Sony PSP Review
By Brandon King
March 27th, 2005
Summary
While we realize there are beaucoup reviews flooding the web, we decided to put the ole Designtechnica spin on Sony's long awaited Playstation portable. The highly anticipated device marks Sony's entry into the portable gaming market, long dominated by the Nintendo Gameboy and its siblings. Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few months, you've seen the various gadget and technology sites feverishly posting every new detail of the PSP. But, Sony has opted to market toward those with disposable income, and it shows in the overall design of the unit.
Full Review
We were struck by the PSP's remarkable similarity to the Sony HMP-A1 portable video player in terms of design. The PSP uses the same high gloss, smudge-prone case featuring a black and silver color scheme. The unit itself is slightly too big for the average pants pocket, but fits nicely in a suit coat's inner pocket. The PSP uses Sony's proprietary media format called the Universal Media Disc (UMD), which are inserted into a spring loaded compartment in the back of the unit. This might be annoying for case makers who want users to be able to play while in their case, while still being able to swap out games. The left side hides a Memory Stick Duo Pro slot, and a switch for turning the WLAN on or off manually. The Memory Stick Duo slot will accept the older MemoryStick Duos in addition to the new Pros, and it should be noted that any Duo can be converted into a regular Memory Stick by using an available Sony adapter. The top edge of the PSP has a USB mini port for PC connectivity. The power button is along the lower right side, and can be set to a ‘Hold' position to deactivate the buttons when watching movies or listening to music. The in-line remote on the headphones will still function if the PSP is in Hold mode. The interesting thing is that all buttons on the surrounding edge are solely hardware focused.
The Sony PSP Value Pack
All system and universal buttons are along the bottom front edge. This includes Volume +/-, Home, Brightness, Sound, Select and Start. Home returns you to the PSP dashboard during game play or while watching movies. The brightness button toggles between 4 levels of brightness for the backlight. Holding down the Brightness button turns off the backlight, which is also turned off by inactivity after a user defined amount of time. The Sound button toggles between 5 equalizer modes — Heavy, Pops, Jazz, Unique, and Off. The equalizer is disabled during game play, and only is active when using headphones. Holding the Sound button down mutes the PSP during all modes.
The front of the unit sports a full PS2 style controller, including upper left and right triggers, and an analog thumb pad. The main attraction of the PSP is the large, beautiful display. This display is easily the best quality we have seen on almost any portable device, gaming or otherwise. It offers bright, vibrant colors, with no smearing of ghosting during game or action sequences. Situated on the bottom left and right are the stereo speakers, which are surprisingly clear for their size. Indicators for MemoryStick access, WLAN activity, Power status and Hold status are situated at the bottom left and right edges.
Sony USA is only selling the Value Pack, which contains a neoprene slip case, 32MB Memory Stick, power adapter, Spiderman 2 movie UMD, and cleaning cloth. The case is nearly useless for anything other than protecting the casing from scratches when it is thrown in another bag. There's no room for any of the included peripherals or UMDs.
The bundled headphones with inline remote plug into the bottom left. The ear buds actually produce some very good sound. They're a little harsh on the highs, but overall not bad at all for bundled gear. The cord is short, and intended to be used with the in-line remote
The PSP also comes with a wrist strap, which like the bundled headphones, is white for some reason no one really understands. All we could think was that it was a desperate attempt to piggy back on the fame of the iconic iPod headphones. But there is certain brilliance in that reasoning. The white cord is very noticeable, and we could easily see strangers striking up a conversation, one with an iPod, the other a PSP. “What's on your iPod?” “Actually it's a PSP.” Voila! Client driven marketing to the exact same segment Sony is targeting.
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.
Conclusion
The Playstation Portable delivers on Sony's promise of a PS2 in the palm of your hands. Every aspect of the game play is awe inspiring, and the design of the unit as a whole is remarkably well thought out. Using the PSP is enjoyable at all levels, and even though the case will show every fingerprint, the unit is still stylish. Rumors of UMD recorders in the pipeline may transform the PSP into a serious all around media device.
Highs:
- Stylish design
- Beautiful display
- Excellent sound quality
- Exceptional battery life
- Plenty of games to choose from
- A lot of technology for the money
Lows:
- MemoryStick cover feels flimsy
- The “Hold” button location is not well though out
- Durability is questionable (it is not meant for kids)
- Media playback is confusing and costly
Specs
Specifications
| - Color: Black |
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| - Product Code: PSP-1001K |
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| - Dimensions (Approximate): 6.7" x 2.9" x 0.9" |
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| - Weight (Approximate): 0.62 lb (280g) including battery |
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| - CPU: PSP CPU (System clock frequency 1 - 333MHz) |
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| - Main Memory: 32 MB |
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| - Embedded DRAM: 4 MB |
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| - Display Type: 4.3"1 TFT LCD |
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| - Display Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Wide screen |
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| - Display Resolution: 480 x 272 pixel, 16.77 million colors |
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| - Maximum Luminance When Using Battery Pack: 180 cd/m2 / 130 cd/m2 / 80 cd/m2 |
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| - Maximum Luminance When Using AC Adaptor: 200 cd/m2 / 180cd/m2 / 130 cd/m2 / 80 cd/m2 |
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| - Sound: Built-in stereo speakers |
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| - Main Input / Output: IEEE 802.11b (Wi-Fi), USB 2.02 (mini-B), Memory Stick Duo™ media, and infrared Port |
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| - Disc Drive: UMD Drive (Read only) |
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| - Main Connectors: Memory Stick Duo™ Slot, USB connector2, DC IN 5V connector, Headset connector |
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| - Keys/Switches: Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left), Analog Stick, Enter keys (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square), Left shoulder button, Right shoulder button, START button, SELECT button, HOME button, POWER / HOLD switch, Display button, Sound button, Volume +/- buttons, Wireless LAN switch (ON/OFF), OPEN latch (UMD) |
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| - Power: Lithium-ion Battery, AC Adaptor |
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| - UMD Video Codec: H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC Main Profile Level 3 |
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| - UMD Music Codec: Linear PCM , ATRAC3plus™3 |
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| - Memory Stick Duo™ Video Codec4: MPEG-4 SP, AAC |
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| - Memory Stick Duo™ Music Codec: ATRAC3plus™,MP3 (MPEG1/2 Layer 3) |
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| - Security (Encryption): 128bit AES |
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| - Security (Copyright protection technology): MagicGate™ |
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| - Access Control: Region, Parental Control |
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| - Wireless Communications (IEEE802.11b): Infrastructure mode, Ad hoc mode (connection up to 16 consoles)5 |
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| - Supplied Accessories: AC adaptor, Battery pack, 32 MB Memory Stick Duo™ media, headphone with remote control, Soft case and cloth, and UMD In-pack Sampler |