The PSP 3000 is presently available in several configurations :
Reading: Sony PSP 3000 review: Sony PSP 3000
Sony PSP 3000 Ratchet and Clank Entertainment Pack (silver) : This limited-edition $ 200 bundle includes a silver PSP 3000, UMD game, National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets UMD movie, 1GB Memory Stick Duo card, and a coupon for ( a downloadable game available at the on-line PlayStation Store ). Sony PSP 3000 Ratchet and Clank Entertainment Pack (black) : This is the same as above, but in total darkness rather of silver. Sony PSP 3000 Rock Band Unplugged Bundle (black) : This limited-edition $ 200 pack includes a black PSP 3000, Rock Band Unplugged UMD game, 4GB Memory Stick Duo card, and a coupon for “ School of Rock ” ( a downloadable movie available at the on-line PlayStation Store ). Sony PSP 3000 Hannah Montana Bundle (lilac) : This limited-edition $ 200 bundle includes a lavender ( purple ) PSP 3000, Hannah Montana : rock Out the Show UMD game, 2GB Memory Stick Duo poster, an sequence of the Hannah Montana TV series on UMD, and some Hannah Montana stickers. Sony PSP 3000 Assassin’s Creed Pack (black) : This limited-edition $ 200 bundle includes a black PSP 3000 and the game Assassin ‘s Creed Bloodlines ( available November 1, 2009 ). Sony PSP 3000 Gran Turismo Pack (silver) : This limited-edition $ 200 pack includes a silver medal PSP 3000 ; the plot Gran Turismo on UMD ; a coupon for a white Chervolet Corvette ZR1 ( a downloadable addition to the Gran Turismo game ) ; a voucher for a downloadable movie from the PlayStation Store ; a Sony MusicPass voucher good for 10 downloadable songs from Sony Music ; and a 2GB Memory Stick Duo circuit board ( available mid-october 2009 ). Sony PSP 3000 Core Pack : This “ no frills ” adaptation includes just a black PSP 3000 for $ 169. note that extra colors and bundles will likely be offered on a periodic basis. With entirely a $ 30 premium, the bundles are a dependable choice for users who do n’t already have a Memory Stick Duo wag on hand. You ‘ll besides want to be certain to pick up a case to protect the PSP ‘s large, exposed screen. ( Check out Flickroom ‘s broad list of recommend PSP accessories. ) Design
The PSP 3000 has the lapp reduce dimensions ( 2.81 inches high by 6.63 inches broad by 0.63 inch deep ) and lighter weight ( barely over 7 ounces — or 200 grams — with the battery, crippled disk, and Memory Stick on control panel ) as its harbinger. The 4.3-inch LCD wide screen remains, and it ‘s been tweaked. Sony says the newfangled screen now delivers better color reproduction, reduced glare, and reduced “ ghost ” on high-motion scenes. When compared with the 2000, the PSP 3000 does, indeed, deliver better color plangency ( you can toggle between “ wide ” and “ standard ” semblance in the options to see the deviation ). As for glare decrease : we did n’t find there to be a huge dispute. Do n’t expect to play in steer sunlight, for exemplify. But you might have better fortune with fewer distractions from indoor light sources. But in its feat to deal with the ghosting issue, Sony ‘s bring around may have been worse than the disease. By increasing the screen ‘s freshen rate, the newfangled PSP seems to introduce a diverseness of video recording artifacts onto the riddle. They appear as scanlines or jaggies, as if the visualize is interlaced. They ‘re more apparent in high-motion scenes in games and videos — but that ‘s most of the contentedness on the PSP. ( A good example of the differences in the screen can be seen at Kotaku. )
