[Hardware] PSP (PlayStation Portable)

[Piggus]

I would like to get this out of the way. The Sony PSP is the most amazing peice of hardware I have ever owned. With that said, let me tell you why.

Display and Graphics:

You have heard it many times and you will continue to hear it. The 16:9 Widescreen on the PSP is stunning to look at. Words cannot describe its beauty. The images are extremely crisp and the screen has three levels of brightness to save power. The PSP is able to display 16.77 million colors and it translates very well to the screen. The only problem is the screen atracts fingerprints and dust very easily. Luckly the included cleaning cloth is more than capable of cleaning away anything without scratching the glass screen cover. When I turned the PSP on for the first time and played one of the music videos on the demo disk, my friend next to me said, "I can't believe I'm accually seeing this." You really have to see it for yourself to understand how good it looks.
As for graphics, the PSP runs on hardware similar to the PS2. With that said, the graphics on the PSP games released so far are not of PS2 quality. This should change as the PSP gets older and developers learn more about optimizing games for it. Just look at games like Gran Turismo 4 and Metal Gear Solid 3 on PS2 compared to some of the first PS2 launch titles. You will notice a huge diference. The graphics on PSP games are still by far the best of any handheld released to this day.

Visual Design:

Everyone knows the PSP is a very sleak and stylish device. The front of the PSP is covered mostly by the screen. On the right you have the "X, O, SQUARE, and TRIANGLE butons. on the left you have the four directional buttons and an analog stick. Below the screen there is a "Home" button (that brings you to the main startup screen), Volume up and down, Screen brightness, Sound settings, and the start and select buttons. The Wi Fi switch and Memory Stick slot are on the left side of the PSP, and the Power/Hold button is on the right side. A USB port, the L and R shoulder buttons, and the UMD open button are on the top, and the power cable and headphone jack are on the bottom. On the back there is a botton you can use to remove the battery and the
PSP logo stands out nicely surounded by a silver circle. The PSP will definantly attract atention.

Multimedia Capabilities:

The PSP doesn't just play games. It also plays MP3 music files, MPEG4 videos, full length movies via UMD format, and it can store photos which can be viewed as a slideshow. The sound quality is exelent when using headphones to do any of those tasks, and unlike the iPod earphones, the included Sony earphones won't blow out upon listening to loud music. If you have an iPod, the PSP will not replace it as an MP3 player. The PSP only comes with a 32mb memory stick. And if you have a portable DVD player the PSP might not replace that either. But if you don't have either one of those and you don't listen to that much music, the PSP is a very good investment. It might be a good idea to buy a 512mb or even a 1gb memory stick later on if you plan on storing a lot of music or video files.

Games:

Despite all of PSP's features, games will always come first. If you are a fan of the PS2's library of third party developers and exclusive titles, you will love the PSP. Games like Gran Turismo 4, GTA, and Burnout will all be available for PSP. You will see a lot of ports and variations of cirtain fracises for the time being. But there are plenty of games built specificly for PSP coming out soon. One of which is Mercury. A game similar to Super Monkey Ball. What's cool about Mercury is it will use a tilt sensor where you can manuver your glob of mercury through the various puzzles just by tilting the PSP.

Value:

In my opinion, given all of PSP's features, $250 is cheap. You will realize this when you turn the PSP on for the first time. You will feel like you are robbing Sony of their money, and you probably are. This thing feels like a $400 device and Sony is probably losing money from production costs. This is normal for most console releases but this thing feels significantly expensive. With the PSP you get the unit itself, a soft carrying case, a pair of Sony earphones, the full length Spider Man 2 movie on UMD, a Music/Movie/Game video sampler UMD, a cleaning cloth (My new best friend), a power adapter/charger (plug this in and your PSP will charge even when playing games or videos), a 32mb Sony Memory Stick Duo, a 3.6v battery, and a white wrist strap so if you are whearing it while walking and you drop your PSP it won't fall to the ground and break.

Battery life:

So far, I have had no problems at all with the PSP's battery life. If you turn brightness up all the way you will get about three hours out of Ridge Racer and about five hours if you turn brightness to medium. The thing is, not many people are going to sit down and play for that long. It only takes two hours to fully chargeand if you are near an outlet, it's not that hard to get up and plug in your power adapter. To make things simple, battery life shouldn't be a problem for most people.

Dead pixels and sticky square button:

A dead pixel is when one of the screen's pixels remains always light or always dark. Many of the Japanese PSPs had this minor problem, but neither I or any of my friends have dead pixels or sticky/unresponsive square buttons on our PSPs. If you do get a dead pixel, Sony will replace your screen if you send it in to them.

Conclusion:

This is the coolest peice of hardware I have ever paid for. The cost was well worth it and, being a Sony fan, the games are very apealing to me. I am having a blast playing online and against friends with Twisted Metal: Head On and I can't wait for GTA and Burnout. If you were hesitant to buy a PSP for whatever reason, all I can say is screw your hesitation. You won't regret it.

Overall: 10/10

[cyrix]

I read Sony will not replace a PSP or fix it just because of a dead pixel.

[Piggus]

They said you should wait a week and if you still want it replaced or fixed that you should send it in. This was posted on gamespot I believe.

[X-reS]

Hopefully the'll change it so there isn't dead pixel when they come out with next wave.