Sony PSP Go! Console (Black)

First off I would like to say that Sony's handling of the 10 free games promotion has been a disgrace. They made the procedure for getting it quit clear in the Terms and Conditions, so no one can complain about that. If you weren't aware of them, it's the retailer you bought from not providing the information. However lots of people have been waiting over 30 days, and some over 40. If you are in this scenario, phone the customer helpline, and if they don't send the code within a couple of days, ask to make an official complaint stating they are breaching their own terms and conditions. Personally I waited exactly 2 weeks for the code.

Anyway.... the PSP itself. I've had an original PSP since they were released. Loved it to bits and played it very often. It's problem was it was too nig, heavy, noisy due to the UMD drive and as I bought more DLC from the PSN network, the 8GB memory stick I had was no longer sufficient. So how does the go compare?

Cons
- More expensive than a PSP-3000
- Battery life.... I don't think I've got much more than 4 hours in a single charge. If it had double the capacity, would be nearly a perfect console for my needs.
- The screen is half an inch smaller than the standard PSP (although it is better quality as mentioned before)
- If you have larger hands... I'd imagine you'd probably get cramp quite easily, and the L and R buttons might be hard to reach with the screen slid up.

Pros
- incredibly lightweight and portable. Only a little bigger than most smartphones
- very vibrant screen with excellent colour depth
- 16GB internal storage (although your 10 free games take up about 10GB of the 14gb usable)
- Double the capacity by getting an M2 memory stick for less than the price of a game.
- charges from USB! Although I think the PSP slims do... my PSP-1000 did not!
- Storing games on the memory stick makes them load very quickly! I've noticed on some games you don't even have the time to read the loading screen
- If you have smaller hands like myself, it's very oomfortable to use as the buttons are smaller and closer together.

Now that's the hardware out of the way. What about the PSN store?
Con's
- Not all new titles are on the PSN store. Not a problem if you have another PSP but some major titles have not been on PSN since the go was released (Dissisia, Kingdom Hearts for example)
- 3rd party games are very expensive. Expect to pay £30 for a game you can buy on UMD for £20. However Sony DOES NOT SET THIS PRICE! All of the games Sony Publishes are very reasonably priced might I add. Expect them to be on the store for £15-!8. In fact the new God of War Game is going to be £17 on the PSN store I am led to believe... and £22 to pre order on UMD from Amazon as I type this.
- Larger games take AGES to download! Even via Mediago, a 1gb+ game will take a good 2 hours to download.

Pro's
- Ever expanding number of essential titles on PSN for between £6 and £8, and most are good quality
- Mini's, whilst varying in quality and value; there are some real gems here!
- PsOne classics. Not as big a selection as the US store, but again some incredible value to be had here. Most games £3.49 with some of the big name titles (MGS, Final Fantasy) costing £7.99.
- If you have multiple PSP's, you can download the games you buy to up to 5 oonsoles. (although not 10 free games, which must be used on a PSP go)
- Some great games among the 10 free games, although are a couple of filler ones that you wouldn't dream of buying unless they were free!

Overall:
No doubt about it, this is a niche product. If you already own a PSP, and PSN content, and are looking for something more portable. This is perfect. If you are looking into buying your first PSP. I'd recommend a PSP slim and lite, the massive back catalogue on UMD is simply not substituted for on the PSN store, despite the cheaper value range, plus second hand UMD games are generally quite cheap. Not forgetting of course every single thing on the PSN store can be purchased and downloaded to a standard PSP.

Bought this for my 5 year old son for Christmas as I wanted a portable games console / movie / MP3 player ... and had chance to have a little play on it myself before its " packed up and sent off to Santa "

I consider myself fairly tech savvy and did a lot of research before making my decision which portable games console to buy for my son and finally decided on the "GO" over the "PSP3000" specifically because of the smaller compact size and because I didnt want the hassle of discs getting lost / broken and cluttering up my sons bedroom .

I feel some reviews here see the "download" only capability as a disadvantage , to me its the opposite - also to retrospectively pan the console for this and give the excuse - " we werent aware this was download only " is a little ignorant - DO YOUR RESEARCH before you shell out £200 !

Access to a FAST broadband connection is essential if you intent to download to the console directly , otherwise for games over 1Gb the server times out and kicks you out ( very annoying after 8 hours wait )

I was fully aware of the advantages / limitations of the games console before I bought it and the final deciding factor was the 10 free games that Sony offered which I think half are racing / driving genre games but all good non the less !

I personally had no issues in obtaining these .. granted it was time consuming but easy enough to connect the console to my LAN , set up a PSN account , download the "free game" theme via the PSP , wait 10 days ... input the code , download the games - bingo !

The console is small , compact , light with a clear bright screen , great sound output and intuitive XROSS menu ( as found on Sony TV's eg ) . The controls / joypad section slides away when not in use .

I was really astounded with the quality of the games for a handheld and would say its probably PS2 quality on a handheld ... games look and perform much better than on the iphone for example ( understand we are talking a few quid vs £30 here and the quality DOES show ) . and Im using the iphone as an example as screen size is very similar .

Ive subsequently bought a couple of extra games / movies and transferred them and some MP3's ripped from CD's onto the console - you can do this via the bundled software Media Go ( which is no iTunes but easy to navigate and maintain non the less )

If I've any gripes it was with inputting codes or data via the console via the pop up "phone keypad" .. i found myself trying to tap the screen ( a la iphone ) thinking it was touch screen when you have to do this via the joypad - bit like texting on an old mobile phone - VERY fiddly !
Maybe Sony's next portable console will be touch screen ?
I fully intend to control and administer the games / movie content etc on my sons behalf and have set up parental controls all thats left is for him to enjoy playing with it .. thats if he can prise it out of my hands on christmas morning !

If you are a mother or father thinking of buying a PSP GO for your loved one, REALLY make sure this is what they want!
Here's why:

Unlike the original PSP, the PSP Go DOESN'T play PSP games that you buy in the shops. Sounds ridiculous, but its true. Sony have removed the disc drive from this model, so any games that your child may have previously bought will NOT work.

The PSP Go uses exclusively downloadable content, therefore if you don't have a wireless broadband connection in your house, this is pretty much a paper weight!
As a 'buy- product' (bad pun totally intended) of this, your child will not be able to buy second hand games or trade in their games when complete. Or what about the game they get that they just don't like? No returns or refunds like you can at gamestation, grainger games or even amazon! They will have to pay full price everytime they want a new game - not to mention they'll need YOUR credit card details to buy the games - that £20 note in the christmas card from auntie Liz is no good here!

This isn't a rubbish console by any stretch of the imagination, it does however have a very small market, the executive version of the PSP if you like?
I personally feel that Sony hasn't really thought this one through - furthermore the advertising does an extremely poor job of letting people know the pitfalls of buying this version of the PSP.

Bottom line, DON'T BUY unless you're absolutely SURE this is the one for your son/ daughter! Get the PSP 3000 instead, its cheaper and has a LOT more games readily available, that CAN be traded in, bought cheaply and second hand.