Hands-on Review: Sony Play Station Portable

[Deathdart]

I would like to share with you my hands on experience with my Sony PSP, which not only plays games but also music & movies and displays images. Lets start off the review with some technical specs.

Technical Specifications:
- Processor: 333 MHz PSP CPU (underclocked to 222 MHz to save battery life.)
- Internal Memory: 32 MB
- GRAM: 4 MB
- Display: 4.3 inch, 16:9 Wide Screen TFT LCD
- Input: USB 2.0, Memory Stick DUO/ Pro DUO, UMD Media, Wi-Fi, Infrared Direct Access Port
- Multiplayer Connectivity: Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b (Ad-Hoc and Infrastructure)

Value Pack Contents:
- Sony PSP
- Headphones with remote
- PSP cover with wrist strap
- 32MB Memory Stick DUO
- DC Adaptor/Charger

Must Have addons:
- 256MB+ Memory Stick Pro Duo
- USB Cable
- Carrying Case
- Better quality headphones

Supported Formats:
- Music: MP3, MP4, ATRAC3, WAV
- Video: MP4
- Images: JPG, GIF, TIFF, BMP

The PSP is truly an all round portable entertainment system. It's your MP3 player, gaming console, picture viewer and movie viewer all packed into a small package. The sound quality on the PSP may not be impressive on the PSP's speakers which are not quite loud enough, but plug in the head phones and you have excellent sound quality and volume. Even my compressed 64 KBPS MP3 files sound good with the headphones on. The MP3 playing software is quite basic. It features shuffling, group mode and standard play functions. The one thing that's lacking is a visualization system. That doesn't matter too much though, because you will rarely find yourself staring at the PSP's display while listening to music.

The video quality on the PSP has been improved drastically after the 2.0 firmware update. Video quality similar to UMD video can now be used for Memory Stick video. This means you can watch high quality movies and videos on your PSP, albeit at a higher file size. The video player, like the MP3 player, is quite basic.

The photo viewer on the PSP is quite impressive. Your photos will look amazing on the bright 4.3 inch display. The viewer also has a slideshow mode with some nifty features, like a filmstrip that pops up at the bottom of the screen displaying a scrolling view of all your photos/images. You can exchange your images with nearby PSPs via Wi-Fi. The 2.0 firmware update has also added a wallpaper function, so now you can set any of your images as your PSP's background if you get bored looking at the wavy animated backgrounds. These animated backgrounds change to a different colour every month, which can get annoying sometimes because some of the colours (eg. lime, bright pink, etc.) look extremely bad.

Though many say the battery life is not satisfactory, the truth is it couldn't have been better. The battery can last for over 6 hours when playing games at low brightness. It lasts over 20 hours while continuously listening to MP3s with the display turned off. It will last 6-8 hours while watching movies. Even multiplayer gaming via Wi-Fi can be continued for about 4-5 hours at a stretch. Now, unless someone out there has perfected some new technology to make batteries last much longer with such intensive continuous use, I would say the PSP's battery life is quite good.

One of the most important new additions to the PSP is a web browser. It is very fast and renders pages accurately. Flash is currently not supported, but everything else (internet related) works fine on it. The browser itself has all the functions a browser should have, like tabbed browsing, history, cache and even a mouse pointer which can be controlled by the analog nub!

Right now, it is impossible to pirate the UMDs that the PSP uses for gaming and movies. However, hackers have provided game ISOs that can be run off the Memory Stick. Unfortunately, this only works on older versions of the PSP firmware. It's the same with all of the free software available for the PSP, such as PSP versions of DOOM, Duke Nukem, Heretic, console emulators, homebrew games etc. Only version 1.50 and older can run these software, because Sony added many security measures to versions 1.51+. This is a HUGE turn off for all the people who upgraded their PSP's software, as it cannot be reverted to an older version.

So, overall the PSP is an excellent buy, retailing for just Rs. 13,000 and providing features that would usually cost much more if bought individually in the form of MP3 players, media centres etc. I rate the PSP a 9.5/10 - A MUST BUY portable device.

This concludes my review for now. If you have any questions related to the PSP, please ask me so that I may be able to help you out.

EDIT: Here are a few photos of my PSP and a UMD (Ridge Racer). The quality is quite low because these were taken from my bro's cell phone camera:
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Regards,
- Deathdart.

[quad master]

Gr8 Review there m8.

You seem to know ur PSP a lot.

Thanks a lot for sharing ur views on PSP this would
really help many ppl buying a PSP get a idea of what PSP is.

