Not just for games (Sony PSP)

Member Name: whiteroseuk

Product:	Sony PSP
Date:	16/11/08 (27 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hours of portable fun, films and music

Disadvantages: Internal speakers not the best and has no keyboard for internet use.

My husband bought me a play station portable, last christmas, and you may think that was a strange gift for a 54 year old woman, especially one who is not an avid computer game player. Play station portable is so much more than a games console though, and it's for those reasons that I love it. I use it most for watching films, it can take any film in MP4 format, which is the same as films on the Ipod, and as it has a bigger screen than the Ipod, I think its better. You can also purchase films on special mini discs, as there is a disc player on the reverse side. The discs are specially made for the PSP though, and as far as I'm aware can't be played anywhere else.

It also stores and plays music, photos, as well as connecting to the internet though our wireless network at home. The internet usage is limited though as it has no keyboard, so any site you want to look at has to have it's address typed in letter by letter, on a system rather like a mobile phone, and that can be annoying and rather time consuming.

It has a slot for a memory stick in the side, and I have installed a 2 gig one, that can hold a couple of films, and about 100 tracks of music, with still plenty of space for favourite photos.

I've also managed to read ebooks on it, although they have to be in text format, and you have to get to them through the web browser, selecting the titles through 'favourites'.

Of course many people use the PSP for it's original use of playing games, and there are many games available on the mini disc format, to give the gamer hours of pleasure. I have a puzzle game called Lumines, which is somewhat similar to tetris, but that's for another review!

Its very user friendly, even for someone who isn't used to game playing, although some of the buttons take a little bit of fathoming when you first start. The sound through earphones is great, although its not so good with the tiny speakers included in the console it is possible to buy external speakers along with many other accessories, such as carrying cases.

This is Sony, so as with everything they do, its top quality, and beautifully designed.

Summary: Very useful multi purpose console, typical Sony quality