Review: Sony PSP Go

Sony's first PlayStation Portable PSP handheld gaming console was first announced at E3 way back in 2003 and first arrived in UK stores in September 2005.

Fast forward four and a bit years and Sony has finally released a pocket-sized version of the PSP, dropping the hugely unpopular Universal Media Disc (UMD) format in favour of digital downloads via its online store.

The PSP was Sony's attempt to capitalise on the massive popularity of its PlayStation 2 while moving across into a new market – and one that was pretty much owned by its number one competitor in the gaming space, Nintendo.

And while it's easy with the benefit of hindsight to say that Nintendo's 'disruptive' strategy with its lower-cost, dual touch-screen device has proven to be far more popular than Sony's notably higher-spec and costlier option, the truth is that Sony has still managed to carve out a significant market for itself with the sleeker, faster and sexier PSP.

Perhaps the major problem with both the original models of the PSP, as well as pretty much all of Nintendo's various iterations of the DS in the last five years (including the latest DSi refresh), has been that while they can properly be described as portable handheld consoles, they couldn't really be described as truly 'pocket friendly'.

Unless you favour cargo pants with immense-O-pocket styling.

Until now, that is, because the most immediate benefit of Sony's PSP Go is the fact that it's tiny enough to easily fit into the pocket of a loose-fitting pair of jeans, without too much of an embarrassing bulge.

If you're a gamer who likes to rock the skinny-jeaned look, then you're still not going to shoehorn the PSP Go into your pockets.

But fashion faux-pas aside, what's the deal with Sony's new £225 price-tag for its latest bit of kit?

As numerous people have pointed out to us since we obtained a review sample of the UMD-free handheld, you can almost get a new PS3 Slim for that price. So why would you opt to buy this tiddler instead?

You might choose to buy it because you want to put some serious time in on your commutes to work this winter with the new Gran Turismo, Motorstorm: Arctic Edge or FIFA 10, (all of which we can heartily recommend).

If you do, then the next thing you'll immediately notice, after the obvious decrease in width of the PSP Go, is the fact that while the 3.8-inch screen is just a smidgeon smaller than a PSP-3000, the colours and screen-brightness have been ever-so-slightly improved.

Add to this the fact that the controls are now hidden away in a slider that pulls out from underneath the screen whenever you want to start playing (or viewing a movie), and you can see how Sony's product designers have so impressively reduced the size and weight of the console.

Yet while the Go's screen is noticeably improved and the hidden-away controls are a clear design win, there are a few minor gripes that we had in relation to Sony's ongoing march towards miniaturisation.

Firstly, there's no option to remove the battery, so you're going to have to ensure that you're no further than three to four hours of gaming time away from a power point.

Not too bad for daily use, but a killer blow if you're on a long-haul flight, perhaps.

Also, for those gentlemen with larger hands, the squeezing of the D-pad and analogue nub into a much smaller space might well prove to be a deal-breaker. Basically, if you have big hands, we would recommend you get at least a half an hour of demo (or borrow) time with Sony's new console before you consider buying.

Still, we did fare far better in terms of overall finger and thumb control and dexterity with the Sony PSP Go, when compared with Nintendo's latest DSi.

Secondly, and this really is the main reason why you may (or may not) choose to invest your £225, downloading games, demos, movies and trailers from the PlayStation Store via your PC or PS3 is pretty straightforward.

But if you have a stack of older UMD games that aren't being made available on the PS Store, then you are going to be a bit scuppered. And we imagine there aren't many gamers out there who will be happy carrying around two PSPs with them, to overcome these issues.

Sony's new PSP Go is a beautifully designed bit of kit for gaming on the go and it certainly boasts that all-important wow-factor if you enjoy impressing your mates with genuinely new and innovative tech.

We liked:

While the slider screen initially seems like it might be a little frail, the decent build-quality means that you can happily throw this into your bag or jeans pocket without worrying too much about breakage.

The size is just about perfect for a handheld console – Sony has achieved an almost perfect balance between portability and functionality for gaming and this fits in your pocket better than any other handheld on the market.

Sony's downloadable game store works well either via your PS3 or PC, with a full copy of Gran Turismo (weighing in at just over 1GB) taking no longer than 30 minutes to download on a half-decent broadband connection.