Also what game titles do u have and are the games titles easily available here.

And whats the cost of each UMD based Game.

[Deathdart]

I currently have only one game viz. Ridge Racer. It's a really nice game. The games are not very easily available, but you will probably get them at some big CD/Mobile Hardware shops. The UMDs cost anything between Rs. 2000 to 3500, depending on where you buy them.

[mohit]

nice review there ... everything about the psp is fine but the biggest drawback will be the availability of games and their cost .. the cost can be considered but gamers will want to get hold of the latest titles soooon. and as piracy is not supported then it will surely be for the rich and for people living in metros ... pirated games circulate very very fast all across the country whereas genuine versions take ages.

[KHUBBU]

Good review!

Mods requested to make this sticky atleast for 2 months.

[magnet]

simply marvellous......but since its a portable device it must b sticky in mobile monsters section......but still also gr8 review m8

[Deathdart]

Thanks guys!

@mohit: Yeah, I agree that pirated games are more affordable, but with the PSP you don't necessarily need to have too many games. As I said earlier, it is a complete entertainment solution, so if you don't have many games, use it as an MP3 player or video/photo viewer. Besides, when you buy a PSP, you might as well not upgrade the firmware. If you have version 1.0 or 1.5, then you can play literally thousands of games on the PSP for free by means of emulators and remakes of older games.

[AlienTech]

Really surprised they are selling these for about $300 here. Since they are selling PS1's and Dreamcasts selling for $20/$30 in US/EU for rs6000 and almost everything else is double or more. I was looking at the PSP or the Nokia NGage and havent decided just yet. If the PSP had a phone it would be a no contest.

A lot of games and accessories for it too.

PSP Value Pack
AC adaptor
Battery pack
Memory Stick Duo (32 MB)
Headphone with remote control
Soft case and cloth
UMD In-pack Sampler

Link 1

Link 2

[kaysquare]

I would love to see someone running linux on this Babe

[Major-Minor]

* Is the Internet Browser a third party software or provided by sony themselves?
* Any essential softwares and accessories one must get upon buying the PSP, apart from what you have already mentioned.
* Are games and movies easily available?

[Sourabh]

Originally Posted by kaysquare

I would love to see someone running linux on this Babe

Well with recent updates and testing on the PSP, Linux and windows 95 have been emulated to work on the PSP. Google and you get the links for it. If you are lazy click here. I had posted a entry on my blog about the same from the pspupdates.com which was the first few sites to have it up on their site and discussions about the same were like 80 pages in a lil over an day if I am not mistaken. But the site seems to be not opening from the past 2 hrs. Checkthis link later if the site is up back again.

Originally Posted by Major-Minor

Is the Internet Browser a third party software or provided by sony themselves?

the Internet Browser has been provided with the upgraded 2.00 firmware. For more info on the same check this out.

Originally Posted by Major-Minor

Any essential softwares and accessories one must get upon buying the PSP, apart from what you have already mentioned.

The softwares required for audio/video/images and system settings updates are available with the firmware upgrade. As Already mentioned, you cant run downloaded games as yet from the memory stick if you have the already upgraded PSP with 2.00 firmware or you have upgraded it yourself. the list of accessories can be endless but not all seen on the internet can be available in India. Ebay.in has quite a lot of PSP accessories so do a search in there.

Originally Posted by Major-Minor

Are games and movies easily available?

What does that mean? Official games or thru the Internet?. Well if you are in the metros i dun think it would be a problem. but i seriously doubt if anyone would buy more than a couple of games. Its too expensive for anyones liking.

[Major-Minor]

Thanks for the reply Sourabh, yes I meant are games and movies officially available, here in Mumbai. I know they are expensive but are they available in decent quantities? Agreed I won't be buying all of those available because of the exorbitant rates, but atleast I'll have a choice when it comes to buying the games or/and the movies.

[Deathdart]

@Sourabh: You sure know a lot about the PSP Do you own one too?

@Major-Minor: My answers to your questions would be the same as Sourabh's, so I'm not posting anything about that.

[magnet]

major i guess getting a disc in mumbai unless u hav big bucks........r u going to buy 10 disc????they would cost mor than wht u bought the psp...almost 15k....if u hav the money then no one can stop u frm gettin disc...jus inform the mall guys to get it one for u......

[Deathdart]

You don't need to buy too many games right away, right? Buy one or two games that have a lot of replay value (e.g. NFSU Rivals) and then wait a few months for the games prices to drop.