Killer Product!. Review on Sony PSP

PROS:

>One of the best portable entertainment units out there.. there's practically nothing you cant do on it that a laptop or a similar device can.

>There's no dearth of mods/home brew apps/games/movies etc. available for the PSP... its just one Colossal collection!

>I cant even think of an appropriate word for that gorgeous screen out in the front...

>Insane gameplay(graphics)...you wont believe you are gaming on a handheld device itself in the first place!!

> It seriously looks STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL... even when it is switched off!

> Integrated 802.11B Wi-fi is pretty fast and useful.

> The list is practically endless but i'll stop here! :-)

CONS:

>The memory stick (MS-PRO DUO) it uses is really expensive... when I last checked it was 8,000INR for a genuine one bought from the showroom. If you are ok with buying a fake one, you can get it for around 1400 bucks in the grey market... they look so impeccably real that you'll wonder if its fake or real!

>Very poor service support for PSP in India... technical know how is still low and moreover the product awareness too is more or less limited to the geek community and die-hard play station fans

>Pathetic sound output... quality is tolerable but volume is not. If you wanna use this as a stand-alone loud speaker MP3 player, look elsewhere or better buy additional speakers. The volume can however be boosted while watching UMD videos. Sounds decent with a head phone set also.

>Cant exactly say it is expensive, but it involves a lot of hidden costs... here's a small tally of how much you'll be spending on one...

The console unit itself (Value Pack) - 19,000

Anygame (OneUMD) - 3,000

ScreenProtector - 500 (approx)

Additional Memory (Atleast 1 gb) - 8,000 (approx)

BetterHeadphones - varies between 65 to even 1000 bucks

And not to mention the other accesories you can buy like carry case, additional battery (the one included gives a good 2 hours continous gameplay, i'm guessing that wont be enough once you see the kind of games that run on it :-)..) and even skins (although they are difficult to search for in india...)

Another word of advise would be to try and buy an older one if you get 'cos you can run custom apps off it... preferrably one with firmware version 1 or 1.5. If you get one with F/W ver. 2.0, that too is ok 'cos it can be downgraded to 1.5. Where I stay, i.e Bangalore, you can get a PSP with F/w 1.5 for about 13K or 12K, the regular one costs around 10.5... and of course all prices from the grey market for the original thing itself.

LAST WORD

Highly recommended for those who require a portable device that is extremely entertaining and offers a variety of features... preferably those who spend more time gaming and also watch a movie or two every now and then. It's use as a MP3 player is affected by its bulk size so it's MP3 ability is limited to indoor use only... trying to pocket this monster when not wearing a cargo pant will be disasterous!