Digital Trends

Sony PSP

March 27th, 2005 | by Brandon King

Use and Testing

The main menu of the PSP allows access to Settings, Photos, Music, Videos, and Games, and provides satisfying eye candy. One aspect of the PSP that we really like was the attention Sony puts into the interface. Background images gently swirl and morphs and transitions through menus are liquid. The anime-esque presentation makes using the PSP an enjoyable experience. Inserting a game or movie UMD automatically switches the interface to the appropriate category, and displays a background and sample clip in a small window. Accessing the UMD can be a little loud for our tastes, but is not noticeable with headphones.

Transferring media is relatively easy. For music, we used a mini USB cable and set the PSP into “USB Mode”. The MemoryStick Duo can then be accessed as a drive under My Computer. You can also use a media card reader supporting MemoryStick Duos, or one only supporting regular MemorySticks and use a MS Duo to MS adapter. The PSP supports music encoded in MP3 and ATRAC formats. We copied over a few MP3s to test sound playback, which was excellent. Transferring was quick and easy, with no special software or transcoding. We also transferred some photos to test the slideshow feature. Images could be zoomed, auto resized to fit the screen height or width, and rotated quickly. We were unable to find a way to play music while viewing a slideshow. In the interest of time, we did not transfer video because we felt it was necessary to research the MPEG-4 transcoding options before making a final ruling. Remember that video can only be transferred to the Memory Stick Duo, and right now the maximum capacity is 1GB (which will cost nearly as much as the PSP itself), making extensive video use somewhat unlikely. It will be interesting to see when UMD writers hit the market, if the PSP will read them. This would alleviate the video capacity limitation.

Setting up the wireless options is straightforward and the PSP support 128-bit WEP encryption. We had no trouble connecting to our wireless access point, but there was unfortunately no content to download. We will test head-to-head gaming in the next couple days and post the results on the forums.

The UMD has several drawbacks and advantages. PSP games are not region encoded, but the movies are. There are no UMD recorders available to the public, so playing your own content must occur through the MemoryStick. Movies, which must constantly access the UMD, drain battery more quickly than games. Unlike most other optical media, the UMD has a protective plastic holder, which will hopefully add to the longevity of the discs. Again, we are looking at a proprietary Sony media technology, which we are not thrilled about. Expect a similar tactic to the MemoryStick, where all portable products that play movies will do so from UMDs, in order to retain customers' generation after generation, and from one device category to another.

The Sony PSP Media

We tested the PSP with Need for Speed Underground: Rivals, Lumines, WipeOut Pure, and Dynasty Warriors, as well as the supplied Spider-Man 2 UMD. The graphics were near PS2 quality and never stuttered, the load times were very tolerable, and the audio quality was excellent. The analog pad was responsive, and the placement of the various switches, cords, and buttons was well thought out to avoid accidentally causing problems during use. Sony rates the battery life at 3-5 hours for video, and 4-6 hours for game play. In our yet-to-be-concluded battery tests, we were able to play for a solid 4.5 hours, and found the battery to be at only 40%. We will run a series of battery tests over the next few days, and post the results in our forums. Sufficed to say, the battery life is very good.

There are a few concerns we have with the PSP. First of all, the MemoryStick cover feels very flimsy and is prone to open when playing games if you are not careful; it is easy for the palm of your hand to open it. Secondly when you are flipping the Hold switch off, it is easy to accidentally push the button up too far and putting the system into standby mode. And lastly, this is not a system for your little kids. Compared to the Nintendo DS for example, we would give the PSP a 6 out of 10 for overall durability; this is a very delicate piece of technology.