saraab's Full Review: Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) Console
The Sony PSP Slim is my first venture into PSP gaming. I never owned the first PSP, although I have had the opportunity to fuss around with a cousin's original PSP. I can say that the PSP slim is MUCH, MUCH lighter than the original model. The old model is so heavy that it weighs more than the slim PSP plus the Logitech Playgear Pocket case that I use with my slim PSP. There really is an incredible difference in weight if you compare the 2 units. The system has definitely become more portable since its original version.
First of all, you need a memory card to do EVERYTHING. You cannot get along without one, you won't even be able to play a game without one. There is no internal storage memory on this system at all. Fortunately for PSP owners, memory for this system has gotten very cheap. The PSP uses Sony's proprietary memory card format, the MS PRO DUO. I have owned this system for about 7 months now and I paid 40$ for a 4GB memory stick, a genuine one from a retail store's website. Folks, when this system first came out it was not unusual to find memory card prices in the hundreds of dollars for just a 1GB stick. You WILL need at least a 2GB memory stick if you want to do anything with this system, and I wholeheartedly recommend buying at least a 4GB memory stick. When buying a memory stick I would avoid websites like Ebay and Amazon, as many, many fake memory sticks are sold on Ebay and through the Amazon marketplace. If you are ordering a memory stick online I would recommend using a well known retailer's site like Bestbuy.com. Fake memory sticks are bad because they can delete all your data and eventually they will just die on you and you will experience data loss and loss of the money you spent on the fake stick.
Now that we have that out of the way, what can you do with this little system?
Lets start off with the reason you are most likely considering the purchase of this system, for the GAMES! While it can do a lot of other things, this is a gaming system, so games should be the focus.
The PSP has built a nice games library up. You will find more games on this system geared for teens and adults than you will for children, say 10 and under. Yes there are some kid-friendly games on this system too, just fewer than other portable game systems on the market now. You will also find that games are harder to find in retail stores for this system than for any other system. If you are buying this system, plan to do A LOT of online shopping at various websites for games. There is a large variety of games available if you just shop online for them. Yes the game library is smaller than other portable systems on the market but how much of the library of other systems is crappy shovelware games made to cash in on a license or a current TV show fad? You won't find a lot of these types of games on the PSP, the library of games is smaller, but you will find more quality than quantity with the games. Since this system has been out since 2005, you will also find that many of its games have dropped in price especially if you are shopping online for games. There are loads of $10-$25 games on this system, and they are good games that are worth buying too.
The games are on discs, called UMD's. Its a proprietary format made exclusively by Sony. The UMD consists of the disc and then a plastic outer covering with a hole in the bottom so the system can read the disc. Its a nice design and it prevents scratches from building up on game discs.
Some examples of good PSP games are:
Wipeout Pulse and Wipeout Pure, Hot Shots Golf Open Tee 1 and 2, Daxter, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters, Final Fantasy, Lego Star Wars, Burnout Legends, Madden Football, Patapon and Grand Theft Auto.
This is just a very short list to give you an idea of some of the main games on this system.
The PSP does seem to be heavy on the RPG and Strategy games, so if you are into those genre's, this is the system for you. With games like Final Fantasy (many incantations), Harvest moon, Valkryie Profile and Rivera there will be plenty to keep the RPG fan satisfied.
Another cool thing about this system is you can download games from the Playstation Network store to your memory stick for play in the system. The downloads come with a price and cost about 4.99 to 14.99 on average. You can also download Playstation 1 games to your system from the Playstation store to play. The Playstation network also features a number of free downloadable demo's for the PSP along with a lot of other content, some of which is free. You will need a computer and a standard mini connector size USB cable to use this service. This service greatly expands the PSP's game library, and new demo's and games are added regularly. The USB cable can be bought at many online stores very cheaply (under 5$) so that is not a huge cost associated with the system.
