's new Play Station Portable (PSP) has been on store shelves for a while now, and I have to admit I'm interested.
Sony's new Play Station Portable (PSP) has been on store shelves for a while now, and I have to admit I'm interested. Years ago I bought myself a Nintendo Game Boy color and then acquired several games to play on it. 10 to 15 years ago Nintendo had the market cornered and there weren't many competitors that could match the Game Boy for its variety of games and small compact size. The original Game Boy came out in 1989. It was the perfect compact hand held game console for the kids to take along on the long trip to the beach for summer vacation. I had one and would use it when things got slow and I didn't have access to the PC to play games or if I went on a business trip to pass the time on long flights. Sometimes people would look at me and I knew they were trying to figure out what would possess an adult to want to play a kids game. Well, the days of the pixilated graphics of the old Game Boy and its accompanying stigma as a child's toy are gone. It's the 21st century and Sony has a winner on its hands as far as the hand held game console market goes. Nintendo has some competition.
A new era for handheld graphics
Sounds like...
PSP sound is rather good. It is stereo and there are small speakers on the unit. Of course it won't sound like your expensive home audio system but it is sufficient for a hand held gamer. It comes complete with ear bud type headphones that have a remote control wire. You can down load MP3 files from your computer and listen to them just like you would from a dedicated MP3 player. Of course there is no FM radio or voice recorder that often comes standard on today's MP3 player. One down side to using the PSP as a music player is the small memory card that comes with the unit. It is only 32 megabytes in size. Plan on getting a bigger memory card. These cards are called Sony Memory Stick Duo cards. These are a Sony proprietary memory card so you won't be able to use the card from your video or digital camera.
You're in control
The game controls on the PSP are very iPod like and the buttons resemble the Play Station 1 or 2 consoles. They are very functional and do what they are intended for. One draw back I found is that if you have large hands, using the thumb keys can become stressful for the thumbs. Mainly because of the various moves required for some games. The thumbs on a big hand can become fatigued. Here is a short synopsis of the various keys and exactly what they do:
Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left). Analog Stick. Enter keys (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square). Left, Right shoulder buttons x 1. START button, SELECT button, HOME button x 1, POWER/HOLD switch x 1. Display button, Sound button, Volume +/- buttons x 1, Wireless LAN switch (ON/OFF) x 1, OPEN latch (UMD) x 1
Other Features, Games and Options
Other things I really liked about the PSP are that it is Wi-Fi capable. This is fantastic if you are into multi-player games. All you need to do is find a Wi-Fi (IEEE802.11b) hot spot and you are ready to compete against up to 16 of your friends over a network. The unit also has infrared (IR) built in so you can play against a friend, as long as you are in line of sight of each other. It has a USB 2.0 port, which will allow you to use the unit as a USB memory device.
The PSP is powered by a lithium-ion battery and has an AC adaptor that is included with the unit. Obviously when you are using the AC adapter you can play forever. The lithium-ion battery is another story. It will last for 4 to 6 hours of game playing time. This in my opinion isn't really that long. The main reason for the relatively short battery life is that the system disk, the Universal Media Disk (UMD) is continuously spinning during game play. I think the batteries should last longer so this is a slight drawback. Getting back to the UMD media device. The disk is touted as being the next generation of storage media. It is only 60mm in diameter and can hold 1.8 gigabytes of data, about the size of 2 regular CD-Rom disks. This again is Sony exclusive and is new, thus the number of games available now are limited. There are about 100 games in the planning stage and some 30 games available at this time. A few of the titles available now are Gretzky NHL Hockey, MVP Baseball, Spiderman 2, FIFA Soccer and Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf. In addition to games being rare at this time, movies are almost non-existent. They have Spiderman 2, Hellboy and Resident Evil available now. There are a few other movies that are available but it might be a long time coming before movies are readily available for the PSP. That's too bad because the picture quality is excellent. Don't let that scare you away from the PSP because it is new and anything new needs time to catch on. I predict that by this time next year the PSP will be a best seller.
Not for free
At this time a new PSP will set you back to the tune of about 250 dollars. You can expect to get the PSP, a 32 megabyte memory card, AC adapter, lithium-ion battery pack, head phones with remote and a soft carrying case with wrist strap, plus a demo UMD. There are various package deals that include some games and one or two extra accessories; these packages can go for 500 dollars. I looked around on the Internet and found the price of games is very similar to what you would expect to pay for a PS 2 or PC game. That being from about 40 to 50 dollars per game.
Pro's
As with everything that is a first version there are pros and cons. Lets start with the pros first: The LCD screen is outstanding, the sound is good, and the unit is small and very portable. It has Wi-Fi and IR so you can play games against other people and you can listen to MP3 music. Price isn't that bad considering the good quality and the unit just looks cool in its black and silver paint job!
Cons
The lithium battery doesn't last very long. The LCD screen is fragile and can easily be damaged if not careful. The game availability right now for multi player is very limited. The new disk drive isn't compatible with anything except the PSP. This might make Sony happy but owners won't be happy because the availability of DVD type movies might take a very long time to come out, being that UMD is brand new. I wouldn't suggest buying the PSP if you plan on watching a lot of movies. Lots and lots of movies aren't going to happen any time soon. And last but not least the memory card that comes with the unit is small.
The verdict?
All in all I would highly recommend getting a PSP. It's new and Sony makes it. The name Sony says it all. They are big and every game developer will eventually produce titles for the PSP. There are some accessories available now but we will see increases in that department in the future once it catches on and other companies are granted licenses to produce add-ons.