This thread is dedicated to the PSP 1000 a.k.a. PSP; and, when it releases, the PSP 2000 a.k.a. PSP Slim, PSP Lite. The last one pending on how well my experience goes with the PSP during my vacation.
I'm not particularly fond of this generation's handhelds. I think each handheld is a double edge sword. My dislikes for the DS are... can't find the thread, but it had something to do with the dual screen, the touch screen and it's games that hurt my hands. :|
PSP 1000
I didn't buy myself a PSP, although I did think about getting one. The games just don't seem to be too good - judging from reviews. Gamerankings.com has only one PSP game making it into the 90% range. Metacritic.com has no games making it there. It seems disappointing. But now I have the PSP, so let's see what this baby offers.
When I opened the package, I was a little disappointed. One doesn't understand how valuable the value pack is until you open the core package. No carrying case to keep it from being scratched - not even the cheap one that comes with the Value pack. (It's actually not that cheap at $15.) Nor did it come with a memory stick. How much can 32MB cost anyway? I read that this is all you really need for gaming, which is probably true with 300kB saves. I couldn't find a 32MB one, so I bought a 256MB one, the cheapest one that came in the color black. Black is sexy.
I was also disappointed to find out that they didn't equip this PSP with the longer lasting LI-ion batteries. So I bought one. It was quite expensive to get all these extras seperately. A value pack would have been cheaper, but I guess the point of the core pack is to have a cheaper entry price to fool the customer into thinking that it's a cheaper buy, when in fact - it isn't.
I bought three game so far: Syphon filter: Dark Mirror, Sega Genesis Collection, and Daxter. I'm not going to go into the games in this post, just the console. But I may use the games as examples.
Onto the console itself. I'll start with a trivial, but annoying thing. The cover to the battery. It's annoying to put it back on, I can never do it on the first try. It would have been easier if they had the battery itself be the back cover.
The screen is the thing people talk about when they talk about the PSP's great features. Although the screen may be big - it is NOT great. It's acceptable at best. The contrast, possibly viewing angle, and ghosting keep it from being great. Playing dark games almost feels like you're staring into nothing. This is because the screen doesn't do a great job of blocking light. This could also be the viewing angle, but I'm not sure. The ghosting the screen creates is the minimal acceptable ghosting ever. If it was any worse, it would be unplayable. If having poor black levels wasn't bad enough, throwing some ghosting in it to blur all the details that you can see into mush just makes it ass. The screen may be bigger than the screen on the DS, but at least both screens on the DS are of significantly better quality than the one in the PSP.
Well, once you bought the PSP, you're stuck with the screen. You can still enjoy games, but it won't be as immersive and it may even cause frustration in dark situations.
Everybody knows about the design decision that left the square button crippled. I've heard that it is no longer a problem. Well, on this PSP, it still is. The square button is requires more pressure for a response compared to its neighboring buttons. The intensity of annoyance is game dependent.
All is not dark clouds though. The PSP is the sexiest handheld there is. The graphics are damn good for a handheld. Generally it is inferior to the PS2, but close enough for comparison. The PSP does have better texture capabilities, which made a big difference. Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror and Tomb Raider: 20th Anniversary are excellent examples of the prowess of the PSP. Although the games don't seem to get great scores, the PSP provides different types of games than what's available on the DS. Games that are typical of the Playstation brand and games that only graphical prowess of the PSP can provide.
This is all for now. The only killer downside to the PSP is it's game library being rated so poorly. This is what I'm going to check out in the next few months. If I enjoy the three games that I've bought for vacation, and if Silent Hill for the PSP gets me excited enough, I might just buy the PSP Slim as well. I can't wait to see the issues Sony will fix. I'm hoping that it solves most issues and becomes a decent next gen handheld.
Edit:
Another annoying thing is that I can't tell when the battery's about to die. So it just dies while I'm in the middle of a game. That's not cool, there should be some warning other than the power light, which is completely covered by my hand during play.
Update 8/01/07:
Just tried Daxter. The beginning of the game is amazing. The graphics are incredible knowing that it all fits in your hand. The only thing that was bothering me was, of course, the screen. It's drawbacks - not so much the ghosting, but more the viewing angle and contrast make it difficult to fully appreciate the graphics.
Update 8/22/07:
I enjoyed playing the PSP during my vacation. Half of it was spent reading Deathly Hallows, but the other half was spent with the PSP. I played Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, which I enjoyed very much. Afterwards, I played Daxter, which I didn?t enjoy as much. I?m still interested in the PSP though. I bought Tomb Raider: Anniversary and look forward to see more Playstation remakes on this system.
