It's been bearly a year since Sony's PSP: Slim and Lite, the redesign of the original PSP, hit the shelves on September 5th, 2007. Like its predecessor it became popular due to the increase of the memory and CPU speed which allowed faster access to applications and the web browser. It was also much lighter thus comfortable.
Now only a year after its release Sony have announced yet another redesign of the PSP.
The PSP-3000, also unofficially dubbed: PSP: Brite
Sony's consoles have a history of having the greatest graphics of that particular era of gaming. And it comes as no surprise that most of the upgrading was made on the PSP's LCD display, the superior display of all handhelds to date.
The PSP-3000 will retain the same hardware, compatibility and approximately the same size and weight as its predecessor. On the outside nothing has changed much, except the shapes of a few buttons. As for the screen, it's been given an increased colour range, five times the contrast ratio, half the pixel response time to reduce ghosting and blurring effects, and anti-reflective technology to improve outdoor playability.
According to SCEA director of hardware marketing John Koller, the new display draws in more current thus reducing the battery life by approximately 20 minutes. However, Sony engineers have reduced the power draw from the system's different components to ensure the battery life remains the same.
It includes an integrated microphone as the idea to establish the PSP as a viable communication device. PSP games will now be playable on interlaced (non-progressive scan) TVs using the composite video cables. In addition to that, the 'start' and 'select' buttons have been changed from semi-circles to ovals and the 'home' button being replaced with a 'PS Button'.
PSP-3000 - System Specs:
External dimensions: 169.4 x 18.6 x 71.4mm
Weight: 189g / 6.7oz (including battery pack)
CPU: MIPS R4000-based; 1-333MHz
Memory: 64Mb
Display: 4.3 inches (16:9) full-transparent type, TFT drive, 480x272 pixels, 16,770,000 colours displayed.
Sound: Built-in Stereo speakers
Main input/output: Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11b), High Speed USB (USB2.0) (mini-B), Memory Stick PRO Duo™, Analog Video Out
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Next in line is Nintendo's very own DS. Or atleast the latest redesign of it. That's right friends, I'm talking about Nintendo DSi. And like the PSP-3000 it's the redesigned successor of the previous handheld, the DS Lite. However, unlike the PSP-3000, visual appearance and display quality isn't the only thing that's changed. Instead, Nintendo gave their Dual-screen handheld a much needed overhaul. From the inside.
Let's check it out.....
Nintendo's DS and DS Lite were just great. Providing fun games with innovative gameplay (as much fun and innovative as a handheld in its timeline can be; see 'Nintendo Wii'). However all the system could do was play games. So you could imagine, it lacked some vital functions.
Nintendo's DS and DS Lite were just great. Providing fun games with innovative gameplay (as much fun and innovative as a handheld in its timeline can be; see 'Nintendo Wii'). However all the system could do was play games. So you could imagine, it lacked some vital functions.
And that's where the DSi comes in.
The Nintendo DSi will be 12% thinner than the DS Lite. It will contain 2 0.3MP Cameras (300,000pixels; 640x480), VGA camera pointed towards the player and another on the outside shell.
The camera come's with a 'face-bending' tool for warping pictures and changing facial expressions. It also includes a way to measure similarity between faces.
Both screens have also been resized from 3inches to 3.25inches and the sound quality improved.
Sad news for all you backwards compatibility fans, the GBA slot has been removed to make room for a new SD Card slot, to be used for external storage of pictures, music, games and software downloaded from the online DSWare Shop via 'Nintendo Points'[Previously; Wii Points].
A 'Moving Notepad' to enable the user to write hand-written memos will be available for download for free, but it's not an ordinary notepad, you can create cut-off animation and utilizing the microphone to record voices and make your own movie comics.
The DSi will come equipped with it's own Internet browser. The 'DSi Browser'. The browser is co-developed by Opera and is tuned exclusively for the DSi to enhance the speed and performance. When faster communications were increased for the DSi browser and shops, so was faster Wi-Fi achieved for DSi-based software.
An Audio player will be included which apart from allowing the user to listen to music, also enables him to play with sound. Such as the ability to freely manipulate the audio pitch and speed. And the ability to compose your own music, in a way.
In addition, the power switch will be replaced by a Power Button located next to the bottom-right corner of the touch-screen and the touch pen's lenght increased.
.....All this, however, comes at the expanse of shorter battery live.
Nintendo DSi - System Specs:
External dimensions: 137 x 74.9 x 18.9mm (Touch Pen: 92mm in length)
Weight: 214g
CPU: 67Mhz ARM946E-S + 33Mhz ARM7TDMI
Sound: Built-in Stereo speakers
Display: Both TFT LCD with 260,000 colors
Battery Life: 9-14 hours, 8-12, 6-9, 4-6, 3-4 (Low to High brightness setting)
Input Method: DS card slot, SD memory card slot, AC adapter connector, stereo head phone/mic connector
Connectivity: Wi-fi (with WPA and WPA2 support)
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To conclude, both systems are getting a nifty update in different aspects. The PSP-3000 will do what it does best and look great and the DSi will include several many new functions which it lacked, some of them vital.
Kinda makes you wonder if Microsoft will ever have a go at the handheld scene.
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Fusion - NoobFeed