There are few physical differences between the PSP 2000 (top) and the PSP 3000 (bottom). The silver version of the PSP 3000 has a felt polish, as compared with the glistening piano bootleg end of the black one. As a resultant role, the silver medal body is immune to fingerprints and smudges that so easily show up on the black one. unfortunately, the screen is identical on both — smooth and glazed — and it remains a attraction for fingerprints. As mentioned above, the lack of a clamshell purpose ( as seen on the Nintendo DS and DSi ) makes investing in a case angstrom much a necessity for the PSP as it is for an ipod or iPhone. aside from a few very child cosmetic differences, button layout on the PSP 3000 is basically identical to the previous PSP equally well. The screen door is bordered by controls on its leftover, right, and buttocks side, plus two shoulder buttons along the top border. The button layout is based on the classical PlayStation control layout — the four-way directional pad on the leave, public square, triangle, cross, and circle keys on the right — so anyone who ‘s used a Sony console over the last ten should be able to pick up and play. The bottom bequeath of the front face besides houses an analogue thumbstick, for more precise movement. ( A second gear thumbstick on the right, mimicking the design of the PlayStation accountant, would ‘ve been a welcome addition. ) More mundane media controls cable the bottom of the screen : choice, start, volume, luminosity, and a “ home ” button. ( Some of them are shaped a bite differently than the previous exemplar, and the “ home ” button now brandishes the PlayStation emblem. ) New to the PSP 3000 is the built-in microphone, located barely below the screen. It can be used for on-line communication, be it within a plot or for the PSP ‘s built-in Skype application. The advantage of having the mic integrated into the soundbox is that you can use it with any standard copulate of headphones. By line, the PSP 2000 required a special headset for communicating on-line. The PSP is designed to play games and movies off something called UMDs — universal Media Discs. We ‘re not indisputable where Sony got the “ universal ” separate of the mention, because the PSP is the only device that plays them. They ‘re sort of a hybrid between a mini-CD and an old MiniDisc, and they only hold about 2.2GB of data. They load into a snap-open door on the PSP ‘s rear. Sony seems to be moving the PSP to more of a downloadable model for games and video recording ( see the PlayStation Store section, below ), so we would n’t be surprised to see the UMD become more of a bequest medium for the PSP .
The PSP 3000 lacks built-in storage, so you’ll need a Memory Stick Duo. The Memory Stick Duo slot remains on the exit edge. Like the UMD bay, it ‘s a pry-open cover that slides on cartilaginous plastic rails. If you ‘re not buying a PSP pile that includes an MS Duo card ( or do n’t have a spare one from a Sony camera ), you ‘ll want to invest in a decently sized one ( 2GB or better ). They ‘re widely available for less than $ 30 or sol, but it ‘s annoying — again — that Sony ‘s gone with its own proprietorship format rather of the more widely used ( and cheaper ) SD standard. Rounding out the connections : the headphone/AV laborer is on the bed edge. It ‘ll take any standard 3.5mm headphones, angstrom well as especial PSP-only AV-out cables for connecting to a television receiver ( see “ video output, ” below ). The USB port remains centered on the top edge of the PSP. Sony does n’t include a cable, but it ‘s a standard mini-USB connection, so it ‘s likely that you already have one lying about. The USB connection is flanked by two screw holes that allow for accessories to be firm attached to its frame. But most people will use the USB port for flying connections to the personal computer to transfer digital media — photos, music, and video recording, ampere well as games and show available through the on-line PlayStation Store. The PSP ‘s interface is known as the Cross Media Bar, or XMB. The original PSP was the first gear Sony intersection to use it, and it ‘s since been incorporated into the PlayStation 3 and many early Sony TVs and AV receivers. It ‘s a reasonably slick menu system that ‘s broadly pretty easy to maneuver through using the D-pad and dominance buttons. As you get into some of the applications, however, that ease can get lost. We wished the Web browser, for exemplify, was vitamin a well-designed as the overall XMB menu system. If you do n’t want to use headphones, the PSP has external stereophonic speakers. They produce becoming volume for games and UMD movies, but we ‘ve always found the book on videos that we copy over to the Memory Stick to be a morsel less potent.
