Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Smaller PSP, 16 GB of storage memory, expansion slot for adding more memory, connectivity for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, you can play games without carrying your collection of UMDs, option to pause and resume games, excellent connectivity with other PS3.

Thumbs Down:

Expensive, doesn’t have a touch screen interface like Nintendo DS or iPhone, you cannot play your collection of UMD discs and you cannot use older PSP accessories, online store could be better like presenting screen shots for games, a single proprietary port for connecting adapter, USB and TV out cables, battery cannot be manually replaced by the user, use of Memory Stick M2 cards for memory expansion which is expensive, bad ergonomics in placement of keys like  volume, analog stick and display controls.

Inside the Trunk:

USB cord, AC adapter, Media Go software and reference material.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Sony PSP Go is 5 inch wide, 0.7 inch deep, 2.7 inch big, and weighs 2.7 oz. The color options for you are black and white. It runs on 333 MHz processor, RAM installed is 64 MB which is non expandable. It has an internal memory of 16 GB and you can add further memory through Memory Stick M2 format cards.

The display is 3.8 TFT LCD which gives 480 x 272 pixels resolution and has support for16.7 million colors. The device also has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. A single proprietary port for connecting power adapter, USB cord and cables for TV output. Battery of the handheld runs for three to five hours and it is not user replaceable.

Razzle Dazzle:

Sony PSP Go is the sexiest of all PSPs! Yes, there are no buttons near the screen that these consoles are known to have. What you get is a smaller handheld gaming device that easily sits in your pocket. Sony PSP Go comes in color options of black and white color. Sony promises more color models in the near future. All this makes Sony PSP Go prettier but it is also a bit thicker due to the slider layout.

Inside Dope:

Whenever a new version of a device is announced we automatically assume that it is going to be better than the previous one. If one finds the device to be indeed better than the previous one, the manufacturer is heaped praise upon. But if the products doesn’t deliver much then you probably vent your anger on the product maker. You probably measure the performance of the previous version and the newer one. The newer one has to deliver better and also has to be cheap. Sometimes the manufacture thinks it is been a while since they have launched a product so they go make one with some minor changes.

We did find the Sony PSP Go better on features as compared to the previous iterations. The most rocking feature was the small size and the slide layout. The buttons on the face are dumped and you have to slide the console out to access the buttons in the second half. The PSP GO is now as big as the screen of PSP 3000.

Another big step that Sony has taken is that it has sacrificed the UMD drive at the back and now you can only download games from Sony PlayStation store.

The PSP 3000 screen size was 4:3 inch diagonally, this has been cut down to 3:8 inch on this device, but we are not complaining, it has the same great resolution of 480×272 pixels. Sony’s Memory Stick Pro Duo is killed to make way for the M2 Micro memory slot which is a bit smaller.

The screen of the Sony PSP Go is better than earlier products, we found pictures were more clear and the screen was brighter. The exterior of the console is still all glossy plastic which means it is bound to attract a lot of finger prints. Carry a cleaning cloth along with the console if you like to keep your gadgets clean. There is also rubber around that let you have a proper grip of the device.

We were perplexed as to why Sony moved the analog stick to the right side of the D-pad. We are familiar with Sony’s hand held consoles and we had problems adjusting to the new place for the analog stick. Newbies who have never used a Sony PSP product will not notice any difference but old users will be wary.

The analog stick is bit smaller but is also sturdier and more durable. The stick is also a bit hard to move around which is better than the loose analog stick that we got in previous versions. Other than the analog stick, other buttons are pretty much the same, they are a bit smaller but you won’t notice much difference when using them in playing games.

Other than this, the rest of the buttons are good on the PSP and using them wasn’t much of a struggle. They are a bit tiny as compared to the previous PSP 3000 but we didn’t have much problems with that while playing games.

The buttons of sound, volume and display have new home, on the top of the device between the R and the L buttons. Accessing them was easy when the screen was slid up. Other than that, the sliders and the switches are in the same position, the hold toggle button which is also the power key are at the lower right side of the device, below the memory card slot.

One of the main additions to the console is the Bluetooth which lets you plug wireless head sets to the device for listening to music or for sound while playing games. We tried pairing up the device with Bluetooth devices and some of them didn’t pair up, we didn’t know what the problem was, it worked fine when we tested it for phones. You can also hook up this device to be controlled through a controller of a PS3 consoles. But you will have to attach both the PSP 3000 and controller to the PS3 through USB cables. We don’t think this feature that useful but we welcome the inclusion of Bluetooth for wireless connectivity.

Two things that we would like to see in this console are touch screen interface and another analog stick. The touch screen interface is now flaunted by Nintendo DS/DSI as well as iPhone and they have been a great hit. Nintendo consoles have a two screen interface out of which one is touch screen. But we predict a notebook like layout in the future for PSP, just like Nintendo is doing right now. A touch screen would have had been great for typing while using the built in Wi-Fi. We are talking about both swiping the pages with touch of a finger and virtual keyboard typing.

There is an internal storage memory of 16 GB, you use this for storing games by directly connecting the console through WiFi, you can transfer files from PS3 through USB or you can get them through USB from your computer. Sony now will be offering games from the online store as well as through UMDs in the future. The discs are for people who have older version of PSP.