The Bluetooth tethering function is superb – letting you hook up to the internet via your mobile phone and letting you use a wireless headset to Skype with.

We disliked:

After around half an hour of playing with your shiny new Sony toy you're going to have to reach for the duster and pledge, because while the piano-black, glossy finish looks the part, it's very easily smudged by clammy hands.

The cost at launch is nothing less than ridiculous! At an RRP of £225 you could almost afford to buy a new PS3 Slim with the Uncharted 2 bundle – not to mention Sony's penchant for expensive accessorising, with cases and straps and the like all set to cost you even more.

Luckily, retailers are already slashing this price to a more favourable £199, so make sure you shop around.

Another gripe is that there are still no real killer-apps when compared with Nintendo's DS Lite/DSi.

Our favourite PSP games are generally a few years old – and we keep returning to Ridge Racer 2, Lumines 2 and the like. Not a good sign. Gran Turismo is not enough.

Sony also needs to work on the PSP Go's battery life. Without the option of replacing your battery and with only around only 3-4 hours constant gaming on a full charge, this isn't a very useful device for long trips where you are away from a power point.

The lack of UMD-to-download programme for older games is sure to put off a lot of current PSP gamers, who will not want to buy a console that doesn't offer them a way of playing all of their favourite games.

Verdict:

With all of the above criticisms taken into consideration, this is still the best commercially available handheld gaming console on the market.

It feels, looks and plays better than older versions of the PSP and in most ways better than Nintendo's DSi.

Of course, the major issue that's going to really decide whether or not the PSP Go has a long-term sustainable life beyond Christmas 2009, is whether or not third party publishers decide to put their all-important development budgets behind the machine – because Nintendo unarguably has the edge when it comes to winning handheld game content.

And while Gran Turismo is a superb game, it's simply not enough when compared with the software on offer from the house of Mario, Zelda and Metroid.

Content, as the hoary old cliché goes, is king. Sony's new PSP Minis might well prove to be mildly diverting and cheap gaming snacks, but we need to see more quality, full-length AAA-titles in 2010 to be confident that the PSP is still a contender.

Overall, if you're a fan of Sony products, you're unlikely to wince (too much) at that unnecessarily-high launch price.

With the in-built Bluetooth, you can sync with your mobile phone (and use it to tether your PSP Go to the internet – natch!) or sync it to a wireless headset, which we found is particularly useful for Skype-ing.

You can also stuff plenty of games and demos on the 16GB of internal flash memory to keep you going for weeks on end. And if you still need more, you can put it all on a Memory Stick Micro (M2) card.

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Review: Sony PS3 Slim 250GB

PS3 Slim 250GB: Overview

Even before the Sony PlayStation 3 Slim 120GB came out in September, there were rumours that a 250GB beast was on the horizon.

And here it is. You might not have even noticed it thus far – it slinked onto the shelves earlier this month without much fanfare and only a token PR effort from Sony.

However, despite the low-key launch, what we have here is the best PlayStation 3 system you can buy.

That said, it's essentially exactly the same as the 120GB version, but with 130 more of those precious gigabytes packed in for good measure.

That extra storage capacity is likely to become invaluable in the future. With the PlayStation Network (PSN) improving all the time, and with downloadable games, demos, movies and HD content becoming more mainstream, you could that you fill up a smaller HDD quite quickly.

But it depends on your usage of course, so if you can't see yourself downloading HD movies or buying games from the PSN, you might be better off plumping for the cheaper option.

It's worth pointing out that at the time of publishing, the 250GB PS3 Slim is retailing for around £270. That's £20 more pricey than the 120GB version - but with more than double the storage capacity, it seems like a good deal to us.

It's also available as part of an Uncharted 2: Among Thieves bundle at no extra cost, so be sure to snap that one up before they sell out.

PS3 Slim 250GB: Design

The first thing to note about the PS3 Slim is undoubtedly the design. It's split opinions in the office so far, and although this reviewer thinks the design is an abomination, others think it's actually nicer than the original.

The differences are: the design is very similar, but one third smaller. So it actually looks like something of a smaller brother to the original PS3.

