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So which is better? The Sony PSP or the Nintendo DS?

I recently went on a trip to Japan, and was faced with a choice on a new handheld gaming device to purchase for a friend.

So which is better? What are the differences?

First-off, I personally own a Gameboy Advance, and I finally chose to buy the PSP.

The reason for the choice was that I already owned both an iPod and a Gameboy Advance, but this friend of mine had neither... so for me the DS may have been a better choice, but only slightly.

Firstly the DS:

This little machine is slightly heavier than the PSP, but folds away neatly, it's more solid and resiliant, the games are cheap, load fast and can use older Advance cartridges. The screen has a huge surface and the touch screen is really nifty. The technology is way behind the PSP, but it is also about $50 less in price.

So this device has a huge advantage with current game availability.

It also has a good battery life (something I appreciate after my Japan trip on both my iPod and Gameboy).

The PSP:

This is a slick-looking device, but unfortunately the screen picks up scratches and fingerprints quickly. The teething problems with the first release has been sorted out, so no more bad buttons and broken pixels. It's battery life is poor, but is expected for the processing it delivers. It's really an amazingly fast little machine... way way way ahead of the DS. The games come on disc (UMD) and can hold a lot more than the DS cartrige, but loads slower (only slightly really) and are more expensive. The PSP seems pretty versatile though and you can easily get games and other software and upload it to the Sony memory stick (of which I have 512Mb and you can also get 1Gb now...).

It can also play movies from the disc (or from the memory stick if you (re-)encode and upload it yourself as well as music as MP3 (and some other silly format).

It's got WiFi and bluetooth (and I have already updated the firmware to a new version using WiFi without a problem).

The screen is brilliantly scrisp and clear, and even though it is smaller in size than the DS's two displays, it's still larger in size than a single DS display and about double or more in resolution than both DS screens combined.


Both these devices are good with playing WiFi linked games with multiple players, and the PSP can even 'clone' a game to a second machine allowing you to only need one copy of a game to play multiple players.


Overall the PSP is a well-rounded machine with a lot more potential growth. You will see a lot of 3rd party apps being released for it in the near future.

If you want something innocuous but reliable and fun nontheless, go for the DS.

Just my view.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Seems easy to encode movies for the PSP.

--
Dragonbee
Evil00007 said…
For me I choose the DS. DS has a brighter screen. The screen doesn't get scratched. UMD's for the PSP get dust and scratches on it. Also the PSP games sometimes feeze up. PSP needs memory cards which are 40-50 dollars. DS games don't need a memory card and are do not freeze up as much. Though the PSP has greater graphics, the music download sucks because the battery life is shorter than the DS's. DS life support is longer and you can change it so there is no back light. If you want get and Ipod and a DS and glue them together. It will be a lot better than PSP. Though I have to admit that PSP has better games and it has movies I still support my ideas that the DS is better.
Anonymous said…
Also the games are cheaper on the DS than any other system. Like Mario Kart DS is 2005 BEST RACING GAME. Also if you were to drop a DS and a PSP the PSP would be more likley to break. I have both the PSP and the DS but over all I choose the DS.

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