Sony PSP

Though a few small-timers such as Gizmondo, Tapwave, and the N-Gage are still at the table betting for the right to be your portable gaming device, all attention is focused on the fierce stare-down between Sony and Nintendo. The decades-long champion GameBoy franchise has called the bluffs and outplayed its opponents in the past, but after taking it to Nintendo in the console wars, Sony is more confident than ever that it can call and raise its way to portable victory. The sleek and powerful PSP is here, and it's ready to give Nintendo a run for its money. Who's going to walk away with the chips? After playing with the PSP, our money's on Sony.

With an amazing 4.3-inch, high-resolution widescreen TFT display, the PSP exudes sexiness and privilege. The 480 x 272-resolution screen brings games, movies, and photos to life and is sure to turn heads everywhere it goes. Put up alongside the Nintendo DS, the PSP looks like a Ferrari revving its engine and flashing off its glossy paint job next to a quaint Ford Focus. The glossy exterior easily collects smeared fingerprints, but that does little to take away from the vibrant 16.8-million color display's siren call.

Unfortunately, all was not well with our screen. After only a half-hour of use, we noticed a dead pixel in the middle of it. When we checked the instruction manual for warranty information, we regrettably came across this terse passage: "Red, blue or green spots (bright spots) or black spots (dark spots) may appear in certain locations on the LCD Screen. The appearance of such spots is a normal occurrence associated with LCD screens and is not a sign of malfunction." Last time we checked, a dead pixel was considered a mechanical failure. This is a sad stand to take considering Nintendo is repairing or replacing any DS system with any dead pixels.

Though the PSP isn't as portable as the Game Boy Advance SP, it weighs less than one pound and fits easily into your back pocket. With the extra size comes horsepower: the proprietary 333-MHz CPU delivers PlayStation 2-quality graphics, and the PSP has eight times the RAM of the Nintendo DS. The controller design re-creates the PS2's basic four-button-and-a-directional-pad layout, minus the two analog sticks and the second set of shoulder buttons. One of the first customer complaints when the PSP was released in Japan was its sticky buttons, but after hours of gameplay ours continued to perform flawlessly.

Instead of the analog stick, Sony placed an awkwardly placed "analog control" directly beneath the D-pad. If you have large hands you have to bend your thumb uncomfortably to use the control, and it operates more like the touchy TrackPoint mouse on an IBM ThinkPad than the smooth sticks featured on the PS2. The analog control responded well enough when negotiating tight corners during gameplay, but it just doesn't feel as comfortable as its console brethren. First-person shooter fans will lament the absence of a second analog control, as pulling off a natural-feeling shooter is nearly impossible without one.

The PSP features Sony's new proprietary Universal Media Disc (UMD) format, a high-capacity 1.8GB optical disc. Games will sell for upwards of $49.99, the same price new release titles sell for on the current consoles and $10 more than Nintendo DS games. This is a steep price for a portable gaming experience, but with such advanced graphics and gameplay, it was to be expected. The films available on UMDs don't get much cheaper, with most of the launch releases selling for $19.99, the same price as most DVDs.

For external memory, Sony is stubbornly supporting its proprietary Memory Stick format instead of going with the much more widely adopted Secure Digital or CompactFlash cards. The PSP value pack comes with a 32MB card, but if you plan to bring any semblance of a multimedia library without purchasing the pricy UMD discs, you should purchase a high-capacity Memory Stick, which sell for around $150.

Though its primary function is playing games, the PSP also features above-average music and video capabilities. The Spider-Man 2 UMD Sony provided played flawlessly, and each of the photos we loaded onto the memory stick looked fantastic in our slideshow. The internal speakers aren't ideal for playing music, but with headphones the PSP ably doubles as an MP3 player. With the Apple-esque user interface, accessing each of these features is very easy. Simply load in a memory card, highlight whether you want to search for video, photos, or audio, and you're in business. The USB 2.0 support also enables the easy transfer of files from your PC to the PSP, although you'll have to supply your own cable.

The built-in 802.11b wireless functionality enables multiplayer action, with the ability to support connections with up to 16 other PSPs. In the ad hoc mode, the software easily locates other in-range gamers so you can pit your skills against some real competition. Sony also included an infrastructure mode that allows you to connect to area networks, though the PSP doesn't offer a web browser or a productivity suite to check e-mail or send instant messages. Rumors suggest that Sony has plans to unveil a software upgrade later in the product cycle that will offer these applications, but the company hasn't officially addressed this publicly.

With a system this powerful, you have to wonder how long the rechargeable Lithium-ion battery will last. Sony estimates that the PSP should deliver four to six hours of gameplay, two to three hours of video playback, and up to ten hours of music playback. Using the Wi-Fi connection will further reduce the battery's endurance. The actual time fluctuates from game to game depending on how much the title in question renders environments directly from the UMD, but Sony's numbers were on par with our user experience.

As a device built for gaming, the PSP easily outpaces everything else on the market. The additional music, video, and photo options are just sweet bonuses that further drive this device into the "must own" category.