There is no UMD disc drive to run your games so you have to resort to the online store to download games. Sony has promised to put about 225 games, 13300 TV show episodes and 2300 movies in the store. Among the 225 games there are some big names for games that you have been waiting for like Madden NFL 10, PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe, Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas.

We thought Sony was trying to do an Apple which has a great store for iPhone and iPods. There are lots of applications, TV shows, movies, games, etc. for you to download on the store. Some of them are free and while we appreciate this move by Sony we are skeptical if Sony can match Apple’s prowess when it comes to online offerings.

Sony is also offering PSP minis which are new type of games for casual gaming. These games are not exclusive for PSP Go, they can be played with older Sony PSP consoles too but the launch of these PSP minis is along with PSP Go. You can get these games from the online store directly or through purchase of prepaid cards from retailers. The cards give you a unlock code for downloads. The games cost about $5-$10 which we think is a bit costly.

We also visited the PlayStation Store and hooked up the device to try the download store. The store isn’t user-friendly; we would have liked some screen shots of games and also better organization of the games. Once you start downloading the games, you cannot use the PSP Go for any other applications till the download is complete as the console gets locked. Transferring the data from computer is better than getting it through Wi-FI. We tried Motorstorm: Arctic Edge which is of 520 MB, it took 2 hours from Wi-Fi and just 20 minutes through the computer.

If you have more than 1 Sony console, you will have to hook the Go to the account of your PlayStation Network to make sure that you can view or play what you have bought.  You can share the games and videos with up to five Sony consoles including the PSPs and PS3s. There are PSone classics games which were made to be played with classic PlayStation but now you can play them on PS3 or PSP. You can buy the content once and then transfer it to any of the Sony consoles free of charge.

We will ask you to think twice if you are thinking of upgrading from older PSP to the PSP Go. This console doesn’t have UMD drive which means you cannot play the UMD collection of games on this computer. If you are upgrading, you will manually have to transfer all your files, since this one doesn’t have the Pro Duo stick interface.

Besides gaming the PSP Go can play music and videos for you. You can also store photos on them and view them at your leisure. Wi-Fi inclusion means this console has a web browser which is strictly basic one. There is also an internet radio feature but we felt it was too complicated to set up and get going.

Sony PSP Go has got a new proprietary port which means you have to buy none of the old cables of PSP will work on the Go. You will have to buy new cords if you want to connect the Go to TV. There are options for you of component or composite cable for games and videos.

There is a slight change in the operating system that this one has and the other PSPs have. PSP 3000 has 6.00 version of OS where as this one has 5.7. We guess the operating system has been modified to accommodate the slider interface.

When you open the device is closed you get a screensaver where the date and clock are displayed. Pressing the shoulder buttons here will get you a calendar and you can view next or previous months by pressing the L or R buttons. When you open the device you get the cross media bar. You can also set the device to go blank (sleep mode) to save power when not in use. The console won’t go in sleep mode when you start and video and close the slide of the phone. For switching off the Sony PSP Go you press the power button for 3 seconds for switching it on you open the slider again.

While in a game, you can press the pause button to return to the cross media bar. Pause button has a ten minute lag which means after you press the pause button; the game will be paused after 10 seconds. But we welcome this feature since it is rarely found in such handhelds. While in a game and you can pause and resume any time you want.

With a newer version of a device you will expect a faster processor. Well, you will be disappointed about the fact that PSP Go isn’t much faster than previous PSP handhelds. But we never had problems with the speed of the device. It was a bit slow but it was never a pain in the neck.

One of the biggest moves made by Sony in this console is making the battery non-user replaceable. You can no longer carry an extra battery for longer game play while on long trips. We hate this but Sony says that it is done to fight the piracy. Sometimes cheap imitations of batteries damage the devices altogether and you have no option but to buy new ones. But this also means you will have to ship the device to Sony to get the battery replaced.

We tested the Sony PSP Go, Sony said this battery will last about three to six hours. We tested it and it lasted about five hours. But all this depends on the graphics and the sound volume of the console. We expected more from the battery since there was no UMD drive to consume power. We would have also liked a battery status indicator on the handheld to know how much juice is still there in the battery. But we think this will be taken care of in firmware upgrades.

Accessories included are USB cord, AC adapter, Media Go soft ware and reference material. You don’t get a standard mini-USB port which the previous versions of PSPs had instead you get a proprietary port which is your connection port for power adapter, USB cord and you can connect the cables here to watch videos and games on TV. The device charges when you connect it the computer through the USB cord, just like Sony Ericsson phones.

The Media Go soft ware is for syncing your PSP with the computer. It also converts videos to watch on to your PSP Go. You can also copy music tracks from an audio CD onto the console through the software.

Nitty Gritty:

Sony PSP Go is smaller owing to the slider interface that accommodates the buttons but we think that Sony delivered the device and is now biting nails nervously, thinking how it will go in the market because the UMD drive is killed. Smaller PSP Go also means it will fit more easily in your pocket. Other than that the console remains as power full as it was before, it still has the same great graphics and game play experience. We are skeptical over the high price of this version though, Sony PSP 3000 costs $170 and Sony PSP Go costs $250. We think this is a bit too much for considering the only changes are Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, slider layout and no-UMD interface. We wouldn’t advice you to upgrade if you already own a PSP, for people who don’t have a PSP and are yearning for one we say go for this device only if you have big wallet or else stick with PSP 3000.

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