Sony

Sony is a newcomer to the world of portable gaming, but no stranger to the video game market, which it has dominated since the mid 90s. The Playstation revolutionized the gaming industry, and now the new PSP (Playstation Portable) is changing the way people game on the go, and raising the bar for portable gaming across the board.

Sony PSP

Design: Tres cool. This game system looks sleek, shiny, and ‘spensive. The huge, letterbox-style screen dominates the PSP’s real estate space: the screen alone is about the size of an Apple iPod. Thankfully, the system isn’t much taller than that and not much wider. Compared with other portable game systems, this is like going to the I-Max theater. It is a bit awkward in the hand however, a symptom of its wideness and the positioning of the buttons. As to its portability, the system will fit into… larger pockets. It’s a bit unwieldy at times, but the screen is worth it. Interface: There’s a standard menu that’s easy to navigate using the d pad. There’s also an analog control right under the standard directional pad, which was quite responsive, especially considering it’s on a portable system. There’s about 12 buttons on this (not counting the two directional pads) but for those of you who constantly play Halo 2, you should be used to utilizing tons of controls. Things get hairy, however, when you try to use features other than gaming. Features: The PSP does a lot more than play games. It also plays mp3s, views images like iPod photo, plays UMD movies, and wireless connectivity. However, it does most of these things a bit half-assedly. In terms of mp3, the player itself is similar to that of an iPod shuffle, which is to say, functional but not much more than that. Plus, if you really want to store a number of mp3s even close to that of a dedicated player, you’ll need to pick up expensive memory cards ($100/every 1GB card you want). If you already have an mp3 player, this function probably will not be the deal breaker. If you don’t already have an mp3 player and want a good gaming consol too, this might be a good option, but for the money of the system and game card, you can be the system and just about any flash player on the market. The movie player suffers from the same memory-itis. Don’t get us wrong, it’s good to have the option, but it doesn’t replace a portable DVD player by any stretch of the imagination. Plus, you have to jump through hoops on the menu if you actually want to watch one. Speaking of watching them, the screen is big for a portable game system, but not exactly a 36” color monitor if you get what we’re saying. The image viewer is also very rudimentary and leaves much to be desired. But, like we said, it does do all these things, at least to some degree, whereas the competition doesn’t. WiFi connectivity was great on the other hand. You can only use it for gaming, but it does that just fine. You can play vs. your friend across the room, or log on to the gaming network and play people all over the world. Graphics: You’ll know where all that space devoted to the screen went when you’re marveling at the PS2-like graphics. Easily the best out of all the portable systems. Hardware and Support: A slew of great games, naturally. The system comes with a set of white ear buds, mysteriously enough, since the PSP is black. Battery life was about five and a half hours on full brightness, but you can conserve energy by turning down the contrast. One thing about the games, is the UMD format vs. the flash format that Nintendo has leads to some longer load times which can get annoying after a while.