The screen is absolutely gorgeous, people raved when Nintendo released a gameboy which had a screen you could actually see properly, people will rave about this. It can output 16 million colours in 480 by 272 pixels, which gives this unparalleled quality of picture and screen clarity. Not only does the screen give a brilliant quality picture but it can be viewed from pretty much all angles without image distortion. At last people green with envy can poke over your shoulder and see what your doing.
Coupled with a very clear screen is the hardware that runs the unit. The psp can generate high quality graphics with a superb framerate, allowing games to play very smoothly. Playing Ridge Racers on the Japanese import PSP is an absolute joy to play and mixes Ridge Racer Type 4, with some of the tracks from the original Ridge Racer with PS2 graphics. The internal cpu of the psp is clocked at 333MHz, faster than most PDA?s, and comes with 32mb of main memory, along with 4MD embedded DRAM.
The PSP also comes equipped with a wireless lan linkup. What does this mean? Multiplayer like you?ve never seen it. Forget link cables, or Infrared adapters, this is just like playing over the internet, no split screens. Which also makes the PSP great for teamplay.
The way you insert the game discs works in much the same way as a minidisk player, the back panel pops open, and you can slide your game discs in and out very easily. The games utilise sony?s proprietary UMD?s (Universal Media Discs) which can store 1.8gb of data. Which is impressive considering these are smaller than minidisks.
The psp unit itself isn?t too heavy and is pretty nimble when it comes to handling, as opposed to the cumbersome DS. Unfortunately sony has compromised on sound with the psp. The inbuilt speaker isn?t very good, or very loud for that matter, but the unit does come with a headphone kit which isn?t too bad on sound quality.
The only thing about the PSP that annoys me is the feel of the buttons, and the directional pad. The D-Pad isn?t very responsive and needs a little bit of force when using it and the buttons are very slightly sticky.
You can easily squeeze 4-6 hours of game time out of this little gem, with its inbuilt lithium ion battery.
Upon purchasing your psp your unit will also come with a variety of different accessories including a protective wallet, and headphone set.
The only thing you wont be happy about with the PSP is the price tag. Currently the Japanese import version retails at ?380. Ouch, whereas when it is released in march, you will be expected to pay ?180 retail. Almost twice the amount of a PS2 Slimline. But since when is a PS2 playable on the move? This is the price you pay for a truly amazing portable gaming and media system.
Summary
Pros:
- Huge screen with excellent clarity and quality
- Long battery life
- PS2 Graphics at smooth framerate
- Plays mp3?s and video
- Wireless multiplayer gaming
- Lightweight and nimble
Cons:
- Poor speaker quality
- Button responsiveness
- Screen easily scratches
- Retail price tag
All in all, the PSP gets a rating of 9/10
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