Oops wrong category. I tried submitting earlier, but it just didn’t go through, I guess. Anyways, I am talking about the Sony Playstation Portable or the Playstation PSP. What’s it? Another tech Gizmo. Fortunately this ain’t just another toy, but a ’multifunctional’ tech toy. Am I recommending it? Well, I got it free, but then I was wondering if it can replace three or more devices (at a cost which is reasonable), it definitely is worth it.
What it is - I guess you could call it a micro computer coming fitted with a 333 Mhz processor, enough to match the original play station in power, except the PSP is a handheld device. You could do various activities and eliminate the need for other single use devices.
Throw that ipod away as you can store and play songs on this one (Of course with the same sound clarity due to the Dolby codecs)
Play games aka play station only this time you are mobile also. You can play it on the move, in a car, seated in a bus, or in the middle of a jungle trek - just anywhere . The portability adds value.
Watch movies too in your car on the move. You have the option of storing a full length movie in the UMD or just pop in the mini DVD movie Disc and watch it. (From a limited series of a little over a 100 movie titles currently) Hopefully with more movie releases, it can only get better. So instead of a car screen with video (Why spend an additional 4 - 7K for the car video screen when you have a PSP?
Wireless connectivity - Dang! That makes even my laptop redundant. Connectivity for multiplayer games or for just surfing. Can it get better than a device the size of your palm? (Wi-Fi connectivity)
All that space means you can use it like a pen drive to transfer data. Either snapshots images from your camera to it or for data from some other location.
And yes, it does have Bluetooth! So Yay… (For bluetooth headsets, cameras)
Well, only a laptop can do all these tasks, but the portability of the Playstation PSP wins hands down. I guess Sony deserves a pat for this device rather than Bluray.
It costs about the same as buying a 2 GB - 4 GB ipod. The 30 GB ipod costs about 8- 22000 and the only thing you can do is listen to songs.
With additional accessories, you can recharge it in your car, use a multimedia manager to swap applications and better use space, watch TV shows too. And yes, you have the media manager kit as an accessory software. With this software you can twist the resources of the PSP to suit your needs partially.
Of course if you feel 1.8 GB is too little for your needs, then you can purchase additional Memory Stick Duo Pro gaming cards for the PSP. (1GB or 2GB cards make most sense here)
Let me elaborate on the hardware features - You have USB connectivity (Others are IrDA, supports additional video codecs and has an Universal Media Device (Meaning a mini hard disk with a storage capacity of 1.8 GB. Like the personal media drives for HP’s media center PCs). All on expected lines except that the memory is just 8MB with an output of 2.65 GBps. The best part is the display core. It consists of two display chips one for the raw pixels and the other for the graphical manipulations meaning better display at a faster bandwidth and lower display memory (2MB). All that translates to cool graphics in the ratio of 16:9 on its 4.5 inch screen.
Drawbacks - Region coding is back meaning we need a fix to address this region specific DVDs. I haven’t tried it so far as all the DVDs in possession are the US ones. I can’t find any for the Indian circuit. (But naturally as it is yet to be released here) You get only the imports.
The new releases for games and movies are very expensive at 40 $. But then that is where they earn with the price cut for the device itself. Still, a movie/game CD costs around 12$ to 26 dollars after the initial release cycle. Still expensive, but pick them only for when you are planning to go mobile - traveling.
Price - 149 dollars / 10000 to 11000 for the special kit with 32 MB Duo card. Additional 1 GB/2GB Memory Stick Duo Pro cards are available
Game titles worth a mention for the PSP - The Godfather, Miami Vice, NBA Shootout 2005, NHL Faceoff 2005, Twisted Metal World Tour, NFS Underground, Tiger Woods PGA Tour
Take care...