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Review : Sony Playstation Portable Game System
Last Friday I was sort of shocked to see the Sony Playstation Portable in stock over at the Gamecrazy store that was a part of my local Hollywood Video. I had just dropped by with my girlfriend to rent a flick and this was not only the first time that i had seen a PSP in stock but it was the first time that I had seen one at all. There were two kids that were playing some wireless Wipeout Pure and I changed my mine about waiting on the PSP and bought the last PSP unit that they had in stock. My girlfriend was blown away by my change of heart so I rented her some movies and left the store with my brand spanking new PSP and a copy of Wipeout Pure.
The PSP box is full of all sorts of wires, there is a headphones, a headphone remote, the PSP unit, the internal battery pack, a 32 Meg Memory Stick Duo, the AC Adapter, a cleaning cloth, a storage sleeve, a wrist strap, a UMD of videos of the first batch of PSP games and a copy of the movie Spiderman 2 on UMD. One thing that is defiantly missing is a USB cable to connect the PSP to a PC or Mac. Also there is no playable game demo on the sampler disk just non-interactive video clips.
The PSP design just oozes power and grace. The design is sleek and it clearly has the mark of the Sony Playstation brand that gamers all over the world has come to love. I was absolutely blown away at how crisp, bright and clear the quite large high-resolution LCD screen is. The unit has a dark glossy feel that puts some of the high tech cell phones to shame. This is not just like a Gameboy only better it is an incredibly powerful hand held Playstation unit that comes close to the PS2 in graphics with wireless multi-player that fits in the palm of your hand with a next generation high resolution LCD screen. It is so very very good and I think it is really worth the higher price tag. The $250 price tag is nothing to scoff at but I think it is a good investment since I am sure that the PSP will be around for at least five years. I was surprised to see the analog stick under the digital pad. I always thought it was a speaker
The games are in a small DVD like disk that is contained in a protected cartridge. There is no spring covered door like the Minidisc but since the slot to the disk is reset it is not as easily scratched as a CD. I was a bit shocked to see that PSP games are $40 to $50. I guess that makes since considering that it needs just about the same development effort as a regular PS2 game. One thing that really sold me on the PSP is when I found out that only the UMD movies would be region specific. That means I could import Japanese PSP games and play them on the US unit with no modification or problems.
The next day I got together a big box of DVDs and games that I am done with and traded them in at my local Gamestop for credit for PSP games. I traded them in for a USB cable, Tony Hawk Underground 2 Remix, Metal Gear Acid and DarkStalkers. I have been impressed with the quality in graphics and game play on every game. It is right up there with the current edge of console games. The graphics power of the PSP is about the same as the Sega Dreamcast. It is much more powerful than the PSOne but it is not quite at the PS2 so the Dreamcast is a good analogy.
I think it is pretty cool that there is Wifi wireless game play on almost every game but I have not had a chance to give it a try yet.
Spiderman 2 looks awesome and I am going to get The House of Flying Daggers on UMD but I am not going to stop using DVD any time soon. I was able to transfer JPEG images, some MP3s and music video that I recompressed to MP4. I might get a full version of the iPSP application. iPSP can recompress normal video clips for the PSP and theoretically you can take a ripped DVD movie and compress it for a 512 Meg or 1 Gig MemoryStick. The problem is that the higher format memory sticks are so damn expensive that I am not sure that it really would be worth it to rip my own movies to the PSP. I already have an iPod and if I really wanted to look at images and movies I would just do it on my iBook but it is still pretty cool. It is the games that really set the PSP apart and damn are they good.
One thing that does suck is there is a dead pixel towards the top of my screen. I could send it is to Sony and get a replacement but it is hardly noticed during game play.
I think the PSP will co-exist with the Gameboy Advance and the Nintendo DS but it is clear that this is the high end of the portable game market. I almost don't think of the PSP as a portable game system since it can deliver a game experience that you expect from a set top console. Sony is not really expecting kids to be buying this but the Atari generation is now in their 30s and will think the PSP kicks much ass. These things are so damn high tech and sci-fi it almost makes up for the fact that it is 2005 and we don't have flying cars and ray guns.
Jake at March 28, 2005 
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Check out PSPWare as an alternative to iPSP: http://www.nullriver.com/index/products/pspware
I tried out iPSP and PSPware and ended up going with a PSPware license (only 10 bucks).
I am loving my PSP. I have a DS as well, but the PSP is definitely a much sexier device, though I am dying for wireless Mario Kart in the fall.
Posted by: Scott Smith at March 28, 2005 1:30 AM
Dude.. you always getting da bomb gear! I'm still trying to wear out my Gameboy SP, tho after seeing some commercials for the PSP, that sucka looks nice.. :) Keep the reviews coming, especially for some upcoming games!
Posted by: wuji at March 28, 2005 5:35 AM
I hear that Sony won't fix dead pixels, or replace the unit because of some technicallity about the pixels not being from them or something? Not sure how true that is.
Jake, I understand there is a video out cable for the psp. This kid told me that when you hook it up to the TV and play a movie, say Spiderman 2, he said it looked just like a DVD. Now this kid isn't too bright by any means, and there's no way a 1.8gig UMD movie designed for half the res as an 8gig DVD is, but is it fairly close, say VHS looking? This kid also said DVD's are now obsolete, or will be in a year or something and UMD is the new DVD... Yeah right...
Posted by: Shawn at March 28, 2005 11:27 AM
The dead pixel problem is nothing new to those of us who have been on the bleeding edge of handheld gaming. The TurboExpress Portable (handheld TurboGrafx-16) was my introduction to said problems and you'd be hard pressed to find a TurboExpress WITHOUT a dead pixel.
One or two out pixels on a PSP is no big deal (unless they're in the middle or something) but a full row or line of them (which has been reported) IS a manufacturing error and Sony WILL replace the unit.
Posted by: InsaneDavid at March 28, 2005 8:05 PM
Just last night I was thinking about GameGear and Turbo Express for some reason.. and I was thinking to myself... "Did those things use LCD monitors?" Because if they did, it certainly didn't look like it but.. of course they must have.. but was there some kind of weird plastic filter over the top? I remember my GameGear having like these visible vertical lines on the screen. Don't know how to describe - don't even remember very well. Ah well, doesn't matter.. I'll be picking up one of the black DS's soon. Still nothing on PSP that interests me but I'm sure there will be at some point.
Posted by: Rob at March 28, 2005 9:25 PM
Answered my own question.. yes.. of course they were LCD.. but not the sharp/fast TFT (active matrix) types but rather the older so-called "passive matrix" type (which is apparently still one step higher then the original color LCD displays. I still think there was some weird plastic cover on it though..
Posted by: Rob at March 28, 2005 9:36 PM
The TurboExpress used an active matrix TFT screen.
Posted by: InsaneDavid at March 29, 2005 1:49 AM
"Last Friday I was sort of shocked to see the Sony Playstation Portable in stock over at the Gamecrazy store ..."
Sometimes I get the impression the $ony marketing hype works. The shortage is in Europe where $ony is postboning the release until Q3/2005 maybe even Christmas.
There is no shortage in the US, and there will never be one ;)
Posted by: Jim at March 29, 2005 10:13 AM
The psp is awesome. the games for it are cool. the best game is mx vs. atv off the edge.
Posted by: stealth at April 20, 2007 8:22 AM