Even though I?m enjoying my experience, I might not buy the PSP slim. I was anticipating a new and better LCD screen for the new PSP, but I?ve read reports that it will use the same LCD screen. The LCD screen was already outdated when the original PSP was released and it?s disappointing that a new LCD screen won?t be part of the new improvements featured on the PSP Slim. But I?m still hoping for it, so I?ll wait for a review of the PSP Slim.
Update 9/19/07:
Playing Tomb Raider: Anniversary is painful. This is the last straw - I can't take the ghosting anymore. Actually I think the issue is that I can't tell whether its ghosting or bad framerate. Whatever; its just way too annoying. I had just finished a level and realized that I had no clue what was behind me. I couldn't remember anything because it was all such a big blurry mess. That's a crappy gaming experience - you can't even make memories out of it.
I'm not sure which PSP screen is in my PSP, but I considered buying the Sharp Replacement screen and replacing it myself. But conflicting reports as to how good it is kept me away. This is when I find myself asking, "Why aren't there any articles comparing this issue?"; or better yet, "How the Fck were people fooled by this crappy screen with so much ghosting?" There is so much ghosting, it's scary. Sorry bout the bad joke, but I have to do something to lighten my day.
Well, I can't take it anymore so I'm going out to buy a PSP Slim in hopes that it has less issues. Nobody has reported much on the screen of the PSP Slim because ghosting isn't a very important issue. But I have read in some forum that they new PSP Slim is supposed to have significantly better response time. So I'm going to buy it and check it out while I'm in the car and if I don't like it, I'll return it. Simple as that. Then when I come back, maybe I'll also report on how the new PSP feels. Maybe I'll spend most of the report focusing on something other than how light it is.
PSP 2000
I just got the PSP Slim. And there are good and bad things about it; but I'll get to them in due time. I got a silver PSP which was in a package with Daxter, a Family Guy UMD movie, and a 1GB memory card. It was the only one at Best Buy, so I bought it. Inside the PSP Slim Box was the paperwork and the PSP Slim and accessories inside a platic case. One which you need to cut with scissors! Talk about overprotection.
So I went home and cut the plastic sidings off. I picked up the PSP Slim to take off the sticker covering the screen and was just speechless, amazed, and completely baffled. What is this? It's not the PSP Slim, it's the PSP Lite - the weightlessness! When you pick up the PSP 1000, it feels like it's packed full of technology; picking up the PSP 2000 feels like you picked up just the hollow frame of the original PSP. It's very impressive.
Now, before going on about other things, lets get to the most important issue: the screen. I've tried playing a bit of Tomb Raider and Kid Chameleon. The results are somewhat satisfying. The PSP Slim does have a better screen, but I would've liked it to have been even better though. But we have no choice. I first tried Tomb Raider. What I noticed was that the contrast seemed better and I was able to view things more clearly. I also noticed that the response time was a bit better. The image looked a whole lot cleaner. Then I tried Kid Chameleon. The press start screen was significantly more colorful in the PSP Slim. The game screen was also significantly sharper. And there seemed to be a slight increase in response time.
Now comments on other design changes. The front face of the silver PSP Slim seems to be made of a different glossy material compared to the original. This new material resists fingerprints and provides more grip. However, you can still get fingerprints on the screen. The PSP Slim feels flatter and more comfortable to hold.
The battery cover in the PSP Slim is easier to remove and replace. The UMD tray accepts UMDs just as easily as before, but a little more annoying to remove. The old UMD tray was easier to use, but this new one isn't bad. The original UMD tray was also sexier due to its complexity, but there's also something about the simplicity in the new version that you can't ignore.
The worst change is the speakers. They aren't on top as I've read in other sites. They are on the front of the console near the top of the screen. The reason for this, Sony said is because people used to cover them while playing. I can't even begin to imagine how people did that. But my thumbs are extremely close to covering the NEW speaker placement. And what sucks is that I like to put my thumbs exactly where the speakers are located to relax them. This could be during a loading screen or during an FMV. Weeks later and I'm still not used to it. At least if you cover the speakers with your fingers, it doesn't muffle the sound to the extend that was done with the original PSP.
In the end, I have chosen to continue my PSP experience with the Slim. The PSP Slim is a much better handheld than the PSP 1000 and it's worth the money to upgrade.
