Unboxed – Sony PSP Go

The worst kept secret of E3 2009, Sony’s PSP Go, is preparing itself for a European launch on October 1st, but it took time out from its busy schedule to visit Stuff towers today so we could tickle its D-pad and compare it to the PSP-3000.

As you can see above, Sony’s new PlayStation handheld is about 50% smaller and 8cm narrower than its predecessor. This is partly because it’s swapped the bulky UMD drive for 16GB of flash storage, and adopted a new slider design that makes it look remarkably like Sony’s ill-fated Mylo messenger.

It’s comfortable in the hand, with your forefingers wrapping around behind the screen to grip the shoulder buttons – though there’s disappointingly only one analogue stick, and it’s still in an awkward place for your thumbs.

The PSP Go uses the same slick XMB interface, though there’s now a PlayStation store icon where you can log-in and download games directly to the console. Sony is also rumoured to be launching a subscription-based games rental service when the PSP Go launches, but these are just whispers at the moment.

The Go’s browser rendered Stuff.tv reasonably well (see below), though without a touchscreen navigation feels more than a little clunky. The 3.8in screen is also smaller than its predecessor’s 4.3in number, but has the same 480×272 resolution and 16:9 aspect ratio. 

So while it’s not a radical reinvention – and an OLED touchscreen would certainly have gone down well – the PSP Go still looks a powerful pocket gaming adversary for the Nintendo DSi. We’ll bring you a full review and video very soon (also see our E3 hands-on with the PSP Go), but while you’re waiting scroll down for more pics and full specs. 

Specs

Screen                        3.8in (16:9), 480×272

Connectivity              Stereo Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Memory Stick Micro, Analog video out

Formats supported    MP4, H.264, AVI, JPEG, MP3, WAV, WMA, ATRAC3, TIFF, GIF, PNG

Dimensions/weight: 128×16.5x69mm/158g

Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home