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.

Other important (non)-feature..

All signs are pointing to the PSP-2000 being locked down so as to prevent homebrew (or Linux) running on it.

Re:Other important (non)-feature..

Actually, it's been proven to use the TA-085 motherboard, which CAN run homebrew.

Re:Other important (non)-feature..

Sony hasn't supported homebrew since PSP firmware 1.0...no reason to expect them to support it now.

Video out

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.

No IR?

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!

No composite video for games??

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 [slashdot.org] 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?

Re:No composite video for games??

Component is required because progressive scan is required for games. Whatever reason they have for necessitating progressive scan, I don't know...

No difference?

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.

Re:No difference?

The PSP really hasn't lost any body weight.

If you're going to bash a redesign, at least read the article in the summary:

The most immediate thing we noticed was how light the system is: the original was in no ways heavy, but the new handheld is certainly much lighter, without making it too feathery.

Granted, maybe you actually attended E3 and held the device and this is a matter of opinion, but that seems like a pretty dumb statement to make if you haven't.

Hates infrared?

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?

how did they do it?

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?

Re:how did they do it?

The added RAM means less time spinning the UMD looking for data. The biggest energy sapping system in the PSP is the UMD Drive. With 64mb of RAM, that means you don't need to look stuff up on the disc as often...

Summary

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

RAM eh?

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?

Focus!

"Close up" indeed. Some one needs to tell them about the macro function on their camera. Cripes.

4GB limit

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)

Appealing...

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.

How hard is it to hold the camera still?

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.

Loading time?

The only thing I'd ask them to do was fix the retarded loading times. Any word on that at all?

has any hacker...

...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.