2008 Woodie Awards
Why The PSP Took Over My Life
A Review of Sony's Latest Success
Dylan Kurlansky
Issue date: 5/16/05 Section: Science & Tech
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Device: PSP
Developer: Sony
Price: $250 (aprox.)
Form Factor: Portable
It's 2 AM on a Thursday night and I have a paper due Monday. Am I busily slaving away at my school work or preparing for bed? No, what am I doing instead? I am staring at 4.3" rectangle. That rectangle is the screen of my new Play Station Portable (PSP). The PSP is Sony's first foray into the arena of handheld gaming and so far has been a huge success. The system weighs in at an unobtrusive 8.36 oz., however, while the PSP won't give anyone a hernia from carrying it around, its 6.7" x 2.9" frame is a bit to big to fit comfortably into most pockets. Further, unlike the Nintendo DS or Game Boy Advance SP (GBA SP) the PSP does not fold over to protect its screen, making a carrying case and/or screen protector a must have, further adding to the systems bulk. On the brighter side, the systems dimension does allow for a nice size screen as well as easy access, comfortable hand controls; a feature not found on the GBA SP which is too small too comfortably keep both hands on.
The PSP's screen is beautiful; it is a 4.3" LCD widescreen with a resolution of 480 x 272 capable of rendering 16.77 million colors and graphics on par with those of a Sega Dreamcast or better. The media that is used by the PSP is UMD (Universal Media Disc): a 2 in disk capable of holding up to 1.8 GB of games, movies, music, or whatever. For storage of user information (i.e. save game files) the PSP uses Sony Memory Sticks Duo and even comes packaged with one 32 MB stick, plenty of storage too get started. The PSP sports a Lithium Ion battery with nearly five hours of continuous use capability. Granted this is a little on the short side but the quality of the gaming experience for those hours makes up for it.
Now, to the various functions of the PSP: music, pictures, movies, and games.
Music: honestly don't buy a PSP for it MP3 capabilities. It won't replace anyone's IPod since it has limited internal memory, Memory Sticks are expensive, and the sound quality isn't any better then that of an average MP3 player. Regardless of the music functions shortcoming the PSP's other usages are worth the price alone.
Developer: Sony
Price: $250 (aprox.)
Form Factor: Portable
It's 2 AM on a Thursday night and I have a paper due Monday. Am I busily slaving away at my school work or preparing for bed? No, what am I doing instead? I am staring at 4.3" rectangle. That rectangle is the screen of my new Play Station Portable (PSP). The PSP is Sony's first foray into the arena of handheld gaming and so far has been a huge success. The system weighs in at an unobtrusive 8.36 oz., however, while the PSP won't give anyone a hernia from carrying it around, its 6.7" x 2.9" frame is a bit to big to fit comfortably into most pockets. Further, unlike the Nintendo DS or Game Boy Advance SP (GBA SP) the PSP does not fold over to protect its screen, making a carrying case and/or screen protector a must have, further adding to the systems bulk. On the brighter side, the systems dimension does allow for a nice size screen as well as easy access, comfortable hand controls; a feature not found on the GBA SP which is too small too comfortably keep both hands on.
The PSP's screen is beautiful; it is a 4.3" LCD widescreen with a resolution of 480 x 272 capable of rendering 16.77 million colors and graphics on par with those of a Sega Dreamcast or better. The media that is used by the PSP is UMD (Universal Media Disc): a 2 in disk capable of holding up to 1.8 GB of games, movies, music, or whatever. For storage of user information (i.e. save game files) the PSP uses Sony Memory Sticks Duo and even comes packaged with one 32 MB stick, plenty of storage too get started. The PSP sports a Lithium Ion battery with nearly five hours of continuous use capability. Granted this is a little on the short side but the quality of the gaming experience for those hours makes up for it.
Now, to the various functions of the PSP: music, pictures, movies, and games.
Music: honestly don't buy a PSP for it MP3 capabilities. It won't replace anyone's IPod since it has limited internal memory, Memory Sticks are expensive, and the sound quality isn't any better then that of an average MP3 player. Regardless of the music functions shortcoming the PSP's other usages are worth the price alone.