Review: PSP console

Sony promised a PS2-style gaming experience on the go with the PSP, and they have delivered on that very stylishly. The PSP is essentially a current-generation console made to fit into a sexy handheld format. It has a 4" widescreen LCD that is just gorgeous, and takes up over 80% of the front face. It also has multimedia functionality built into it, but as you'll see later in the review, its somewhat half-baked.
Sony is no stranger to style, and the PSP is definitely no exception to that. A wide-format handheld, its made of glossy hard plastic at the front, with a silver ring dividing its thickness a la Sony Ericsson phones of late, and a matte backside with a metallic PSP ring in the center. The screen is huge, and as I mentioned earlier, takes up most of the front face. This is great, because the huge size combined with the wide aspect ratio makes for a VERY immersive game experience. It feels like you're right in the game, or the movie or TV show or whatever it is you're watching. Holding it in your hands, it will have the same impact as a 57" TV 6 feet away. The stereo speakers are located at the bottom, as the connectors for power and a 3.5 mm jack for audio. I'm glad they included a standard size jack rather than some proprietary bullshit. The USB connector at the top is also a standard type! What's happening to Sony? First CF compatibility in their prosumer cameras and now this?!
Far and away the most impressive aspect of the PSP is the brilliant screen. With decent viewing angles, a 16:9 aspect ratio and barely visible screen mesh, it really does the PSP justice. The d-pad feels excellent, and I'm actually gonna go out on a limb here and say that its the best d-pad I've ever sampled. The analog joystick however, doesn't enjoy the same praise. Its a little too low on the system, which makes for an awkward position and will later cause your thumb to ache. It is relatively responsive, but moves in a plane parallel to the surface, rather than the arc that joysticks typically carve. I have to hand it to Sony for a bit of innovation - it does give 80% of the feel of a good analog joystick without taking up the space of a traditional one. The two buttons at the top are ideally placed and look pretty cool, because they're clear and glassy. The speakers at the bottom sound better than I expected, but don't have the volume or bass that a a hardcore gamer would want for long hours of gaming. Plugging it into speakers, or using good headphones reveals how good the sound actually is. The CPU appears to be similar to the one in the PS2, except that the clock can be adjusted, similar to a mobile Pentium CPU. Its quite capable I'd say, as is the graphics chipset. Its not nearly as powerful as a full-blown PC, but it costs less than a better-than-average video card too. Remember that when the PS2 came out, its "Emotion Engine" CPU had more transistors than the most advanced Pentium at the time. Plus, since all games are designed for the one screen, everything is sharp and smooth, in a way thats better to me than PS2 or XBOX on a TV (I find those too blurry due to the 480i resolution). I'm very happy with the connectivity present in the machine - infrared, USB and wi-fi. Infrared is not that useful, but better to have than not. A direct USB connection is a good choice, especially for those without card readers. I'm most jazzed about the wi-fi. It allows for multiplayer gaming at pretty good distances (up to 60 feet) and allows you to surf the net! And the cool part is, the 2.0 browser lets you check out frames, download files and more! It has more utility than Pocket Internet Explorer (for Windows Mobile devices) which alone makes it super cool to me. Technically, a very competent package.
The PSP has a very slick menu system that will make users of other mobile devices shudder with jealousy. With all the hacks available, you just couldn't have a better looking interface. Especially with the v1.5 firmware, but even with the v2.0+ firmware, a very cool point is the ability to use additional programs. There are viewers for PDF documents floating around, as well as ebook readers and much more. There are applications that bring PDA-style functionality to the PSP, as well as programs that allow you to control IR devices like your TV. I think that Sony could have opened the system up more to developers, but this is a point beaten to death, and plus, big manufacturers never do that kind of stuff. Still, props to all the (mostly Japanese) hackers who have done some crazy stuff on the PSP, like run Linux and Windows95.
The PSP is billed as a multimedia device, and to a large extent it is one. Still, as mentioned earlier these things are a little half-baked. The audio has to be put into the correct directory, and the video needs to have a new directory created by you outside of the PSP directory, with certain names for subfolders and very specific names for video files. On top of that, you can only play MPEG-4 video, limited to 320x240 or some other resolution for widescreen content. You can't actually play video formatted perfectly for the screen resolution, which is a big bummer. Whats good though, is that once you have the correct video settings, video looks awesome on the device. It plays incredibly smooth, and has really nice controls for forwarding or rewinding. When you FF or RW, it does so very smoothly, like Sony's "smoothscan" feature on their DVD players. Looks classy! The MP3 functionality is nice enough, and my only complaint with it is that it shouldn't have to be limited to the music folder but rather should be able to scan the memory stick for songs. Pics looks wicked on the PSP too, and you can view smooth slideshows. Only problem here is that you can't listen to MP3s and view slideshows at the same time. A small point, but extant nonetheless.
The games on the PSP are truly awesome. The majority are of really high quality, and do a great job of pushing you to just have fun. I'm very satisfied that there is a big focus on good gameplay, and just about any title on the device is fun. The graphics are pretty much the same as a PS2, as is the sound - excellent. I'll review games on an individual basis, so keep checking for those.
The PSP is far beyond what I expected it to be. The device's size, look and screen are oh-so-perfect, and pretty much all the games I tried were a lot of fun (enough to get me addicted to games after a number of years). A few minor flaws notwithstanding, the PSP is a must-have device for everybody.