When you take a closer look at the gaming device the first thing you will notice is its screen. The only drawback is its weak resistance against external impacts and scratches that are going to appear even under the most careful use. The only thing to help in this case is to use a protective membrane, which is now available in almost any store selling the console itself.

To protect PSP from harm its highly recommended to use special protecting case. While playing, PSP almost reaches a PS2 graphics level. Surelly, all games are different and if we are talking about graphically simple "Twisted Metal: Head On" then we can say that gameplay is a soul of this game but for the "Need for Speed: Most Wanted", or "GTA: Liberty City Stories" the key figure is visual performance. From time to time graphics really amazing and stuns! Sometimes it can't be belived that tiny UMD can hold so much information!

Its real pleasure to view the psp video on this screen - video quality is at the top. Due to the small size of the screen comparing to TV, a stunning clarity of the picture is achieved. DVD is in your pocket! This affects games too: take a screenshot of the modern game product and push it to a PSP, the result will be unbeliveable! Mp4 video format are also quite decent, although, of course, clearly falls short of quality films comparing to UMD. There are several options to adjust video playback: the original size, full-screen, etc.

Do not forget that the console has the ability to view images. Just connect the PSP to a computer, upload a few photos or images and you'll get a photo album in your pocket. Pictures are automatically converted to fit display size, you can zoom in and out and rotate in any direction. Besides slideshow is available so you can easily view psp wallpapers.

PSP sound is very nice and is at proper level. External speakers reproduce clear but slightly deaf sound even at maximum volume. It's suits for closed space but on a noisy street it's very difficult to listen to it, that's way it is better to use headphones, so the volume would get higher and better magnitude. PSP options allows you to listen to a music and simultaneously browse the internal menus, view images and use a web browser. Speaking about browser...

The web browser is very convenient and simple. The only drawback, you can mention is the inconvenience of typing, but, sorry, this is not PDA, but still a gaming console. Advantages of a large screen the most seen while surfing the web especially when you are trying to do some PSP downloads.

At this time, the policy of Sony regarding PSP software - is a protection against running games and applications from the memory card. Now there are a lot of homemade programs designed for console by the owners: text editors, book readers, calculators and audio/video players. All of these and other useful things, which are not worse mentioning about in the light of the fight against piracy can be used only with firmware not higher than 1.5. However, this little joyfull things makes Sony loose money, that's why firmware updates in addition to new features comes with a new kinds of protection. And then the developers have presented a serious choice for players wheter to play old games or new ones? For example, to play the new GTA: LCS you'll have to install firmware 2.0 because version 1.5 of firmware wouldn't allow you to run the game. By the way, a required firmware always comes on a game-disk. Thus gamers help gamers and there are a lot of smart guys that found out how to downgrade firmware from 2.0 to 1.5. But, excuse me, I am distracting;)

In conclusion

Of course, Sony PSP is a serious rival for Nintendo, which for many years has been a leader in the portable gaming systems. At the moment it is very difficult to talk about the fate of the new Nintendo Dual Screen portable system and PSP, but all will become clear just in a very short time. Both projects have its pros and cons so its only for you to decide which one to buy!