Update 10/29/07:
Loading times don't seem to be that much better. It still loads kinda slow. I haven't measured it, but nothing jumped at me when I made the switch from the original to the Slim.
The square button is still an issue. And from the left edge of the square button, I can see the light from the screen shining through. But when I play, my finger covers it so it isn't a big deal.
I was wrong about the worst change being the speakers. By now I've finished Tomb Raider and have had over 15 hours of play time with the PSP 2000. The worst change is... the power button. Strange, I know. Depending on how firmly I held the PSP, the power button and the surrounding area really burned my skin. Even after only a 2-3 hours of play, I started to experience a slight burn under my right index finger. I would have to loosen my grip on the console or hold it in a different position, but since the skin was already burned a little, it was sensitive to the following touches by the power button.
The problem is that the power button has such sharp and distinct molds, that they, little by little, via rubbing, burn the skin slightly. I guess the only solution is to stay with the original PSP or to sand this sucker into something less threatening. I'm very disappointed in Sony with this play stopping defect.
Now onto some good news. I hate glare. I hate glare on the PSP. Glare makes it hard to play in more well lit locations. I would hunt for a dark spot whenever I wanted to play, but no longer. I have found a remedy: Anti-glare Screen Protector for the PSP
I bought it and love it. It removes a substantial amount of glare, which allows me to play in places with more light without straining my eyes or sacrificing enjoyment. This screen protector is highly translucent, keeping the image clean, but because of the matte finish, also smooths out the image, which is pleasant. It also hides all the light scratches on my screen while protecting it from getting new ones.
The screen protector also manages to keep the screen very clean. Dust is never an issue while playing; and leaving fingerprints on the screen is a thing of the past.
It isn't without fault though. It isn't especially made for PSP 2000, so I cut it to match the screen size. Since these screen protecters aren't cheap, I tried to be as precise and careful as possible. I bought the 3-pack just in case I messed up the first time though. Applying it correctly the first time is difficult and I had to repositioned it a few times. The problem with that is that dust can and will get onto the sticky side of the screen protector. Thus, it is imperative that you are in a dust free room: maybe a hospital room? If you get dust on the sticky side, it's impossible to remove without contaminating the rest of the surface; and enough dust can be distracting during gameplay.
Overall, this product is worth it. It gives me the freedom to play the PSP in more areas. And not-wiping away dust from the screen means I get to focus more on gaming.
I'm not particularly fond of this generation's handhelds. I think each handheld is a double edge sword. My dislikes for the DS are... can't find the thread, but it had something to do with the dual screen, the touch screen and it's games that hurt my hands. :|
PSP 1000
I didn't buy myself a PSP, although I did think about getting one. The games just don't seem to be too good - judging from reviews. Gamerankings.com has only one PSP game making it into the 90% range. Metacritic.com has no games making it there. It seems disappointing. But now I have the PSP, so let's see what this baby offers.
When I opened the package, I was a little disappointed. One doesn't understand how valuable the value pack is until you open the core package. No carrying case to keep it from being scratched - not even the cheap one that comes with the Value pack. (It's actually not that cheap at $15.) Nor did it come with a memory stick. How much can 32MB cost anyway? I read that this is all you really need for gaming, which is probably true with 300kB saves. I couldn't find a 32MB one, so I bought a 256MB one, the cheapest one that came in the color black. Black is sexy.
I was also disappointed to find out that they didn't equip this PSP with the longer lasting LI-ion batteries. So I bought one. It was quite expensive to get all these extras seperately. A value pack would have been cheaper, but I guess the point of the core pack is to have a cheaper entry price to fool the customer into thinking that it's a cheaper buy, when in fact - it isn't.I bought three game so far: Syphon filter: Dark Mirror, Sega Genesis Collection, and Daxter. I'm not going to go into the games in this post, just the console. But I may use the games as examples.
Onto the console itself. I'll start with a trivial, but annoying thing. The cover to the battery. It's annoying to put it back on, I can never do it on the first try. It would have been easier if they had the battery itself be the back cover.
The screen is the thing people talk about when they talk about the PSP's great features. Although the screen may be big - it is NOT great. It's acceptable at best. The contrast, possibly viewing angle, and ghosting keep it from being great. Playing dark games almost feels like you're staring into nothing. This is because the screen doesn't do a great job of blocking light. This could also be the viewing angle, but I'm not sure. The ghosting the screen creates is the minimal acceptable ghosting ever. If it was any worse, it would be unplayable. If having poor black levels wasn't bad enough, throwing some ghosting in it to blur all the details that you can see into mush just makes it ass. The screen may be bigger than the screen on the DS, but at least both screens on the DS are of significantly better quality than the one in the PSP.