Instead of a nice glossy finish, what we have here is a dull matte, flimsy plastic casing that neither feels classy nor sturdy.

Gone, too, is the sexy chrome trimming, with the silver 'PlayStation 3' writing being replaced by a lacklustre 'PS3' logo embossed on the top of the case.

The on/off and disc-eject touch-sensitive buttons are also conspicuous by their absence, and they've been replaced by real buttons that give way when you push them. How boring is that?

You've still got two USB ports round the front, and round the pack there's the usual HDMI, AV multi-out, optical-out and ethernet ports. The kettle power cable has been replaced by a slimmer two-pin cable.

The problem with the PS3 Slim is that it looks so cheap. Sony has taken the opportunity to strip out all of the cool, aesthetic design features from the original, in what can only be a cost-cutting measure.

We're not totally against this, although we'd have liked some more of these savings to be passed on to us - the PS3 Slim 250GB is still £70 more expensive than the newly-priced £199 Xbox 360 Elite, and £30 more than the PS3 Slim 120GB for that matter.

Consider also that the PlayStation 2 spent the vast majority of its life selling for $199 in the US and £199 in the UK. Nearly three years into its life, the cheapest PS3 still costs £250 – that's a lot of money in the scheme of things.

PS3 Slim 250GB: Performance

Once you get over the new-look design, and despite the slimmer, more power-efficient innards, the PS3 is still essentially the same beast.

Once you've turned it on, the differences end. The interface is the same. The controller is the same – although you do get a DualShock 3 controller instead of standard SIXAXIS – and the user experience is the same.

We did some very basic real-world benching and found that the PS3 Slim does actually boot a couple of seconds slower than our original 60GB PS3, although in practise that makes zero difference. The time it takes to load games and play DVDs are exactly the same.

Fan

One of the main gains you'd expect from a more power efficient PS3 would be that it would operate a lot more quietly. After all, with less energy being wasted as heat, the fan doesn't need to work so hard and thus pumps out less irritating white noise.

While we didn't measure the exact volume of the PS3 Slim's 17-blade fan, 95mm fan, it did seem to our trained ears to be slightly quieter when playing games. However – the PS3 has always been pretty quiet. Compared to the Xbox 360, the PS3 can be considered an extremely stealthy console.

The main noise actually comes from the disc drive. When you're watching a DVD, the spinning disc makes a lot more noise than the cooling fan. And this hasn't changed much – if at all. It's still loud enough to be annoying during those quieter scenes.

Home cinema

Of course, as before, the PS3's major trump card is its built-in Blu-ray drive which gives you the power to play back Blu-ray movies in glorious full HD 1080p.

The major new home cinema feature inside the PS3 Slim's new components, though, is its ability to bitstream Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio to a receiver over HDMI. This will seriously please the audiophiles, but for the rest of us it'll make almost no difference at all.

One slight disappointment with the PS3 Slim is its performance as a CD player. The original was a pretty decent CD and DVD spinner – but the Slim's thinner Blu-ray drive has proven to be a bit of a let-down.

Our colleagues at Home Cinema Choice actually measured the audio jitter of the slim – which returned a figure of over 460ps – a world apart from the original PS3's 138ps.

The audio in DVD playback was also disappointing from a perfectionist's point of view – with a measured high frequency response of -6.14dB. Will you notice this if you haven't got a top of the range hi-fi set up and a perfect set of ears? Probably not.

Still, though, the PS3's ability to upscale DVDs remains. The console uses its Cell processor to upscale DVDs to 1080p high definition, so even your DVD movies will look fantastic on an HD display. The Cell's enormous processing power can also be used to clean up fuzzy, blocky or grainy parts in DVDs or downloaded movie files.

PS3 Slim 250GB: Media and gaming

The PS3 is also compatible with a wide array of file formats which means you can play almost any media file – picture, video or music – without a problem. Popular DivX and Xvid video formats are supported out of the box so playing your digital movie collection is pretty straight forward.

And you can do that in two ways - you can copy them to a USB storage device and plug it in, or you can stream them from your PC over your home network either wirelessly or via Ethernet.

