Well, now that I've had a couple of weeks with my PSP and a week with a 2GB stick, here are my impressions of the PSP as a system:
First off, it's an amazing piece of technology, really. It's got a beautiful screen, which is really the main selling point for it IMO. It is pretty neat that it does everything, like playing movies, mp3s, store photos, play games, and browse the web. It's actually nice having something that'll do everything rather than carrying around an mp3 player and a DVD player and a games system.
But, and you knew this was coming, here are the shortcomings of the system:
1) It's too small to be a portable movie player
It's JUST barely big enough to watch a movie comfortably while having it about 3 feet away (about your belt-line if you're lying down). I personally like a little more comfort than that, so I'd like a larger screen. 10" (vs the 5") is the min comfort level, 7" being barely usable. That way you can actually have more than one person watch at the same time. But the PSP is good for the bus rides for me.
2) It's too big to be an mp3 player
It really doesn't fit into a coat pocket (maybe the inside pocket) and is large for a pant pocket. Not exactly what you'd want for a portable mp3 player. I'm not overly big on music, so it's just a bonus for me that it can play it. Works very well for me when I'm on the bus, waiting for the bus, or in my car, but it's not overly portable.
3) It's got too short a battery life for gaming
This is a review of the hardware, not the software, so there'll be no bitching about the crappy set of games on it (just like I didn't mention the price of UMDs above in the movie part). My GBA and DS both have a minimum of 10 hours of battery life, so I rarely would charge them more than once a week. That's comfortable. But with this thing, 4 hours is about max. I have mostly played PQ or Ultimate Block Party on it and they're not exactly heavy-loading games. Load a screen, play for 5-10 minutes, then load another (one of the benefits of puzzle gaming). And even with that and listening to mp3s and watching movies solely off the stick (so, no power to spin the UMD required), I only got 4 hours. That means I could potentially have to recharge it every day and it won't even last a plane ride from here to LA. Just too short for comfort IMO.
At the end of the day, I'm happy I have one. I can put movies on it that I would otherwise not really have time to watch and watch them on my commute. And it's nice to have the music to listen to to pass a little time here and there as well. I don't need 10000+ songs, 60 will do me just fine, so the 2GB stick is actually plenty enough for me. I can fit 60 songs, 4 full-length movies (full Xvids that are 700MB get compressed to about 380-400 on the PSP, which fucking rules; brilliant to use mp4s), some pictures (gotta have the Laetitia pictures for wallpaper :-), and still have a couple hundred megs left for episodes or some little funny videos I like (The Chronic-WHAT-cles of Narnia!). That's much more than I'll ever need, so I have no use for these 30GB iPoDs to store every song in existence with a screen WAAAAAAAYYY to small to view ANYTHING (this is why I sold my video iPoD so quickly). Excellent use of memory to have 2GB be much more than I'll ever need.
But, would I pay $280Cdn for one? No chance, it's just not worth it. Really, you need the 2GB stick and a computer to really make the system useful, which is another $100 or so (Cdn, if you buy it on eBay). I will NOT buy a UMD for more than $5 (DVDs actually have extras on them and can be taken over to someone's house to watch;MUCH more useful) and there just aren't many great games for it.
It's great technically, but unfortunately, it falls into the whole "anything that does everything never does anything well" thing. It would be better if it was a really good gaming system (longer battery life, better games, more comfy controls) with the ability to play mp3s and maybe some way of putting DVDs you own on it. It's very useful to me in certain controlled situations, such as on the bus (basically it's sole use right now), but it's rather limited due to the above shortcomings.
OK, flame away, guys.....
First off, it's an amazing piece of technology, really. It's got a beautiful screen, which is really the main selling point for it IMO. It is pretty neat that it does everything, like playing movies, mp3s, store photos, play games, and browse the web. It's actually nice having something that'll do everything rather than carrying around an mp3 player and a DVD player and a games system.
But, and you knew this was coming, here are the shortcomings of the system:
1) It's too small to be a portable movie player
It's JUST barely big enough to watch a movie comfortably while having it about 3 feet away (about your belt-line if you're lying down). I personally like a little more comfort than that, so I'd like a larger screen. 10" (vs the 5") is the min comfort level, 7" being barely usable. That way you can actually have more than one person watch at the same time. But the PSP is good for the bus rides for me.
2) It's too big to be an mp3 player
It really doesn't fit into a coat pocket (maybe the inside pocket) and is large for a pant pocket. Not exactly what you'd want for a portable mp3 player. I'm not overly big on music, so it's just a bonus for me that it can play it. Works very well for me when I'm on the bus, waiting for the bus, or in my car, but it's not overly portable.
3) It's got too short a battery life for gaming
This is a review of the hardware, not the software, so there'll be no bitching about the crappy set of games on it (just like I didn't mention the price of UMDs above in the movie part). My GBA and DS both have a minimum of 10 hours of battery life, so I rarely would charge them more than once a week. That's comfortable. But with this thing, 4 hours is about max. I have mostly played PQ or Ultimate Block Party on it and they're not exactly heavy-loading games. Load a screen, play for 5-10 minutes, then load another (one of the benefits of puzzle gaming). And even with that and listening to mp3s and watching movies solely off the stick (so, no power to spin the UMD required), I only got 4 hours. That means I could potentially have to recharge it every day and it won't even last a plane ride from here to LA. Just too short for comfort IMO.
At the end of the day, I'm happy I have one. I can put movies on it that I would otherwise not really have time to watch and watch them on my commute. And it's nice to have the music to listen to to pass a little time here and there as well. I don't need 10000+ songs, 60 will do me just fine, so the 2GB stick is actually plenty enough for me. I can fit 60 songs, 4 full-length movies (full Xvids that are 700MB get compressed to about 380-400 on the PSP, which fucking rules; brilliant to use mp4s), some pictures (gotta have the Laetitia pictures for wallpaper :-), and still have a couple hundred megs left for episodes or some little funny videos I like (The Chronic-WHAT-cles of Narnia!). That's much more than I'll ever need, so I have no use for these 30GB iPoDs to store every song in existence with a screen WAAAAAAAYYY to small to view ANYTHING (this is why I sold my video iPoD so quickly). Excellent use of memory to have 2GB be much more than I'll ever need.
But, would I pay $280Cdn for one? No chance, it's just not worth it. Really, you need the 2GB stick and a computer to really make the system useful, which is another $100 or so (Cdn, if you buy it on eBay). I will NOT buy a UMD for more than $5 (DVDs actually have extras on them and can be taken over to someone's house to watch;MUCH more useful) and there just aren't many great games for it.
It's great technically, but unfortunately, it falls into the whole "anything that does everything never does anything well" thing. It would be better if it was a really good gaming system (longer battery life, better games, more comfy controls) with the ability to play mp3s and maybe some way of putting DVDs you own on it. It's very useful to me in certain controlled situations, such as on the bus (basically it's sole use right now), but it's rather limited due to the above shortcomings.
OK, flame away, guys.....
I was there on that fateful day, were you?