The PSP includes a 5-volt AC power arranger. It can besides be charged via USB, albeit at a slower “ trickle ” rate. Those concerned in USB charging ( from a excess ipod arranger or their personal computer, for exemplify ) would be better advised to get something like the Mad Catz USB Data/Charge Cable, which is readily available for less than $ 10. Multimedia and online features
The PSP is primarily a bet on device, but it ‘s got some luminary media functionality a well. Wi-Fi: The PSP has built-in Wi-Fi capability, allowing it to connect to any radio Internet serve, including those with WEP and WPA encoding ( but not WPA2 ). One annoyance : the 3000 continues to use the slowest 802.11b interpretation of Wi-Fi. An upgrade to 11g or even 11n is delinquent. Video playback: The PSP can play video from a diverseness of sources. The easiest — and most ill-advised — is to buy prerecord UMD video recording phonograph record. ( With an extremely limit survival, and the fact that the PSP is the entirely place you can watch them, UMD video are — not surprisingly — pretty hard to find. ) A better option is to copy your own television from a calculator onto a Memory Stick Duo card, and pop it in to the PSP. A variety show of freeware and commercial software products can readily convert files to PSP-friendly formats and resolutions ( MPEG4 or H.264-AVC, up to 720×480 ). LocationFree TV: Built into the PSP is the ability to stream live television from a Sony LocationFree TV device, which is Sony ‘s take on the Slingbox. american samoa long as the PSP is in a Wi-Fi hot blemish, it can stream the video recording and change the channels on a LocationFree box, even if it ‘s halfway around the populace. Audio playback: The PSP doubles as a decent music musician, with the ability to play DRM-free MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, and ATRAC3 files, along with support for album art. Shuffle and repeat modes are supported, along with a visualizer officiate. Photo display: The PSP can display JPEG, GIF, and TIFF photos stored on the MS Duo menu — individually, or as a slide show. however, larger photos may need to be compressed before see. Skype: As mentioned above, the PSP 3000 has a built-in Skype node, which can be used for free Skype-to-Skype calls equally well as calls to and from regular phones ( if you invest in paid Skype add-ons ). While it ‘s not going to be offering any serious competition to the iPhone ( or any early dedicated cell earphone ), the ability to have fully Skype access — without the indigence for a special headset — could decidedly be utilitarian for quick calls home during, say, an oversea trip. PS3 “Remote Play”: The PSP can log into a PlayStation 3 on a home network or via the Web, and pour any video recording, audio, or photos stored on the PS3. Web browsing: The PSP has a built-in Web browser, but it ‘s the one position — more than games — where you ‘ll very lament the device ‘s lack of a touch screen ( or even a numeric computer keyboard ). A fortune of graphically rich pages will be cramped or broken on the screen, and the limited Flash support is n’t particularly full-bodied ( no Flash-based video, for example ). That said, using the analogue joint to control the cursor is nice. And for a draw of people, it will be a better mobile Internet experience than they ‘re getting on a call. RSS reader: Separate from the Web browser is an r lector, but it could use an pass to make it easier to use and add your own feeds. Internet radio: The PSP has a dedicated Shoutcast node that offers barren streaming Internet radio receiver. It ‘s merely a circuit board that works through the browser. It ‘s overdesigned and not as aboveboard or easy to use as it should be, but it works. Search: There ‘s besides a dedicated icon for doing a Google search. Network update: The PSP has upgradeable firmware, and Sony has been diligent about adding extra features, fixes, and updates every few months. The upgrade is american samoa simple as choosing the option from the system menu. Video output
Invest in an accessory cable television ( about $ 16 for the composite or component version ), and you can output the PSP ‘s audio and television to a television. The PSP 3000 corrects an annoying restriction of the 2000 model : now, television playback and gameplay will work on pretty much any television receiver. With the 2000, gameplay was limited to progressive-scan only via part video recording — pretty much limiting you to HDTV hookups .
The PSP 3000 can be connected to nearly any TV–if you invest in a compatible video cable.
