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Real men need gadgets but picking the category-busters is never easy. Duncan Madden, a former editor of Boys Toys magazine and one of Britain's leading technology journalists, on the five best gizmos for blokes. Click to view Top 5 Boys Toys.
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Best For Entertainment (Sony PlayStation Portable) |
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 The Sony PSP revolutionised the world of mobile entertainment with cutting edge gaming, DVD quality movies, photo viewer, music player and Wi-Fi Internet access. All this served up in one of the sexiest gadgets ever designed – for kids young and old, it represents the perfect plaything whether you’re at home or on the road. |
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| In the world of portable entertainment, the PSP has it all, readily described by almost every gaming enthusiast, reviewer, pundit and critic as the best portable gaming machine ever created, and for damn good reason. To quote tech site The Register, “The PSP is a triumph of design, and it looks incredible even before you switch it on… [It] does for hand-held gaming what the iPod did for portable music players – it's desirable on an aesthetic level, rather than a purely functional one.” |
Screen Star |
 The first thing you notice about the PSP is that almost offensively impressive 4.3-inch widescreen. Turned off it’s enough to make you gasp in awe at its size and outright shininess, but flick the power switch and the quality of image that greets you almost defies belief. For most of us, it throws out better pics than our telly at home. Coated in Sony’s patented X-Black coating, colours are unbelievably vibrant and clean with no sign of noise or bleed, while the depth of field for both movies and gaming is simply superb – it’s enough to make grown men weep, and indeed has on occasion. |
Game On |
 Gaming – the PSP’s true calling – is simply epic, effectively placing something between a PlayStation and PlayStation2 in the palm of your hand with phenomenal graphics, amazingly immersive game play (thanks again to that screen) and a very comfortable gaming position enabled by the logical and clean layout of controls and the responsive if not quite perfect analogue stick. First gen games like Ridge Racers were great, but as the titles have developed and grown they’ve only got better. “Sony has redefined mobile gaming with the PlayStation Portable. I never imagined that the PSP would be this good, and this is one product that has to be seen to be believed” says The Register’s Riyad Emeran.
The familiar PlayStation keys are all in attendance from the standard console control including the traditional X, square, circle and triangle, plus shoulder keys on the PSP’s top side, all of which fall readily into place as soon as you pick it up.
Sound is surprisingly punchy from the stereo speakers although thanks to the PSP’s none too chunky dimensions they were always going to sound a bit tinny. Sony has provided some okay headphones as a better alternative but our advice is to use your own (preferably noise cancelling) cans, as a decent set highlights the PSP’s true sonic quality and adds immensely not only to gaming but to movie watching and music playback too. |
Movie Playback |
 The PSP introduced a new movie-playing format with UMD (Universal Media Disk) – a cross somewhere between a DVD and Mini Disc. It’s a format designed specifically for the PSP and as such represents a reasonably expensive route to your film and gaming pleasure but one that works well, provides DVD quality video and audio alongside easy-to-navigate menus and special features options. The back catalogue of films now available on UMD is immense too, so you’ll have no problem tracking down your favourite films on the format.
But if UMD isn’t the route for you, the PSP also offers MPEG4 movie playback via the MemoryStick Duo slot. Get yourself a big enough card (4GB max) and you can rip (legally of course) whole films onto the card for playback at your leisure. This does involve some software downloads and the purchase of at least a 1GB MemoryStick, but if you’re a fan of downloading then chances are this should represent little problem for you anyway. |
Further Features |
 Music playback is ably catered for with MP3 files thankfully the format of choice (as opposed to Sony’s often fussy ATRAC3) and playback is, as we commented earlier, excellent via a decent set of headphones. It’s no replacement for your iPod in terms of storage capacity, but if you tire of movie watching and game playing (like you ever would?) then it’s yet another great feature to fall back on.
As is the photo viewer option, where you can store, share and view your pictures, which look unsurprisingly resplendent on that big old screen.
As if that wasn’t enough, the PSP also carries Wi-Fi functionality in the form of 802.11b networking. Primarily this is great as it allows you to play games with other PSP owners wirelessly, but just as importantly it enables you to access the PSP specific website www.yourpsp.com, where there is endless free content and system software upgrades available for download – you can access and store podcasts for example, download user manuals, photos, music, videos and game updates while managing your content from your personal account online. Superb.
This is only set to improve too, as with the launch of the PlayStation 3 this year, you’ll be able to wirelessly stream movies and tunes from the console’s hard disk direct to your PSP, with this functionality eventually spreading to the internet so you can access all your digital media almost instantly from any Wi-Fi hotspot in the world. |
Minor Moans |
There are inevitably some minor grumbles carried alongside the PSP. Namely, the battery life can leave you struggling if you’re looking for constant entertainment on, say, a long haul flight. Realistically it will last a maximum four hours if you’re doing some heavy duty gaming (though that stretches to around six hours if you’re just listening to music); you do have the option to carry a spare if you so desire.
The only other concern we’ve had is with fingerprints. The PSP’s gloss black finish is like a magnet to them no matter how clean your hands, and it can get ridiculously frustrating if only because you’ll become so attached to it that any kind of tarnish will inevitably be cause for concern. Our advice? Invest in a decent case and carry bag – there are myriad available from a wide range of manufacturers. In fact, outside of the ubiquitous iPod, the PSP has inspired more peripheral products than any other gadget we can think of – testimony itself to the popularity and quality of the product. |
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BUYING TIP - Go for the Value Pack, which includes: PSP, AC adapter, battery pack, 32 MB Memory Stick Duo, earbud headphones with remote control, soft case, hand strap and demo UMD.
To buy this product try one of the following retailers. They are competitively priced and reliable:
Amazon.co.uk - The UK arm of the giant online retailer
Amazon.com -The US arm of the giant online retailer
UK Shop Search – Click here for more UK retailers
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