All media can be accessed in this way, which means if you've got a lot of photos, music and videos on your computer, you can view them on your PS3 as though they were stored locally.

Gaming

As a gaming device, the PS3 is arguably slightly more powerful than the Xbox 360. So technically, in terms of graphics, the PS3 is as good as they come.

However, three year's into its life cycle, the PS3 still lags far behind the Xbox 360 as a gaming device, and that's because of the games available.

The Xbox 360 launched over a year before the PS3, and so was able to build up a large catalogue of games before the PS3 even made it into one living room. And even since then, the Xbox 360 platform has seen more games launched.

And that's before we even mention the differences between Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network (PSN). Comparing the two services is like comparing a fine wine to a bottle of Lambrini. For multiplayer gaming then, the 360 has it.

But the PSN on the PS3 is catching up, with big updates expected very soon.

The PlayStation 3 does, of course, have plenty of gaming exclusives of its own. Series' such as Metal Gear Solid will only ever be available on PlayStation consoles, and then the much-mooted Gran Turismo 5 will be launched on PS3 this Christmas.

Back compatibility

You also need to remember that other than the original 60GB model, no PS3 is compatible with PS2 games. So beware if you're thinking of ditching your PS2 and upgrading - you'll need to hang on to your old console if you still want to play all your existing games.

So if gaming is your main consideration when buying a console – and it seems likely that it is – your best bet is just to look at the games available for each platform and make a decision from there. Who knows, maybe you'll realise that what you've wanted all along is actually a Nintendo Wii?

PS3 Slim 250GB: Graphics

While the nature of a console's 6-10 year life cycle means that they usually lag behind PCs in terms of graphical fidelity, that's not to say that the eye-candy on offer here isn't breathtaking.

The fact that the current generation of consoles heralded the jump to high-definition, means that while textures and models might be rendered at higher resolutions in games such as Crysis on PC, PS3 games can still look absolutely stunning.

Take two of the prettiest games around at the moment as examples; Dirt 2 (also available on Xbox 360) and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3 exclusive).

Both are at the cutting edge, and push the PS3 almost as far as it can go. Uncharted 2 in particular is probably the prettiest game ever made.

See for yourself:

Dirt 2

See high-res version

See high-res version

See high-res version

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

See high-res version

See high-res version

See high-res version

See high-res version

PS3 Slim 250GB: Verdict

The jury is out on whether you should buy the new PS3 Slim. If you've already got a PS3 in either its 40GB, 60GB, 80GB or 120GB flavours, it's almost definitely not worth upgrading to this 250GB version.

Unless you're desperate for more storage, there's not much here to justify spending another £270 on the newer model.

However, as a games console and media device, the PS3 is an unbelievably powerful contraption. It's an unrivalled living room media machine, and a powerful games console.

We do have serious concerns about the price, though - £270 is a lot to spend these days, especially when you can get the 120GB Xbox 360 Elite for less than £200.

We liked

Even though we don't like the aesthetics of the design, the smaller size is great – at last, here's a PS3 console that isn't so big that it dominates any room you put it in.

Other than that, it's business as usual. We loved the PS3 before the PS3 Slim came out, and we still love it. The Blu-ray drive is great as ever, but what we really love is the ability to stream almost any media file format from your PC or memory stick.

We also like the fact that you can use almost any Bluetooth device with the PS3. You can use any Bluetooth headset to chat with your friends. And you can use Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to navigate the built-in web browser.

We disliked

Yeah, we think the design is ugly. But hey, you might like it – some do, some don't. But even if you do like the look of it, it's impossible to appreciate the general cheapness of its build. The original PS3 felt bullet proof. The new one feels like it might break if a moth landed on it.

Considering the reduced manufacturing costs associated with the PS3 Slim, and the horrible, cheap plastic it's encased in, we'd have expected a price closer to £200 – so cost is another big drawback.

Conclusion

Over all, the PS3 Slim 250B is a phenomenal piece of kit. It's amazing that something so small can do so much. And so if you've just bought a new telly, that extra £70 you'd have to spend over the cost of an Xbox 360 Elite will be worth it just for the Blu-ray player and massive storage drive.