Well, once you bought the PSP, you're stuck with the screen. You can still enjoy games, but it won't be as immersive and it may even cause frustration in dark situations.
Everybody knows about the design decision that left the square button crippled. I've heard that it is no longer a problem. Well, on this PSP, it still is. The square button is requires more pressure for a response compared to its neighboring buttons. The intensity of annoyance is game dependent.
All is not dark clouds though. The PSP is the sexiest handheld there is. The graphics are damn good for a handheld. Generally it is inferior to the PS2, but close enough for comparison. The PSP does have better texture capabilities, which made a big difference. Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror and Tomb Raider: 20th Anniversary are excellent examples of the prowess of the PSP. Although the games don't seem to get great scores, the PSP provides different types of games than what's available on the DS. Games that are typical of the Playstation brand and games that only graphical prowess of the PSP can provide.
This is all for now. The only killer downside to the PSP is it's game library being rated so poorly. This is what I'm going to check out in the next few months. If I enjoy the three games that I've bought for vacation, and if Silent Hill for the PSP gets me excited enough, I might just buy the PSP Slim as well. I can't wait to see the issues Sony will fix. I'm hoping that it solves most issues and becomes a decent next gen handheld.
Edit:
Another annoying thing is that I can't tell when the battery's about to die. So it just dies while I'm in the middle of a game. That's not cool, there should be some warning other than the power light, which is completely covered by my hand during play.
Update 8/01/07:
Just tried Daxter. The beginning of the game is amazing. The graphics are incredible knowing that it all fits in your hand. The only thing that was bothering me was, of course, the screen. It's drawbacks - not so much the ghosting, but more the viewing angle and contrast make it difficult to fully appreciate the graphics.
Update 8/22/07:
I enjoyed playing the PSP during my vacation. Half of it was spent reading Deathly Hallows, but the other half was spent with the PSP. I played Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, which I enjoyed very much. Afterwards, I played Daxter, which I didn?t enjoy as much. I?m still interested in the PSP though. I bought Tomb Raider: Anniversary and look forward to see more Playstation remakes on this system.
Even though I?m enjoying my experience, I might not buy the PSP slim. I was anticipating a new and better LCD screen for the new PSP, but I?ve read reports that it will use the same LCD screen. The LCD screen was already outdated when the original PSP was released and it?s disappointing that a new LCD screen won?t be part of the new improvements featured on the PSP Slim. But I?m still hoping for it, so I?ll wait for a review of the PSP Slim.
Update 9/19/07:
Playing Tomb Raider: Anniversary is painful. This is the last straw - I can't take the ghosting anymore. Actually I think the issue is that I can't tell whether its ghosting or bad framerate. Whatever; its just way too annoying. I had just finished a level and realized that I had no clue what was behind me. I couldn't remember anything because it was all such a big blurry mess. That's a crappy gaming experience - you can't even make memories out of it.
I'm not sure which PSP screen is in my PSP, but I considered buying the Sharp Replacement screen and replacing it myself. But conflicting reports as to how good it is kept me away. This is when I find myself asking, "Why aren't there any articles comparing this issue?"; or better yet, "How the Fck were people fooled by this crappy screen with so much ghosting?" There is so much ghosting, it's scary. Sorry bout the bad joke, but I have to do something to lighten my day.
Well, I can't take it anymore so I'm going out to buy a PSP Slim in hopes that it has less issues. Nobody has reported much on the screen of the PSP Slim because ghosting isn't a very important issue.
But I have read in some forum that they new PSP Slim is supposed to have significantly better response time. So I'm going to buy it and check it out while I'm in the car and if I don't like it, I'll return it. Simple as that. Then when I come back, maybe I'll also report on how the new PSP feels. Maybe I'll spend most of the report focusing on something other than how light it is.PSP 2000
I just got the PSP Slim. And there are good and bad things about it; but I'll get to them in due time. I got a silver PSP which was in a package with Daxter, a Family Guy UMD movie, and a 1GB memory card. It was the only one at Best Buy, so I bought it. Inside the PSP Slim Box was the paperwork and the PSP Slim and accessories inside a platic case. One which you need to cut with scissors! Talk about overprotection.
