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PSP-Slim Hands On
fistfullast33l writes "PSPFanboy, a Joystiq blog, has a great closeup of the new PSP redesign. Photos show the old PSP and the new PSP side by side. Modifications include adding more RAM (up to 64MB), extended battery life, a new UMD loading door, removal of the IR port (Sony really hates infrared), and a redesigned headphone jack to support video output. Sony confirmed that you will be able to play movies and games through the video out, but the games can only be viewable via component, not composite cables. Also, 0okm has some nice pictures of the new PSP internals as well as a manual snapshot showing button layout (the wireless switch was moved) and TV out information." Gamasutra has the news that the slim-line is due out on September 20th in Japan.
All signs are pointing to the PSP-2000 being locked down so as to prevent homebrew (or Linux) running on it.
It would be nice to see some sort of standardized, low-range, wireless digital video transfer protocol, then let the receiver worry about composite, component, HDMI, etc. I've noticed the references to the terrestrial digital video streams in Europe and the like... Sure would be nice to stick a powerful computer (or in this case console) in another room and a dongle on the DVI out and have a set top box that lets me switch streams like channels, without having to run wires.
Somehow I doubt that would work well for battery life though.
How the hell am I going to screw with people's TVs and them not know it's me if I don't just look like I'm playing a video game?
WRONG MOVE SONY!
What the hell? Why not?
Around where I live (Canada), I've never even seen a TV that takes component cables. Don't virtually all older TVs in North America take only composite? I thought the point of this was to make it into a sort of portable console; what's the point if you can't just plug it into any TV?
This is so incredibly frustrating. I was all excited about the new PSP, and now I find it won't even work on my TV. Why didn't they tell us this in the presentation? Did they think we weren't going to notice?
Umm.. I live 'in Canada" and I don't even think I know a single person whose "main TV" does not accept component.
Pretty much any 25" or larger TV made since 1998 has component inputs.
Am I the only one who doesn't see any difference between the two devices shown in those pictures? I mean when Nintendo redesigned the DS it constituted a major redesign in form. The PSP really hasn't lost any body weight. Or for that matter gained any good games. I'll stick with my DS lite.
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There is a sig here.
removal of the IR port (Sony really hates infrared),
Saying Sony hates infrared is like saying my new flatscreen hates buttons because 95% of them are only on the remote.
Another technology has replaced it. Why have two means of remote communication on a device?
The battery shown so far has been a 1200mah one while the one in the current PSP is 1800mah. If thats the case and it still gets a longer battery life, they have achieved quite a bit. Anyone know exactly what changed to get such a huge bump?
That was a boring article:
We're very excited.
The new PSP is much slimmer than the original, but the original is slim too.
The new PSP is much lighter than the original, but the original is light too.
The new PSP is much shinier than the original, but the original is shiny too.
The new buttons "feel better".
We'll talk a bit about the infrared and composite, but won't test it, or give you our feedback on any of this.
We're very excited (again).
The new PSP is much better than the original, but the original is good too.
THE END
What good is more ram anyway? New games certainly can't require more ram than was on the original PSP. Are old games going to know they can use more memory when loading content on a new PSP? Apparently you can't use the PSP for homebrew so really, why bother with more ram?
Also, the fact that they didn't have tv-out in the first place is probably 90% of why UMD movies were such a stupid idea (you know, aside from having another proprietary format for no reason). And it's especially cute that they call this the slim model. Look at those photos. The original wasn't exactly a fat bastard, but slim would imply some significant change in width. God damn Sony is stupid. Just amazingly so.
All that said I'd like to like the PSP and these are all good improvements. Now if only they would release some worthwhile software for the thing, but isn't that just their MO of late. I want to want a PSP and I want to want a PS3. Why can't Sony just get their shit together?
"Close up" indeed. Some one needs to tell them about the macro function on their camera. Cripes.
I'm most disappointed by the fact that you still appear to be stuck to the limit of 4GB memory sticks.
4GB and over cards are coming down in price and it would be great to put one of those big things into this device. To be fair though, it would only be really useful for homebrew (which Sony hates), piracy (which Sony really hates) and movies (which Sony would rather you bought the UMD).
Still a shame though. Especially when you consider that by the end of this year you'll be seeing £100 mobile phone supporting the high capacity cards. Surely the PSP-slim is expected to be around for far longer than that and it's storage options are going to look positively anaemic.
(as an aside, does anyone know whether you can buy anything that'll allow you to use standard - and significantly cheaper - storage with the memory stick pro duo? I don't own a PSP, but if I do, I'd far rather not pay through the nose for Sony's inflated storage medium)
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I have been thinking about getting a PSP for some time. I have a DS and while I think it's great there are some things that have always bothered me. As much as I like sprite-based 2D games I can't get past the fact that 3D graphics on the DS are generally crap. The games for the DS that are good are great, but some genres in particular are quite lacking. And to this day I still don't like the two screens. The functionality it allows for in some games is great, but it still feels gimmicky. I would much prefer it had a single large screen, and coupled with the touch-screen functionality it would be truly great.
This updated PSP makes the console particularly appealing. Of course, this is still Sony we're talking about. So I still have some reservations.
I know we're not talking about huge production budgets here (or any production budgets for that matter) but really, how hard is it to take a clear picture of a STILL OBJECT? Two pictures have camera shake, one is overexposed and one is out of focus. Seriously.
I'm still pretty surprised that SCART is confined mainly to Europe. It's far from perfect, but for general use, it's a good idea. Partly because it's convenient, but also because (I guess) it keeps the costs of all those separate plugs down. And possibly that's one of the main reasons for leaving out component video on North American TVs(?)
Teletext is another Euro-invention that didn't take off in the US either. Wonder why...
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The only thing I'd ask them to do was fix the retarded loading times. Any word on that at all?
More RAM means the system can cache more data and reduces either load time or load frequencies.
...took out the UMD and put in something like an iPod hard drive, with some sort of firmware hack to make the PSP think it has a huge UMD drive yet? I'd love to see that. That would be hilarious.
Maybe it's a Canadian thing but I have never once in my life seen a TV with composite input on the front. That's a little bizarre because by the time manufacturers were thinking about being able to easily plug stuff into the front everything was using component cables.
Pardon? My Toshiba has three sets of inputs -- two composite inputs in the back and one in the front. A friend's Sony TV is the same. I have come across many, many TVs here in Canada with composite inputs on the front and it makes plugging your video camera into the TV and boring the relatives that much easier. What might be confusing you is very often you have to flip open a front panel to find the inputs, but not always.
There will be a composite cable for the PSP, but it only supports video from the UMD or Memory Stick.
Get a Casio remote control watch like mine. Loads of fun because no one expects it. Especially back at my old college where they had that big TV in the MU and all the seats were 10 feet from the TV itself and the TV had no remote to it.
That sure confused a lot of people, heh.