The PSP does have the ability to play games with others over the internet, but VERY few games use this feature. Only a handful of games use this feature. This is a bit disappointing as local multiplayer is basically useless to me since I don't know anyone else with this system and the same game library that I have. It doesn't appear to be getting any better either with future releases so if you are looking for online gaming, you probably want to choose another system.
Music: The PSP system can be used as a MP3 player. Its a bit large to carry around however, if you plan on using it when you exercise. To use this feature you just transfer MP3's from your computer using the USB cable previously mentioned. Its pretty much drop and drag in that respect. The system has speakers so you and a friend can listen to a song without headphones however the sound that comes out of the speakers isn't very good. I think they could have done better here. You pretty much have to turn the volume of the system all the way up in order to get reasonable quality sound. It works much better if you purchase a cheap pair of portable speakers or listen through headphones. Sound in video games sounds fine through the speakers but its clear they were not designed to play music that well.
The PSP has the ability to connect wirelessly to any open wifi hotspot. Pretty much everyone has a wireless router these days, so this will be a feature you will most likely want to take advantage of for some purpose. Some systems will require a firmware update to use this feature but one of the greatest features of the PSP and the feature I use most outside of the games has to be the fact that it has internet radio. I am a heavy user of internet radio channels as I listen to mainly japanese music. Now I don't know how many people reading this review are going to care as much about this feature but I use it a ton. The main players consist of Shoutcast and Icecast. The radio stations I listen to on my computer are Shoutcast stations, so I can get the same stations on my PSP. I was pretty excited to find out that I could listen to my favorite radio stations over the internet on a portable device. You can also get a huge variety of stations on this device, they have a set of stations for almost any type of music you can name, including many ethnic channels. You must be connected to the internet to use this feature.
Photos: the PSP can also be used as a photo viewer. This is an especially handy feature that almost anyone will be able to make use of. Want to show your latest photos to your family, just transfer them onto your PSP and bring it over to their house and they can enjoy them along with you. The photos show up as bright and clear as they do on your computer screen. You can also zoom in and move the photo so it can be viewed on the screen. I recommend rotating the picture first so it fits the screen as you will get much better results that way. The potential cost savings over printing every digital photo that you take in order to show them to people vs just transferring them onto the PSP and showing them that way could be in the hundreds of dollars a year for me. I take a lot of photos.
Videos and movies: The PSP can play any video that is MP4 format. I do believe it plays a bunch of other popular formats but that one seem to work the best for me. You will most likely need some video converter software for this, there are a variety of free applications out there that will do the job so there is no need to pay for something. To play it on the device just transfer it to your memory stick into the appropriate folder once its in the proper format.
There are also movies available on UMD discs, which you can buy anywhere you buy games. However, movies on UMD are becoming kind of obsolete by now. The format doesn't work so good for movies because in reality you are getting more for the same price if you just buy the DVD version of the movie. Usually the UMD only contains the movie and does not contain any extras that the DVD versions have. UMD movies have also been historically expensive and sometimes even cost more than their DVD counterpart. More money for less content, no thank you.
The Internet browser: Yup the PSP can connect to the internet through its own browser too. The browser is built into the system so its free to use as long as the wifi connection you are on is free to use. The web browser works quite well for a portable browser. The text input system is clunky though. You will not be using this to replace your PC or anything, its better for quickly checking websites that do not require a login.
The system uses buttons to control all games and all other things, there is no touch screen or other input devices that have been released in the USA. It only has one analog stick so if you are used to playing console games with dual analog sticks then it might feel a bit awkward at first. The buttons work well and hold up to gaming quite well.
The screen is as bright, clear and crisp as it could possibly be. The screen is backlit of course. There are 3 brightness settings on the screen.
The battery life on this system is realistically about 3-4 hours, if that. If you are using wifi internet features, its probably about an hour. The battery life could definitely be better. This is for the slim PSP with the factory battery.
The PSP can do so much and play games as well, its up to you to find creative uses for what you can do with it and how the system will fit into your lifestyle.
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