Customer Reviews
Amazing - By: S. M. Speller, 04 May 2008 
Brought this PSP, & both GTA Vice City & GTA Liberty City two days ago. Haven't been able to put it down. The WiFi is excellent, the graphics on both GTAs are superb. The new PSP is ALOT lighter than the old model, & the screen is ALOT better. I recommend you buy the new model.
5 out of 5
Great game player, average multimedia device - By: Caveman, 07 Apr 2008 
I have had this for about 2 months now & I have spent a lot of time on it. The screen is indeed of excellent quality, as other reviewers suggest, but it also generates a reflection which can make things hard to see in clear daylight.
The controls work well when you get used to them. I have played Lego Starwars, Sims 2: Castaway, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters among other games & the PSP is an excellent games machine. The list of available titles finallly seems to be getting pretty good.
Video playback is a mixed bag for me. The manual states that the PSP can playback MPEG4 & AVI files but it is very fussy & won't play a lot of these. I have had to convert material specificallly for use on the PSP which is tedious & a pain to do - there are many programs that can do this. In my view Sony should sort this out so it will play these formats properly. Once you have it working playback quality is excellent. UMD movie playback is good quality if I buy a film I'd rather get it for a proper TV.
Audio playback is easier, it handles MP3 & WMA files from my PC without causing problems but it won't play any copy protected material, so you can't play most legal downloads. You can download & use playlists from the PS3 but you can't create playlists on the PSP itself which is a shame.
RSS feeds - these are web feeds used to publish regularly updated content such as blogs, podcasts, the news etc. Again the PSPs support is limited at best. It doesn't do text RSS feeds so many news sites such as SKY or the BBC are out. Nor will it play a lot of video content because of the problems mentioned above. Even the recommended sites from Sony's PSP Media Manager often aren't compatible. I tried 3 & then gave up. The content downloads & then you discover that the video file is not compatible. Frustrating. Audio podcasts worked just fine.
I also have a PS3 & have tried out the remote play feature. The controls become a bit more sluggish when in remote play mode but Pixel Junk Monsters is playable, if a little more difficult. Haven't tried remote play over the internet yet, just my wireless network. Videos on the PS3 can be played so long as the PSP is willing to play them. The only videos I have got working on remote play so far are ones I made up for the PSP & stored on the PS3 + promotional stuff downloaded from the Playstation Store - not exactly a reason to want remote play.
It displays photos well & has a slideshow feature which is decent enough but you can't customise the slideshows beyond the timing. Internet radio works well enough, I haven't tried the skype feature out.
The internet browser is OK. It is usable but I only use it if I can't get to a PC browser. Text entry is tedious. This is where a touch screen would make the world of difference.
Portable copy might give the PSP a new lease of life as a movie player when Sony finallly sort this out. This is where blu-ray movie comes with a standard definition version that can be copied to a memory pro-duo stick & viewed on the PSP. They are saying later this year but Sony are full of promises like this. It is also not clear how many blu-ray movies will support this so it could turn out to be another feature that sounds good but doesn't live up to its promise. Go! Explore sat nav also sounds great but we will see, supposed to be out later this month.
I'm giving it 4 stars because it handles games so well & I have grown quite attached to it. However Sony also market this as a multimedia device & I think it could do with a lot of improvement here which is why it is not getting 5 stars overalll from me. If you want the standard version of the PSP Media Manager you can get it free from the Japanese playstation network. The installl instructions are in Japanese which makes the process a bit more exciting but the program is in English. http://www.jp.playstation.com/store/mediamanager/index.html
THE HANDHELD CONSOLE THAT BEATS THE REST. - By: NEO, 04 Apr 2008 The new slim & Lite PSP is great looking & is indeed very light when compared to the old model. I didn't own the old model so I can't draw any comparisons but I am struck how flimsey the overalll contruction is. The UMD draw is very fragile & I worry that over a period it might well snap off !. The plastic which is of the same material as the PS3 & picks up alll the dust & dirt going. On the plus side is the fantastic LCD screen which has great clarity & reallly sets the games off a treat. I have no real use for it's connectivity but it's a good added bonus to have in a smalll device. The game's on offer are few & far between & are quite expensive & I begrudge buying my favourite games again in the UMD format. There is a less than legal way to downgrade the PSP to play downloaded games for free. Overalll this is still a nice if fragile console that beats the Nintendo DS lite hands down. It's a pity that Sony didn't fit a smalll HDD into the console so no memory stick's would be required as it's another expense. However at least the stick can be changed & upgraded which is more than could be done with a built in memory.
Sony PSP Slim+Lite - By: Gerard, 31 Jan 2008 I always wanted a PSP from they first came out but never made the jump as I was always happy with my PS2 but last week I pushed the boat out & picked up a black PSP. First impressions were very positive, its glossy finish looks superb & that screen is just a work of art. A gorgeous little machine overalll. The battery life doesn't appear to be outstanding, maybe 2 hours between charges but I can live with that. I haven't sampled movies or music on it yet but the graphics on the games I am playing are just astounding, easily surpassing those of my PS2. The WI-FI connection was as easy as pie to set up also. I deducted a point for 2 reasons. 1 - The front of the console is superbly built but the back is not. It feels cheap & tacky & would probably explode into a million pieces of dropped. The UMD latch also opens a bit too easily for my liking. 2 - The location & function of the Power/Hold switch is annoying. When using the 'R' button it is quite easily to push the power button up turning the console off (annoying when you haven't saved your game). Overalll though i'm definitely chuffed with my purchase.
Just scratching the surface.... - By: L. de Ruiter, 29 Jan 2008 I bought a PSP "just" for Crush, after playing 10 minutes it on my brother's older model PSP. Although I'm still totallly hooked on Crush, I'm slowly starting to realise what an uber-cool gadget I've scored this time....With a DS in the house already, who can argue that scribbling a fiddly Stylus across the screen is preferable to the controls of the PS? And although the PS2 gives a nice big picture on the TV screen, I never just do a quick 10 minutes on a PS2 (just writing it down it appears like a silly notion to me) but a quick 10 minute flick on the PSP puts a big smirk on my face for hours. Suddenly, the weekly half hour sizzle while my sons have their swimming lesson is something to look forward to. And then there's online stuff, films & Sat Nav on the horizon? I'm chuffed to bits & keeping my fingers crossed that it'll keep doing its magic for a long time to come...
