Introducing the Sony PSP

The PSP and the box it will come in

The first thing you'll notice about the PSP is that this thing is one sweet looking peice of hardware. Sony has chosen to differentiate it's portable system from Nintendo's in the fact that the PSP looks more like an "adult" gaming system by making it slick, shiny, and black. It's perfectly clear from the first look at the system that this is definately not a toy.

The second thing that stands out to me is the beautiful widescreen LCD. This has got to be one of the brightest and crispest portable displays I have ever laid my eyes on. You can even adjust the brightness of the screen in case your in a bright environment or you want to conserve battery life. Either way you have got to see this screen to truly appreciate it. The PSP has plenty of buttons as well. It has the typical Playstation button layout with the x, triangle, circle, and square buttons on the face of the unit, and it also sports two left and right shoulder buttons as well. You'll also find the standard Sony D-Pad as well as an analog stick, or nub as most are calling it. This will be the first portable game system to ever sport an analog stick and for those of you who have not used it yet, it may look small and clumsy but it works like a dream. In fact I like the feel of the PSP analog stick even better than the analog sticks on the dualshock 2 controller. It's just got a tighter and more responsive feel to it. And although it looks like it's in an odd location on the PSP face, it really feels very comfortable using the stick while holding the system. The UMD game discs slide into a slot on the back of the unit. These UMD discs are really small, much smaller than I had pictured them before I saw the unit. The discs do come in a tray and cannot be removed from it. This is to help keep the disc from getting scratched or smudged with tiny fingerprints. Overall I must say that I am really impressed with the design of the PSP system. It's a sleek, well-thought out design that will definately turn heads if you're playing it out in public.

The power of the PSP is phenomenal to put it mildly. To put it into laymans terms, the PSP is almost as powerful as the PS2 system. In fact, considering that the PSP has a load of special effects built into the hardware that the PS2 doesn't, you could say the PSP is even more powerful in some ways. So if the Nintendo DS system can be compared to the N64, then it would be safe to compare the PSP to the Playstation 2 in terms of graphical capabilities. Needless to say this tiny portable system packs a lot of punch.

A lot of people have been asking the same question. What is the battery life like on the PSP? Well Sony finally answered that question officially yesterday. They claim the battery life on the PSP playing games is between 4-6 hours depending on the settings of the game and the system. They also claim that the PSP can play movies on UMD discs for 4-5 hours, which is quite a bit longer than most people predicted. So while 4-6 hours per charge isn't a lot of time compared to the Nintendo DS, it's still a lot better than we expected.

PSP STUFF

PSP Accessories

Now what would a portable game system be without accessories. And the Sony PSP has plenty of them. As you can see in the picture above, Sony is releasing a hard carry case, extra batteries, a special PSP 32 MB memory stick, as well as a nice little set of headphones. Considering the high-quality normally associated with Sony media products we expect all these accessories to be top notch and all are expected to be available when the system launches as well as about a dozen game titles that still hasn't been finalized as of this writing.

While it's going to be an uphill battle with Nintendo's DS system, especially considering Nintendo is getting the jump on Sony with the November release of the DS, Sony has created an absolutely amazing little portable gaming system in the PSP. Capability-wise, the Sony PSP is quite a bit ahead of the DS. And now that Sony has announced a price that is very competetive with Nintendo's $149.99 DS price tag, I think it's safe to assume that Sony is going to give Nintendo a definate run for their money with the PSP. And I can promise all you anxious gamers out there who can't wait to get your hands on the PSP, the wait will be well worth it. The PSP is gonna turn some heads on December 12. Mark it down!

--Corbie Dillard
________________________________________________________________
HOME
________________________________________________________________