Sony PSP Review by the Gadgeteer

There have been earlier PSP reviews out there, but few as comprehensive as the one now appearing at The Gadgeteer. The bottom line? They love the new device, its games, and the sound. So far the biggest problem they see is a relatively short battery life (4 to 5 hours continuous, 3 hours over the course of a week) and too few games. Hopefully, both will be fixed by the time this thing comes to America.

There's just something about this device that makes me want to pick it up every time I walk by it. Yeah it's pretty, but the games are fun. More fun than any handheld gaming device I've owned so far.  But there are some big gotchas that go along with my praise. One gotcha is battery life. But maybe the biggest gotcha is just how viable is the PSP in the current handheld game console arean? Even though a device is 'better' than another device as far as hardware and features, it always comes down to the games. Will the PSP come out with some excellent games that make this the device to buy? That's very hard to predict. I don't feel too confident given the fact that I've been here before. I was in love with the Atari Lynx way back when. It was an excellent handheld gaming console. Better sound, better graphics than the Game Boy... but it failed because the Game Boy was already very well established with 100's and 100's of games. Will the same thing happen with the PSP? Very possibly. Even probably. I sure hope not though!

If you are interested, EB is allowing preorders of its "PSP Kit" which includes 3 games of your choice and an "accessory."