The PSP was a revolution in the portable gaming industries. I couldn't help but think a few times that the PSP could have had a few more tweaks added to it. Fortunately a new version of the PSP, the PSP Slim, has been set to be released this September of 2007. I was most happy when I discovered this because it meant not only a more durable PSP but the PSP Slim also has a few changes made that make me wonder why they didn't make the PSP like this in the first place. But I am just glad they were smart enough to come out with such a design. Here I will overview a few things we will see in the PSP Slim.
A less bulky design making the PSP Slim 33% lighter and 19% slimmer then the normal PSP. I'm sure we can all be grateful of this new design because quite frankly, the PSP weighed more than it needed to although it was never heavy in the first place. The slimmer design would relieve the stress on your hands and make it easier to slip in and out of pockets.
A video-out port for connection with a TV. Ever since the PSP came out I wondered how come it didn't have this feature in the first place! It really makes a difference now that it does. For games you only have on the PSP you can now connect the PSP Slim to your TV and play your games on a bigger screen. Or maybe you have a movie on your PSP and you want to watch it on a bigger screen with better sound. This is one feature that I'm glad they finally put into the PSP.
They finally had the sense to move the speakers to the part of the PSP facing you! I always wondered what the point in putting the speakers at the bottom of the system was if this only prevented sound waves from reaching your ears directly making the sound less clear and lower than it could be. But now they indeed put the speakers on the front of the screen near the top thus allowing the sound wave to reach you directly. You can now hear everything on the PSP at its clearest and loudest.
Improved battery life! Thank god they've made it so the PSP Slim won't consume as much energy as the normal PSP. It was definitely agitating when just after two hours of maximized settings (maximum brightness, sound, etc) it would have lost more than 50% of battery life or more. They have also made it so you can charge it using the USB data connection.
They've made it so the D-pad is now more sensitive and we can all be glad for that. I'm sure every single one of us has experienced the D-pad response rather slow sometimes. I'm glad Sony caught that one.
LED screen instead of LCD which the old PSP used. I was rather surprised by this change because I always thought LCD screens were the clearest you could get and consumed a low amount of energy. However I'm sure, or at least hoping, that Sony has a good reason for using LED screens. Perhaps maybe it consumes an even lesser amount of energy but more brightness.
Faster loading times. This is achieved by storing UMD data in temporary memory files. This is good for all those who are impatient and maybe it will reduce the annoying noise of the UMD spinning around constantly.
A few other tweaks we can expect to see in the PSP Slim are…
- WiFi switch moved to the top of the system
- A different area for the memory stick
- A new UMD loading tray design making it less complex
- The infra-red port has been removed; it was never used in the original PSP in the first place
- The Internal (FLASH) memory has been increased from 32MB to 45MB
The PSP Slims lowest price is set for $169.00 for the Piano Black color version. There will be other colors for the PSP Slim as well like Icy Silver and more. The PSP Slim has two packs, the core pack and the entertainment pack which includes the Icy Silver PSP Slim, a 1GB memory stick, the UMD movie Family Guys Freakin' Sweet Collection and the game Daxter. Sony will also release other colors like Felicia Blue, Rose Pink, and Lavender Purple. Hopefully it will be worth trading in the original PSP and a few games for.
