My girlfriend and I have finally gotten around to taking some comprehensive pictures and movies of the PSP. This won't be your typical "ok, so here is the screen" type report -- we tried to photograph lesser-known parts of the unit, in an attempt to shed light o­n a few of its features that may not have surfaced yet. It has, after all, been out for more than 2 weeks.

Anyway, I've got 38 images (all available at 1600 x 1200 or above), and 6 videos: a total of about 22MB of PSP image/video content. So click inside for your fair share of highly compressed video and out-of-focus images. Also, for the sake of convenience, I've got a zip file of all media for you at the end of the report. A huge thanks goes to Scott for providing me with the unit in the first place.

Update: I've changed some settings so that people from other sites can't download the files directly. It's not like the images/videos make a whole lot of sense without the explanations anyway.

 -Hardware

As many have said before me, the first thing you notice about the PSP is its screen. At 4.3" with 480 x 272 pixels, it doesn't look like much o­n paper; there are, after all, plenty of other devices with 640 x 480 screens of the same dimensions.

But that certainly doesn't steal any thunder from the PSP. The screen is crisp, bright, and Sony appears to use antialiased text throughout the entirety of their XMB GUI. This makes for excellent text legibility. The first thing I thought after seeing the PSP's screen was "the DS can't touch this with a 10 foot pole." Call me a Sony fanboy, call me what you will -- but the PSP undeniably has o­ne of the finest screens I've seen o­n a handheld device of any sort. Hand it to Sharp, as they're the o­nes responsible for the production of every PSP's screen.

One thing I don't like about the PSP's screen is that it is incredibly glossy. We're talking Gran Turismo style shiny here. I took a picture of the screen from straight o­n (with my girlfriend's dinky camera, no less), and as you can see, the screen more or less acts as a mirror. Because of the glossiness of the screen, the slightest dust or fingerprint shows up very easily. You'll likely find yourself wiping the screen frequently, and frankly, I wish the Value Pack included some sort of cloth. Still, this enormous amount of gloss may be the result of an enormous amount of protection -- I'm yet to scratch the PSP's screen. Not like I'm trying to, though. I'm not entirely sure what the PSP would look like without the glossy screen, but I sort of wish Sony had done something about it.

Besides that, the PSP has very solid hardware. There have been a couple reports of faulty PSPs, whether that be a drive that doesn't close entirely, bubbles in the screen, or even UMDs that fly out of the units, and we're willing to believe them. Why? Of the three PSPs our man in Japan purchased, two of them had defects: o­ne had a couple dead pixels, and the other had a couple dead pixels AND a UMD cover that didn't fit snugly.

How does the PSP felt to be held in your hand? Pick up a (official) Playstation controller (preferably a Dual Shock for weight purposes), and imagine the same thing, just flat. That's almost exactly how the PSP feels. Add a bit of width, remove o­ne of the analog sticks, and you're good to go. Beyond that, the directional pad and buttons are in the same place -- the left and right shoulder buttons are at first difficult to get used to, but they'll soon feel natural. You certainly won't be uncomfortable holding the PSP for hours o­n end (or at least as long as the battery lasts). o­ne slight complaint I have, however, is that the silver-colored casing doesn't fit perfectly flush with the rear black-colored casing, and depending o­n how you hold the PSP, it could chafe.

Here's a couple other things I'd like to point out about the PSP hardware. These aren't good or bad (yet), I just hadn't realized them before actually holding a PSP in my hands:

-Surrounding the USB connector o­n the top of the PSP, there appear to be power connectors and mounting holes. Or at least that's what I presume they are. Looks like Sony has a few things in mind in regards to PSP accessories.

-The shoulder buttons aren't behind those transparent plastic things, the shoulder buttons are the transparent plastic things. Yeah, leave it to me to not realize something so simple.

-The PSP's power button has two positions (apart from idle). To turn the unit o­n, you slide it up much like any other device. But it's also got a hold position, and putting the power in this position will cause the PSP's buttons to not work (like any other hold). o­ne important note here is that even if the main unit is o­n hold, the included remote won't be o­n hold. More o­n the accessories later.

-Here's the inside of the PSP's UMD drive. Looks pretty straightforward. This is as "open" as my PSP will ever be, hopefully. I've also got a pic of a game going in using the proper orientation later in the report, so keep an eye out.

On to Accessories in the next page. Click below.