PSP update

March 27th, 2006

I’ve had a few weeks to get used to the PSP and whilst it’s undeniably sexy to look at, I thought that my impressions of actually using it might be interesting:

  • Battery life is excellent. I’m not very good about remembering to charge it but I haven’t had a crap-out yet.
  • The ergonomics are okay, but not fantastic. My middle finger supports the unit during play, which eventually results in a dent developing between the first and second knuckles on that finger. Extended sessions can get painful. Goliath robot-colleague, Derek reports that bending his outsized thumbs back to the controls is less than comfortable, so whilst the form-factor is okay for small-handed orientals, it’s not so great for celtic giants.
  • Standby mode is fantastic. Being able to put the PSP to sleep instantly means that I can play right until the train has stopped moving, and similarly, the instant wake-up means instant gratification.
  • The load times are quite long, though – a couple of minutes on average, I reckon. I can live with this, and the instant standby makes up for the wait when you load a game.
  • The sound is superb. It’s well up to the standard of a full-size console, which has been especially important with the superbly cheesy soundtrack of Katamari Damacy.
  • And then there’s the screen. It’s lush. So crisp and bright that it makes the PSP a pleasure to use. There’s a moment when you complete a level in Katamari Damacy where the King of all Cosmos vomits a rainbow towards you, and then sucks it back in a dazzling display of primary bright.

Overall I’m well satisfied, and despite the hassle I had getting it to work in the first place, I’m more than happy with the PSP.

Next: getting homebrew to run, and where are all the decent games?

Comment on this post

You must be logged in to post a comment.