Have to admit it does look the most stylish out of all the new hand helds.
I thought the Nokia N-Gage design looked nice, but it was the usability that was the major problem. The article doesn't mention how big the PSP actually is - the concept is a bit misleading because, well, it makes it look small like keyring! [:)] Looking at the button sizes and the amount of space you'd need for your thumbs, that thing is gonna be pretty big. The specs are pretty kick arse, and probably overkill. Dolby 7.1 multi-channel audio, with 3D sound?? On a handlheld! Two hours' of *DVD-quality video* on a relatively tiny screen! I'm sure you could probably do something like 20 hours with stronger compression and not see too much of a difference [:)] Wireless networking, and phone - well, that just puts the final nail on the NGage coffin.
Sony is touting it as the walkman of the future, but I wish they didn't use their own media disc for it. You won't be able to burn your own music discs or movies yourself [:(]
I saw the Dolby 7.1 spec and laughed. That is EXTREME overkill. Niether my home ent system or comp has that :p
The video compression is also overkill, but I think that they just have that level of detail IF people want it. If you only have the ability to encode movies at one set bitrate (ie VCD), that would just be stupid. It is an MPEG-4 codec based system, so with any luck, that should mean that it will support DivX, XviD and other format (fingers crossed).
I REALLY hope that they do have the ability to use Sony Mem sticks in them. That way you could have your own mp3s or whatever. Plus it would be a fantastic way to store saved games. Just imagine how many saves could fit on a 1gb stick (drool).
My main concern is that being a Sony product, what will the price be like? Personally I think that their portable equipment is very hard to beat (unlike all their other products), but they often have a price to match.
The Magic Box has some size comparisons of the PSP and other handhelds. [url="http://www.the-magicbox.com/game110603a.htm"]It's not too big actually[/url].
Damn that sounds cool. Now just to find out battery life, with specs like that I'm guessing 10-15 mins.
If the battery life is over 5 hours, sign me up for one (at any cost.)