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.

Video out

[68030]

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 composite video for games??

[physicsnick]

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?

how did they do it?

[grapeape]

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?

[Anonymous Coward]

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...

Re:RAM eh?

[ch0ad]

apparently the new ram will be used to cache data from the umd to speed load/reload times.... or something like that. also (this is just speculation) i expect it will be used in the web browser to avoid so many "out of memory" errors.

Re:Hates infrared?

[fistfullast33l]

Well, seeing as the IR port was useless on the PSP (except for some homebrew that figured out how to turn the PSP into a universal remote), I can see why Sony removed it. But on the PS3, it drives me crazy when trying to use it as a DVD/Bluray player. I can't use my TV remote (Sony also) to control the PS3 because it doesn't have an infrared port. Even worse, the bluetooth remote that Sony makes doesn't have IR on it, so it's only good for hte PS3. It's rather annoying.

Appealing...

[MaWeiTao]

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.

It gets even more confusing...

[Hamster Lover]

There will be a composite cable for the PSP, but it only supports video from the UMD or Memory Stick.