Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) > Reviews (301)

FIRSTLY...

First off the PSP is the best handheld console out there at the moment. Mine rarely leaves my side as it can play music, store pictures, play games, surf the internet wirelessly, play movies and many more things. So if you are determined to own a hand held console the PSP is the right choice to make...If you have the money.

PRICE

The price of the PSP and its accessories have dropped alot since the inital release so now is a good time to get one. When the PSP was launced just over a year ago now it was around £180-£250 depending on how many extras you wanted. The Memory cards have also come down in price, almost by half (The 1GB ((gigabyte) memory card was about £80 - £100 but is now around £50)) as have the UMD movies.

GAMEPLAY

There are many UMD videos avaliable for the PSP with more titles on the way so there is plenty to watch. However the games avaliable for the PSP are quite few in comparisson and many remade titles that were on PS2 dont work so well on the PSP. For example tenchu on PS2 worked fine and was a fairly good game but tenchu on the PSP is quite boring and simple. This is mainly due to the fact that the PSP has not got enough buttons to use when playing games, PS2 has an extra analogue stick and two more shoulder buttons. This makes games like tenchu, dynasty warriors, Tomb raider and other such games fiddily and awkward to use.

GRAPHICS

When playing a game on the PSP you will notice that the graphics are better than PS1 but not as good as PS2 but then it is only a handheld. Most games work well especially when they are made just for PSP as this means that if the games designers have thought everything through properly the game will not be fiddily, awkward or just a copie/ remake of an older PS2 title. When watching a UMD video on the PSP the quality is excellent and plays just as if it is on TV so it is well worth getting if you dont play games and you just want a small screen to watch your favourite films on, just like a portable DVD player.

DESIGN

The design of the PSP makes it easy to hold and much thought must have gone into the design layout as the buttons are well spaced so they are easy to access when playing games. It is light enough to hold comfortably and the smooth face on the front allows it to be cleaned easy, but finger prints do get smudged over the screen. The PSP is avaliable in black, ceramic white and sony is rumoured to soon be releasing a pink PSP, so girl gamers may want to hold on for a bit!!!

SOUND

The PSP allows you to store MP3 songs on your memory stick and depending on the size of your memory card and the size of your songs you can hold upto and over 500+ songs. The PSP speakers are good quality but are very quiet so you may want to use headphones or purchase the sound amplifing rest station if using it at home. Sound on the games is very good quality too.

WIRELESS INTERNET AND UPDATES

If you own a wireless router and have an internet connection you can surf the internet wirelessly and vist website just like on a PC.

most webpages load up fine and you can even download music, videos and pictures.On some games you can even play wirelessly against other people using a wirless router. You can also use the router to update your PSP for the latest updates. So far there have been many updates which now allow PSPs to:- play flash games, Increase security, play wma files and many many more. Using the new flash player update you can store some flash games onto the PSP and play them offline!!! The ability to surf the internet wirelessly makes the PSP a good source for information, it has helped me with college work and many more questions. Parents can put parental control on the PSP to stop children accessing the internet without a password so as to stop them accessing adult sites, another great use of the PSP... The parental control i mean, not the adult sites : ). You can bookmark sites as well so you dont lose your favourite ones like google, ask etc.

ACCESSORIES

Many accessories are available for the PSP such as extra batterys incase you go on a long journey and have no way of charging the console, screen protectors to stop the screen from being scratched and protective cases to protect the PSP from bumps and knocks. some of the accessories are expensive, such as the battery which i have seen for around £15 and the sound station which goes upt around £40. I have seen clip on covers for the PSP for sale in a few places so that you can change the colour of the PSP but these restrict the buttons and makes them slightly harder to get to, it may not seem like much but when you get annoyed with a game as it laughs in your face when you die or fail yet again you automatically blame the PSP for some reason and the face will be ripped of and smashed because it made you "miss pushing the jump button" etc.

VIDEOS

Using a PC or the wireless internet you can save MP4 videos to your PSP to watch over and over again. I Have a simpsons episode saved on my memory stick so i can watch it over and over again amoungst other favourites.

PROBLEMS

The PSP has many small problems which are not too bad but which can be quite annoying. Firstly you will notice that when you PSP is on and the screen goes black (like when loading etc) you will see tiny tiny white dots. These are burnt out pixels on the LCD screen and will not go away. They are very hard to see but when you pay upto £200 for a handheld console you do expect a little better. Also the analogue stick is very small and can be fiddily if you have big thumbs or hands. Screen protectors are cheap to buy and if you are buying a PSP i suggest you get some as the PSP front can get some very nasty chips and scratches in which are annoying when you are playing a game or trying to watch a film. I also find that sometimes the PSP will freeze when loading on the internet on when playing a game (It has only frozen once when i was playing a game and this may be due to the actual game though). I have had to send my original PSP back to sony when it refused to charge and they sent me a REFERBISHED one which i was not happy about as when i paid that much for a console i would expect a NEW one if it breaks due to sony.

SUMMARY

Well worth getting if you want a handheld console or MP3 player but if you are just looking for a console i would spend the little extra and go for a 360 at the moment. A wireless router is the best accessory a PSP can have as this will allow wireless surfing of the internet and this makes the PSP twice as much fun at least. it also enables you to download loads of stuff and update whenever a new update is available. Remeber the Pink PSP will be available shortly if you want to hold on a wile and christmas deals may be worth waiting for!!!