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Personal Technology
The PlayStation Goes Portable
The Wall Street Journal Online
Walter S. Mossberg
New $250 Device Is Good For Games, but Less Effective For Playing Music and Movies
Next week, Sony will release in the U.S. a flashy new portable audio and video device that some believe could mark the start of a resurgence for the beleaguered Japanese electronics and entertainment giant. The $250 PlayStation Portable, or PSP, already a hit in Japan, could become Sony's first iconic portable, personal product of the digital era -- Sony's equivalent of Apple Computer's iPod.
The PSP is primarily a hand-held videogame machine, in the tradition of Nintendo's Game Boy products, and is likely to appeal most strongly to game-playing teens and young adults. It is meant to complement Sony's most successful home digital product, the PlayStation game console, which has been a rare bright spot for a proud company that has stumbled in the digital era, outclassed by nimbler rivals like Apple and Korea's Samsung.
But Sony designed the PSP with the capability to be much more, to become an all-around media-playback device not only for avid gamers but also for people who play few, if any, games. In addition to games, the gadget plays movies and music; lets you view digital photos; can be connected to a computer; and has built-in wireless networking capability. It could be a big deal for Sony well beyond the gaming arena.
So this week, as my assistant Katie Boehret and I tested the Sony PSP, we reviewed it from this broader perspective. We tried out the PSP not only as a game machine, but also as a hand-held multimedia player that might appeal to some of the same people who buy iPods, digital cameras or portable DVD players.
Our verdict: The PSP is an impressive hand-held game player with great graphics, good game controls and strong multiplayer capabilities. But its added multimedia capabilities, while potentially strong, are hobbled by design and cost issues, at least at launch. The PSP isn't likely to replace the iPod or the portable DVD player anytime soon.
We received what Sony calls its "PSP Value Pack," a $250 bundle that includes the player and a few extra goodies such as a 32-megabyte storage card, remote control, case and "Spider-Man 2" movie for the first one million PSP Value Packs sold. For now, the PSP is available only in this bundled package. That's more than the price of a full-size PlayStation 2, which costs $149.99, but of course you're getting a very different package of products.
The device itself is eye-catchingly cool. A shiny black patina covers its 6.7-inch-long, 2.9-inch-wide shape, which is too large for a pocket but comfortable for holding in two hands. It's just 0.9-inch thick. Two main sets of controls for your left and right thumbs hug either side of the PSP's sharp, vivid 4.3-inch color screen. Seven tiny buttons are positioned below the display and a thin speaker lines its top, flanked by two wide, clear buttons at the shoulders.
On its screen, the PSP uses Sony's new "cross media bar" interface, a design that has also shown up on some other Sony products like its high-end Vaio multimedia PCs. Various functions are presented on a horizontal axis, and then choices of what to do within each function are presented on a vertical axis. The interface worked pretty well and is a good sign for a company that often seems inept in software, and whose recent digital music players have had a disastrous interface.
We used the left-thumb arrow controls to move side to side through various categories -- Settings, Photo, Music, Video and Game -- and scrolled down through subcategories within each section, some of which were represented by playful, animated icons.
The right-thumb controls -- circular buttons with square, triangle, circle and X markings -- are used to select categories and bring up other options, but it took us a little longer to get the hang of these buttons, which are mainly designed for game playing.
The PlayStation Goes Portable
The Wall Street Journal Online
Walter S. Mossberg
New $250 Device Is Good For Games, but Less Effective For Playing Music and Movies
Next week, Sony will release in the U.S. a flashy new portable audio and video device that some believe could mark the start of a resurgence for the beleaguered Japanese electronics and entertainment giant. The $250 PlayStation Portable, or PSP, already a hit in Japan, could become Sony's first iconic portable, personal product of the digital era -- Sony's equivalent of Apple Computer's iPod.
The PSP is primarily a hand-held videogame machine, in the tradition of Nintendo's Game Boy products, and is likely to appeal most strongly to game-playing teens and young adults. It is meant to complement Sony's most successful home digital product, the PlayStation game console, which has been a rare bright spot for a proud company that has stumbled in the digital era, outclassed by nimbler rivals like Apple and Korea's Samsung.
But Sony designed the PSP with the capability to be much more, to become an all-around media-playback device not only for avid gamers but also for people who play few, if any, games. In addition to games, the gadget plays movies and music; lets you view digital photos; can be connected to a computer; and has built-in wireless networking capability. It could be a big deal for Sony well beyond the gaming arena.
So this week, as my assistant Katie Boehret and I tested the Sony PSP, we reviewed it from this broader perspective. We tried out the PSP not only as a game machine, but also as a hand-held multimedia player that might appeal to some of the same people who buy iPods, digital cameras or portable DVD players.
Our verdict: The PSP is an impressive hand-held game player with great graphics, good game controls and strong multiplayer capabilities. But its added multimedia capabilities, while potentially strong, are hobbled by design and cost issues, at least at launch. The PSP isn't likely to replace the iPod or the portable DVD player anytime soon.
We received what Sony calls its "PSP Value Pack," a $250 bundle that includes the player and a few extra goodies such as a 32-megabyte storage card, remote control, case and "Spider-Man 2" movie for the first one million PSP Value Packs sold. For now, the PSP is available only in this bundled package. That's more than the price of a full-size PlayStation 2, which costs $149.99, but of course you're getting a very different package of products.
The device itself is eye-catchingly cool. A shiny black patina covers its 6.7-inch-long, 2.9-inch-wide shape, which is too large for a pocket but comfortable for holding in two hands. It's just 0.9-inch thick. Two main sets of controls for your left and right thumbs hug either side of the PSP's sharp, vivid 4.3-inch color screen. Seven tiny buttons are positioned below the display and a thin speaker lines its top, flanked by two wide, clear buttons at the shoulders.
On its screen, the PSP uses Sony's new "cross media bar" interface, a design that has also shown up on some other Sony products like its high-end Vaio multimedia PCs. Various functions are presented on a horizontal axis, and then choices of what to do within each function are presented on a vertical axis. The interface worked pretty well and is a good sign for a company that often seems inept in software, and whose recent digital music players have had a disastrous interface.
We used the left-thumb arrow controls to move side to side through various categories -- Settings, Photo, Music, Video and Game -- and scrolled down through subcategories within each section, some of which were represented by playful, animated icons.
The right-thumb controls -- circular buttons with square, triangle, circle and X markings -- are used to select categories and bring up other options, but it took us a little longer to get the hang of these buttons, which are mainly designed for game playing.
