Game Review: PSPGo

San Jose Mercury News

The new UMD-less PSPgo is a device that has the attention of many gamers -- and game makers. It's a sleek redesign of the PSP but with a higher price tag and some interesting issues that may or may not work out well for Sony.

First of all, the Go's screen is smaller: 3.8 inches instead of the 4.3 inches of the older PSP models. The resolution remains the same at 480x272, so you won't really notice. The new design lets you slide the screen up to reveal the game controls underneath. The size easily allows you to fit this in the front pocket of your jeans.

From the surface, this is one of the best-looking pieces of consumer electronics on the market.

It's loaded with 16GB of flash storage, has an Micro M2 slot for expansion. and, without a UMD drive, manages to be 50 percent smaller and 40 percent lighter than the original PSP. The screen has vibrant color reproduction and a perfect level of max brightness (unless in direct sunlight, where it becomes unusable).

In a mixture of movie playback, gaming and general interface navigation, the PSPgo ran for 4 hours and 47 minutes at max brightness with Wi-Fi on. That's just slightly better than the last PSP model.

Unfortunately, it's easy to start picking it apart from there.

For a product dependent on digital downloads, the process of getting to the content is painful. There is no background downloading, which means that once you begin to download a game, you can't do anything

else until it is finished.

While some speeds may vary, downloading files from Sony on both the PSP and PS3 can be slow. A 1GB file can take an hour or more. For the impatient, that's no fun. Even worse, if you lose your signal or get disconnected, your progress is not saved.

Additionally, since it lacks a way to play games purchased at retail, Sony gets to set the price for every piece of content bought on the system. You can get your games only from one place; competition, with discounting and used games, is gone. But if you don't mind the bulky UMDs, that isn't a problem for you.

But this raises the real question. Can a pricier version of the PSP -- with no touch screen -- and with a smaller screen, awkward placement of analog stick, slow download times for large games, and an inability to play UMD games or use old PSP accessories be attractive to gamers?

Maybe. Here is the real advantage I found over the course of a few weeks. Its compact size and bigger memory space allow me to easily carry several great titles at once. There were no disks or extras to pack up. It feels more mobile, easier to take and somehow more flexible.

Will Sony convince other players? I can say that my old PSP is at home with all the UMDs and the PSPgo is right here in my pocket. Sony may be on to something.

CHRIS"S RATING

2.5

(Out of 5)

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