***Official PSP Post-Release Discussion and Review Thread Thread*** (1 Viewer)

[Dave E H]

Yup,. I agree, being one of those early adopters. Until they can produce the volume to meet larger demand, sell it at a premium. Just basic, simple economics.

I got mine in the mail. Wow. It's still charging, but the form factor is breathtaking. Wow. The analog nub thing is pretty sweet. I just need to go get a game for it tomorrow.

 

[Dave E H]

did anyone get any accessories? I can't even find a spare battery for sale. Gamestop's got some weird "power brick" for recharging, but that seems kind of lame.

Also, anyone have a good case for it yet?

 

[David Galindo]

The power brick, what I hear, is a fantastic product. Your PSP runs out of juice, then you plug in the power brick, which gives you about 5 hours of play. Then you unplug the brick, and your PSP is fully charged from the brick, giving you another 5 hours. You can charge the power brick seperately also.

I bought the Aero Case from Japan, and its fantastic. Ill see if I can find a link.

 

[Sean Moon]

Charging my power brick right now after some marathon Lumines. Damn the brick gets REALLY hot while charging. Not a good feeling. But great concept

 

[Dave E H]

how heavy is the brick? I'm debating that or another battery. The brick seems kinda bulky, but would obviously give me more battery life.

All I really need is 8-10 hours. That will reasonably get me through any trip 1 way (flying and airports and such.)

 

[Sean Moon]

Take two mini discs, stack em, and you get the size of the power brick. Its pretty tiny, not too terribly heavy either. The heat on this thing is scaring me though. It is almost painful to the touch. I will probably take it back tomorrow. It has been charging for a long time and the light is still on on it. I dont know. The heat part is just scary.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Actually I wanted the Power brick it sounds like a nice acessory when your away from AC Power. Supposedly on one charge it'l charge the unit twice.

I aso bought a ouple of other things. I did'nt ike the way the PSP felt when holding it. The gossy surface is cool but to me it always felt like I was going to drop it. So I bought pelican's Game skin. It was only available in green, which I hated ( The other colors sold Out I wonder why) I brought it home put it on, and it did solve the slippery problem, but the PSP gets slightly warm, and it got a bit more warm with this, so I ditched it.

Next I saw Pelican's Face Armor, a sleek Black flip cover, I mainly want Screen protection and the game skin was a magnet for dust and debris, but I read online that the screw this thing attaches to the PSP was defective and the unit was junk,, Being only $10 I took a chance, and mine ended up working well. I love that it matches the PSP and looks part of it. I've order an Anodised alluminum case from Logitech, but it does'nt release until Mid-April , this will hold me till then.

Now on to games. I've played one succesfullonline match in Gretsky hockey. The other 2 I have tried Wipeout, cannot find any online games, and Twisted Metal gets into the game lobby but as it tries to syncup aand start always says there's a problem and drops. Anyone have similar experiences?

 

[Al.Anderson]

Focusing on the fact that I said ‘separating cash’ is a cheap dig. I think it’s pretty obvious that what was meant was that they are price gouging. So the people buying this either have loads of disposable income, can’t restrain themselves for two minutes, or don’t know any better. I guess you guys fall into one of the former categories. Personally, I feel cheated when I know the same product is being sold to others for 20% less.

 

[Blu]

Are there different models with different sizes of internal hard drives?

 

[Dave E H]

I think you have the PSP confused w/ a true console. The storage for a PSP is all provided by the memory stick and the UMD (media disk for games/movies), not a hard drive.

 

[Blu]

Gotcha! Thanks!

How large are the mem sticks then?

A standard 256 or are there larger sizes?

 

[Jake Gove]

It's too bad they didn't put a hard drive in it, like a 5-10 GB one. Then the PSP could have taken on the iPod.

 

[BrianB]

The basic "stick" that comes with the PSP is 32MB. There are memory sticks available in sizes upto 1GB for use with storing music/video/photos.

 

[RAF]

The "value pack" comes with a standard 32Meg unit. Larger memory sticks are available (at additional cost, of course) if you want to use storage for videos, music and other stuff like digital photos. It looks like the standard 32Meg stick would be o.k. if all you want to do is store some game info, but I've not played with it enough yet to see what the limitations are.

Perhaps some of the PowerPSP users can chime in here with suggestions for sticks to buy, sources, prices, etc. Like all things, the prices will drop as the production gears up. I'll probably purchase a larger memory stick at some point (1Gig+?) since as I understand it there is an adapter that will allow me to use the stick in my Sony Cybershot camera and my Sony DV camcorder which use the full size memory sticks.

If I were younger, I'd be a powerPSP user. Now I'm just a "User Emeritus" who marvels at the advance of technology. Heck, I was a Magnavox Odessey owner back in the formative video gaming years. And I wasn't even a young whippersnapper back in those days!



One final question to throw out to the regulars - Is there a stateside source for things like the AeroCase and the PowerBrick et. al. or are we still limited to off shore purchasing? I feel more comfortable going through normal purchasing channels rather than Western Union, etc. Suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[Sean Moon]

i got my power brick from best buy in store. And am going to return it today after almost burning myself when i touched it last night. Great concept for a product, it just angers me it runs so hot.

 

[Dave E H]

1GB sticks are hard to come by these days, but I think the SanDisk model is the cheapest normally. I think they can go for 175-200 or so. People have been finding them on eBay.

Personally, a HD in the unit doesn't make sense to me. Just another thing to break and add cost. I respect the opinion of those who want a convergence device (one that does everything) but I just want a great dedicated unit for each of my needs. It just has to be great at it (PSP for gaming, iPod for MP3's, phone for a phone, etc.)

 

[Brian E]

The 1GB sticks from SanDisk have an MSRP of $150 & can be purchased directly from the mfg for that price. I've seen folks mention getting them on eBay for around $110 or so. They're $120 from someplace like buy.com

 

[Blu]

I personally would love a convergence device, practically a mini pocket pc that would have say a 5 inch screen, operates in phone cells like a cell phone, has a hard drive and would be capable of playing games, browsing, email, etc.

They can't be that far off in the future...could they?
I mean a Blackberry is kind of close.

 

[Brian E]

Some day soon I think we'll see such devices. A Sony PSP/Clie/Phone would be cool.

 

[DeanC]

Thanks everyone for all these comments. Great reading.
Im still looking at buying accessories. Thanks on those comments too. I can use some sticks from family members who own some and sandiscs too. I have an extra 256mb stick from my digital camera.

What I like best is the UMD discs look so cute, want to open the case to get right at the disc itself aka the gamecube discs. Great idea combo cartridge mini disc.

I'd love to see in future a PSP harddrive, a newer model psp that this one doesn't have, and we don't have to buy accessories.

I wanted to buy some games but looking everywhere, games are sold out, but the systems, core and bundles are still selling everywhere here in Vancouver BC Canada when the CNN news says PSP sold out everywhere in North America. They forgot our town.

Also I wish places like Blockbuster or Rogers video will start renting movies/games for this now too in the near future.