Review: Sky Player on Xbox 360

Sky Player on Xbox 360: Overview

All hail the Sky Player for Xbox. As well as being a video-on-demand system online, Sky Player has been streaming live channels for over a year to PC users, and Sky Player for Xbox tries to replicate that experience on a games console.

It's a nice idea – and it effortlessly makes the best possible use of the Xbox 360's luscious new interface to create a service that's lots of fun to use.

It's expensive to non-Sky subscribers though and certainly a niche product in the mass market, but for Sky converts it's essentially a VoD solution for the home (or a second home) that beats Sky Anytime hands-down.

The look and feel of the interface is stunning. 'Xboxy' is the only way to describe it; sweeping between the icons for live channels, VoD content and movie listings is familiar and effortless.

There's no way to personalise the service and it doesn't make recommendations about content it might think you like, but it's so easy to use and the on-screen menus are mostly lightning quick.

Sky Player on Xbox 360: Features

Most Xboxy of all the features is Party mode, which only works with live TV channels.

The screen shows your avatar watching a huge TV screen, which fills most of the space. Send invites to your friends and if they accept, their avatars appear next to yours, and interact using an E-mote; a small dial appears on the screen and you can play your avatar like a puppet, making him shout at the screen or clap ferociously.

Back to the serious stuff. Scroll to live TV and you'll find a thumbnail playing the last live channel you visited (with sound) alongside a stack of other channels and a TV guide, though it only gives listings for the next 48 hours and can't handle reminders.

In terms of content, Sky Player is an exact copy of the online version, but unless you already have access to (or stump up the cash for) the Entertainment or Sky Sports packages, it's not much to get excited about.

The 16 free live channels comprise GOLD, Sky Real Lives, Sky Arts 1, MTV, Sky Sports News, Eurosport UK, Sky News, Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, History, Eden, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Nick Jr.

Add an Entertainment Pack and you'll receive both the Sky Screen channels, which show the latest blockbusters on a loop – though that does seem decidedly old fashioned in the age of VoD.

Buy a Sky Sports Pack and you'll get Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2, Sky Sports 3, Sky Sports Xtra, ESPN and ESPN Classic.

The movie VoD section is excellent and surely the backbone of Sky Player's appeal. Stuffed with 421 movies (to be exact), you can browse via A-Z, genre, latest additions or most popular.

Choose one and you get a synopsis and information on the length, file size (for a future download service perhaps?) and, best of all, a list of related films, which makes navigation even easier.

Aside from movies, there are repeats from Sky Sports, and a mix or free and paid documentaries from Sky, Nat Geo and the History Channel (at £0.98 an episode).

Some material – and occasionally, the interface as a whole – can be slow to load. Once it's playing, you can call up a FF/RW/pause control and speed through content at 2x, 4x, 8x and 16x speeds.

Sky Player on Xbox 360: Verdict

We used the service on a 2Mpbs broadband line and the service struggled, buffering constantly, though upped to 6Mbps it worked without a hitch. If you do struggle, medium and low quality settings are available, but picture quality is very poor.

The advice is clear; don't think about getting Sky Player on Xbox unless you always have upwards of 2Mbps.

What you'll actually be able to watch on Sky Player depends on your regular Sky subscription.

If you already subscribe to the Sky Sports package via the satellite service, you can watch those same channels on your Xbox360 for free, wherever it's used – though Xbox LIVE Gold membership is a prerequisite.

If you're not a Sky subscriber and are looking at this as a way of getting live Premiership football into your life, you'll need an Xbox LIVE Gold membership (£39.99 per year), a £15 Entertainment Pack for the movies, and a £19 Sports Pack.

That works out at £468 a year, though there is a £29.99 introductory deal that gets you three months of Xbox LIVE Gold and Sky Sports for a month.

If Sky Player and Xbox want to rival the BBC's iPlayer as well as the PS3's VoD service, it's going to have to be super-slick, easy to use – and affordable.

In typical Sky fashion, Sky Player on Xbox fulfils those first two criteria with aplomb. Equally typical is its premium price for non-Sky subscribers, but if you're already signed-up to its satellite service, Sky Player for Xbox is an innovation that introduces VoD and multiroom in the smoothest way possible.