One irritation remains : video content from UMD disk ( prerecord movies ) and Memory Stick ( home-ripped videos ) can be displayed at DVD-level 720×480 resolutions — though timbre will vary depending upon how the compression of the video in wonder. That will fill the screen on a widescreen HDTV. But games are locked into the PSP ‘s native 480×272 display. thus, if your television does n’t have a robust zoom affair, you ‘re stuck with a window-boxed experience for some games. Accessories and add-ons
The PSP ‘s top-mounted USB larboard is designed with at least two specific accessories in mind : the PSP television camera and the GPS attachment. There are besides rumors of a keyboard attachment in the grapevine. Although the television camera and GPS add-ons are available internationally, neither one has been formally released in North America. Gaming
While its robust media and on-line functionality are impressive, for most buyers, they ‘ll be decidedly secondary coil to the PSP ‘s raison d’etre: bet on on the become. Yes, Nintendo ‘s DS remains baron of the portable gambling scene in terms of units sold, but plenty of people are looking for more sophisticated ( read : less kiddie-oriented ) games than the DS offers. And for those who ca n’t abide the oh-so-cute antics of a Pokemon, Cooking Mama, Zelda, Mario, or Animal Crossing title, the PSP will be a welcome breath of bracing publicize. The graphics on the PSP are perceptibly better than those on the DS equally well — games are basically at the level you ‘d expect on the PlayStation 2 .
PSP games are more graphically rich–and often less kid-oriented–than many titles on the Nintendo DS. early on, the PSP was knocked for being little more than the “ PS2 portable, ” because so many of its titles were merely ports of PlayStation 2 games. And, indeed, its collision list is dominated by many PlayStation franchise understudy, including Grand Theft Auto, SOCOM, Tekken, and God of War ( pictured ). But many of these are phenomenal titles that have been designed for the PSP from the ground up. Genre potent suits include sports, racing, action, and shot titles, but it ‘s not all sweat and blood, either — enough of far-out puzzle games ( Lumines, Puzzle Quest, and LocoRoco ) are available, ampere well as a host of family-friendly favorites as well ( Daxter, and Ratchet and Clank ). It ‘s besides worth noting that many of the PSP games include an on-line multiplayer component. Some games offer ad hoc multiplayer ( peer to peer, for playing against other PSPers in the same room ), others offer Internet play, or both. Online gameplay is free, and — while the experience varies from title to title and is dependent on network focal ratio — it can be precisely as fun and meet as playing on a home console. PlayStation Network and PlayStation Store
Currently, UMD is still the primary fomite for delivering games and media to the PSP. But Sony has been expanding the options available on the on-line PlayStation Store as well. The store allows users to rent and buy movies and television shows, and it besides allows users to buy downloadable games. ( All downloadable contented is stored on the Memory Stick Duo. ) prior to the 5.0 firmware update that coincided with the turn of the PSP 3000, getting content from the store to the PSP was an arduous job — you had to first base download your choices to the personal computer or PS3, then transfer them to the hand-held. But that ‘s now a matter of the past : the memory is directly accessible from the PSP ‘s main menu, and everything can be downloaded straight to the PSP at the click of a button. A individual PlayStation Network account can be used for accessing the PlayStation Store, and you can have both a PS3 and PSP on a single account. indeed, the memory is closely tied to the PS3 : movies purchased on that system can be offloaded for viewing on the PSP, for exemplify.
The fact that the Store is now accessible directly through the PSP puts Sony in a better military position to compete with Apple ‘s App Store ( which has a growing phone number of games for the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch ) and Nintendo ‘s DSi ( which can access the on-line “ DSi Shop ” for game downloads ). While the on-line store primitively hosted just demonstration and ports of PlayStation One classics, Sony is now offering games that are no farseeing published on UMD adenine well as original download-only games that wo n’t be coming to the UMD format at all. Clearly, the ship’s company wants to usher PSP users to a download model. And if you ‘ve got a large enough Memory Stick, it ‘s a batch more commodious to have several games available at once on your PSP, alternatively of carrying around a bunch of awkward UMD magnetic disk. Battery life
The PSP 3000 has the lapp 1,200mAh lithium ion battery as the 2000. ( It ‘s removeable and replaceable. ) We ran a UMD movie on a fully charged PSP 3000 set at broad screen luminosity and half volume with the Wi-Fi turned on, and got 4.5 hours of playback time before the battery died. That ‘s within Sony ‘s rated times of 4-5 hours for UMD videos and 4-6 hours for games, and we suspect we ‘d squeeze a bite more life sentence out of it if we ratcheted down the screen brightness or turned off the Wi-Fi .
