General Questions
What is the Sony PlayStation Portable?
The PlayStation Portable marks Sony's first real attempt at entering the highly popular and profitable handheld market dominated by Nintendo. It is a notable platform for several reasons:
- It's quite powerful for a handheld system.
- It is marketed as the ultimate media device; in addition to playing games, you can play music, videos, and browse photos on the device.
- It is the Game Boy's first real competition since the Sega Game Gear and Neo Geo Pocket.
- It carries the powerful "PlayStation" name.
The face of the PSP:
Ask yourself how much more black could it be.Its existence has been known since its paper introduction at E3 2003 and was publicly shown one year later during the pre-E3 Sony press conference. It was later released in Japan in mid-December 2004 and in North America in late-March 2005. Europe and Australia had to wait until September 2005 to launch.
Sony sells the PSP in two configurations: The Core Pack ($199 US) and Value Pack ($249 US); Sony sometimes offers a Giga Pack, which includes a 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo. The Core Pack consists of the system, AC adapter and headphones. The Value Pack adds a few things like a 32MB Memory Stick Pro Duo, which is quite adequate for saving games, but impossibly small for media purposes. Japan and European has seen different coloured PSPs (including the sleek white PSP), but Sony has yet to release a North American PSP that is not black.
In short, the Sony PlayStation Portable is Nintendo's first real competitor in the handheld industry. Though plagued by expensive hardware and software (quality of software, on the other hand, is a whole other issue), the PSP has been quite successful and has quite a footing in the North American and European markets. The Nintendo DS, the PSP's closest (and cheaper) competitor, is still fighting strong, especially in the Japanese market.
Multimedia/Technical Questions
What are the technical specs of the Sony PlayStation Portable?
The official specifications for the Sony PlayStation Portable are as follows:
The back of the PSP:
UMD drive, battery access, Memory Stick access.- Dimensions: Approx. 170 mm (L) x 74 mm (W) x 23 mm (D)
- Weight: Approx. 260 g (including battery)
- CPU: PSP CPU (System clock frequency 1-333MHz)
- Main Memory: 32MB
- Embedded DRAM: 4MB
- Display: 4.3 inch, 16:9 widescreen TFT LCD, 480 x 272 pixel (16.77 million colors), Max. 200 cd/m2 (with brightness control)
- Speakers: Built-in stereo speakers
- Main Input/Output: IEEE 802.11b (Wi-Fi), USB 2.0, Memory Stick PRO Duo, IrDA, IR Remote (SIRCS)
- Disc Drive: UMD Drive (Playback only); plays "PSP Game", "UMD Audio", & "UMD Video"
- Main Connectors: DC OUT 5V (Terminals for charging built-in battery), Headphone/Microphone/Control connector
- Power: Built-in lithium-ion battery, AC adaptor
What does this all mean? Obviously it means that it has a lot of junk in the trunk.