So I went home and cut the plastic sidings off. I picked up the PSP Slim to take off the sticker covering the screen and was just speechless, amazed, and completely baffled. What is this? It's not the PSP Slim, it's the PSP Lite - the weightlessness! When you pick up the PSP 1000, it feels like it's packed full of technology; picking up the PSP 2000 feels like you picked up just the hollow frame of the original PSP. It's very impressive.
Now, before going on about other things, lets get to the most important issue: the screen. I've tried playing a bit of Tomb Raider and Kid Chameleon. The results are somewhat satisfying. The PSP Slim does have a better screen, but I would've liked it to have been even better though. But we have no choice. I first tried Tomb Raider. What I noticed was that the contrast seemed better and I was able to view things more clearly. I also noticed that the response time was a bit better. The image looked a whole lot cleaner. Then I tried Kid Chameleon. The press start screen was significantly more colorful in the PSP Slim. The game screen was also significantly sharper. And there seemed to be a slight increase in response time.
Now comments on other design changes. The front face of the silver PSP Slim seems to be made of a different glossy material compared to the original. This new material resists fingerprints and provides more grip. However, you can still get fingerprints on the screen. The PSP Slim feels flatter and more comfortable to hold.
The battery cover in the PSP Slim is easier to remove and replace. The UMD tray accepts UMDs just as easily as before, but a little more annoying to remove. The old UMD tray was easier to use, but this new one isn't bad. The original UMD tray was also sexier due to its complexity, but there's also something about the simplicity in the new version that you can't ignore.
The worst change is the speakers. They aren't on top as I've read in other sites. They are on the front of the console near the top of the screen. The reason for this, Sony said is because people used to cover them while playing. I can't even begin to imagine how people did that. But my thumbs are extremely close to covering the NEW speaker placement. And what sucks is that I like to put my thumbs exactly where the speakers are located to relax them. This could be during a loading screen or during an FMV. Weeks later and I'm still not used to it. At least if you cover the speakers with your fingers, it doesn't muffle the sound to the extend that was done with the original PSP.
In the end, I have chosen to continue my PSP experience with the Slim. The PSP Slim is a much better handheld than the PSP 1000 and it's worth the money to upgrade.
Update 10/29/07:
Loading times don't seem to be that much better. It still loads kinda slow. I haven't measured it, but nothing jumped at me when I made the switch from the original to the Slim.
The square button is still an issue. And from the left edge of the square button, I can see the light from the screen shining through. But when I play, my finger covers it so it isn't a big deal.
I was wrong about the worst change being the speakers. By now I've finished Tomb Raider and have had over 15 hours of play time with the PSP 2000. The worst change is... the power button. Strange, I know. Depending on how firmly I held the PSP, the power button and the surrounding area really burned my skin. Even after only a 2-3 hours of play, I started to experience a slight burn under my right index finger. I would have to loosen my grip on the console or hold it in a different position, but since the skin was already burned a little, it was sensitive to the following touches by the power button.
The problem is that the power button has such sharp and distinct molds, that they, little by little, via rubbing, burn the skin slightly. I guess the only solution is to stay with the original PSP or to sand this sucker into something less threatening. I'm very disappointed in Sony with this play stopping defect.
Now onto some good news. I hate glare. I hate glare on the PSP. Glare makes it hard to play in more well lit locations. I would hunt for a dark spot whenever I wanted to play, but no longer. I have found a remedy: Anti-glare Screen Protector for the PSP
I bought it and love it. It removes a substantial amount of glare, which allows me to play in places with more light without straining my eyes or sacrificing enjoyment. This screen protector is highly translucent, keeping the image clean, but because of the matte finish, also smooths out the image, which is pleasant. It also hides all the light scratches on my screen while protecting it from getting new ones.
The screen protector also manages to keep the screen very clean. Dust is never an issue while playing; and leaving fingerprints on the screen is a thing of the past.
It isn't without fault though. It isn't especially made for PSP 2000, so I cut it to match the screen size. Since these screen protecters aren't cheap, I tried to be as precise and careful as possible. I bought the 3-pack just in case I messed up the first time though. Applying it correctly the first time is difficult and I had to repositioned it a few times. The problem with that is that dust can and will get onto the sticky side of the screen protector. Thus, it is imperative that you are in a dust free room: maybe a hospital room? If you get dust on the sticky side, it's impossible to remove without contaminating the rest of the surface; and enough dust can be distracting during gameplay.
Overall, this product is worth it. It gives me the freedom to play the PSP in more areas. And not-wiping away dust from the screen means I get to focus more on gaming.
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