From an aesthetic perspective, the Sony PSP is a gorgeous device. It’s one of those gadgets you immediately want to get your hands on but vigilantly want to protect once you set it down. Weighing essentially the same as the Nintendo DS ( 6.2 ounces, including removable battery) and measuring 6.7 by 2.9 by 0.9 inches ( WHD) , the body feels well built and solid in your hand. Although not a lightweight, it’s by no means a brick, nor, we suspect, would it be especially durable in a fall; you’ll want to treat the PSP just as gingerly as an iPod or a Palm-style PDA.
The centerpiece of the handheld is its especially impressive 4.3-inch wide-screen display ( 480x272 pixels, 16.77 million colors) . The screen is flanked by controls that will be immediately recognizable to fans of past PlayStations: the directional keypad is to the left of the screen, and the familiar square, triangle, circle, and X buttons are to the right. We dug how Sony managed to include an analog joystick below the directional keypad. The stick isn’t raised like the analog controls on a PS2 or an Xbox, but it conveys that multidirectional element that gives it a joysticklike feel.
The Sony PSP runs on a proprietary 333MHz processor and comes with 32MB of built-in memory, some of it reserved for the PSP’s operating system and applications, and 4MB of embedded DRAM. While we would have preferred more built-in memory, game developers we spoke to were happy it has what it has, given that early rumors suggested Sony would include only 16MB of RAM.
One of the issues with using an optical disc format such as UMD as opposed to Nintendo’s flash memory-based cartridges is that load times tend to be significantly longer. After we previewed beta versions of games, we were concerned that load times would indeed be a serious problem. But now that we’ve run graphically intensive games such as EA’s Need for Speed Rivals, Konami’s Metal Gear Acid, and Sony’s Twisted Metal Head-On, we can safely say that it’s a relatively minor hindrance. Yes, games can take a good 10 seconds to load, but it’s not much worse than what you’d expect from the PS2 itself. ( As one might expect, content loads very quickly from a Memory Stick Duo card.) That said, the Nintendo DS and the Game Boy Advance SP are much zippier in this regard.
Luckily, the wait is usually worth it because most of the games look spectacular. As we said, you’re getting close to a PS2-like gaming experience, and many of the titles are ports of their PS2 counterparts with only small compromises made to the graphics. For the most part, games play smoothly, though you may encounter some frame drops in bigger action sequences in certain games.
We played Twisted Metal Head-On against four other players in multiplayer peer-to-peer ( PSP-to-PSP) wireless mode and were impressed by the smooth gameplay. We also played Twisted Metal via the Internet with two other people and had good results. But we imagine that when you get up to a dozen players ( Twisted Metal supports up to 16-player multiplayer) , you’ll probably encounter a hiccup or two. And, of course, wireless gameplay depends on your connection-or, in the case of peer-to-peer action, the distance and potential obstructions between devices. As far as distance goes, we were able to move about 60 feet apart with a clear line of sight in an office setting before our connection became spotty. We felt the Nintendo DS offered better wireless coverage.
Before we get to battery life, a few sentences about the PSP’s audio. Using the earbud-style headphones, sound quality was fine with games, but we would have liked the maximum volume to go a tad higher when we listened to our MP3s, especially in noisier environments. When you play games and watch movies such as Spider-Man 2 on UMD, you can boost the volume a bit via a special UMD volume-settings menu, which is helpful. A few preset equalizer settings ( Heavy, Pops, Jazz, and Unique) are on board to tweak the sound, but you can’t manually set treble and bass levels, which is too bad. The PSP’s external speakers can’t put out booming sound, but they’re certainly adequate for gaming and casual video watching; using the headphones, however, will give you a much more immersive experience. Conveniently, volume can be raised and lowered from two buttons just below the screen or via the headphones’ in-line remote.