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| From: Sony
List Price: $169.99
Buy Used: $129.99
You Save: $40.00 (24%)
New (42) Used (28) from $129.99
Rating:  543 reviews
Sales Rank: 31
Platform: Sony Psp
Color: Piano Black
Media: Video Game
Edition: Piano Black
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Operating System: Sony PSP
Display Size: 4.3
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
Dimensions (in): 10 x 8.4 x 2
MPN: 98510
Model: 98510
UPC: 711719851004
EAN: 0711719851004
ASIN: B000UA0LXQ
Release Date: September 27, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Shows some very light scratches, but looks and plays great! Includes 32MB card, strap, and charger! 14 Day Warranty! [11099001]
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| Customer Reviews:
 Some Things Others May Not Have Mentioned Yet November 5, 2007
Eric Escamilla (San Antonio, TX)
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
Ok, I've read most of the reviews here on the "new" PSP Slim and I just want to chime in with a few observations of my own others may not have mentioned yet and also some of the things I desperately wanted to find out before I made my own purchase. Note: I've owned the original PSP for nearly 2 yrs now so I have a lot of experience with both models now.
First of all, I know a lot of people knock the PSP in geneal, I used to always hear Gamestop employees dissing it compared to the DS all the time, but I'm so glad I didn't listen to them. I simply love my PSP!!! As time goes by I have only learned to appreciate it more and more. I must admit I am a pretty diehard Sony Playstation apologist at this point, I might as well be on their payroll, but what can I say? They had me hooked with the PS1.
By now everyone has pretty much stated the following unanimously about this new model: Yes, it i super lite compared to the original. Yes it does seem more cheaply made and fragile. Yes the new UMD door is more flimsy, Yes the new card slot cover is odd and delicate. And all of these comments I read before making my purchase made me slightly apprehensive, but now that I've owned my new slim one for a while now let me say this: At first the super lightness throws you off, but after a week or so you totally adjust and you can't imagine it being lighter again. If you try to go back to your old PSP later, it feels like your going back to your original Gameboy or some cell phone from the late 90's. The old PSP seems like a brick after you get adjusted to the slim. The new UMD door is kinda flimsy, but if you treat it kindly it is cetainly aduquate. Same goes for the memory stick slot cover, but just be gentle and you should have no problem. That being said, these two fragile parts are the primary reason I would not ever recommend the slim PSP for a child who is too young to take care of precison equipment yet. This is the 1 and only major reason I think the DS has any sort of advantage over the PSP, this and the game selection for the kiddies. But if you're a more serious gamer and somewhat of a gear head, the PSP is totally the portable choice for you (more on this later).
Now, as far as the new upgrades: I haven't played all of my old games yet, but I could swear while playing a game, the UMD has to get accessed a lot less now. Depending on the game I can be playing for several minutes now w/o the disk ever spinning. Although the old PSP had those 2 little speaker holes near the bottom on the front, they were actually faux! The sound actually emanated from the 2 little holes on the bottom on the silver trim. This practically made no sense so now that the speakers are truly positioned in the front, this makes the sound somewhat louder and more direct, however the max volume setting is still somewhat lower than you might like unless you are in an utterly quiet location.
One thing that I was really, really hoping they would remedy when they came out with a new PSP was a second analog stick on the right side. This is sadly the 1 last feature I feel the PSP is still sorely lacking. Too many games, esp. of the 1st or 3rd person shooter type suffer greatly by having to improvise with watered down control schemes which hampers 2 of my favorite PSP games: SOCOM and this new SW:Battleground which came with my Slim (more about Battleground later). Seriously, how hard would it have been to add another stick?
Now the ability to connect to a TV: This to me was the primary selling-point for me to upgrade my PSP going in. In some ways it's the ability I always wanted for my portable systems going back to my first Gameboy, but again sadly, Sony fell somewhat short of the mark. This was a bittersweet upgrade, let me explain further: Ok, you should know by now that they sell composite (5 plug) cables to hook up your PSP to your TV and more traditional RCA (3 plug) types. This is a mixed back of confusion b/c if you buy the RCA's you can project everything from your PSP to your television (pics, music, video from your memory stick) BUT... (BIG But) You can't play your PSP games or UMD movies on your TV using ONLY the RCA cables. Now, on the other hand, with the composite cables you can view and do all, but alas things are still not quite "perfect". Viewing the cross media bar (XMB) and videos comes out just fine. (Surprisingly the UMD movies blown up actually look about 90 - 95% as good as an annomorphic DVD played with on a progressive scan DVD player on a HD monitor). Also somewhat surprising to me was that you have screen setup options for your tv ratio (4:3 or 16:9) plus progressive or interlaced mode. (BTW, if you set it to 4:3 mode it will display everything in letterbox on your more "square" TV screen.) BUT again all is not well. When you surf the web, which is actually pretty cool on your TV, You get a small black border all the way around your viewing field, which is manageable, I guess, because it doesn't take away too much. But... when you play a game, I still don't quite get the faux pas miscalculation found here. For some odd ridiculous reason, not only does the machine automatically give you a lame black border around the screen area, but, and this nearly unforgivable, it distorts the screen ratio. Everything is sort of stretched and squashed. This applies whether you have your screen settings set to 4:3 or 16:9. This absolutely makes no sense especially if you have a modern 16:9 widescreen television; they should have just left the ratio the same. And even if your TV is like mine and you can alter the stretchiness of your viewing ratio, the PSP displays the screen (while playing games only) in such a way that no matter what your picture will be distorted. Either too wide or too skinny. I mean, I guess many of you out there would care less about this at your home, because it doesn't really hinder playing your games in any way, but these sorts of issues can simply make me lose my mind. This is the primary reason I have to rate the new slim at a 4 vs. a 5. I am praying that one day in the near future they will release a network update that will somehow solve this screen ratio problem. And yes, blown up, the graphics appear nearly, but not quite as good as PS2, but certainly better than the old PS1. And still, I feel sorry for those of you who don't have composite connections on your TV b/c you're S.O.L. if you want to play your games on TV. Also, what if I want to share my pictures with someone at their place and they don't have an extra composite connection or high-def TV? Do I have to go out and purchase and carry around with me a second cable just to have the much more common RCA configuration?
Now the game that comes with this white edition, and BTW, don't forget to get a 1GB (or larger) Memory Stick Duo because your going to need one. Star Wars Battlefront Rogue Squadron is one of the best infrastructure multiplayer online games for the PSP. Only SOCOM can rival it if you're into shooters, but I must confess I haven't played all of the PSP online shooters out there so there could be others. SW: Battlefront II for the PSP plain out sucked because of its lack of online and campaign modes, but this edition is more of the real deal. A couple of nitpicks by me though are: I am used to playing shooters like Warhawk on my PS3 now and these super tiny claustrophobic levels in Battlefront:RS somewhat take away from the fun. Combine this with the very simplistic level design and you start to have a lot less strategy options when battling others. You just basically run around and face people up face-2-face and whoever shoots faster or has a more powerful gun will win. The ability to lock on to targets is fine, but this control scheme is much more finely tuned in a game like SOCOM for the PSP. The lack of the ability to lock on to your enemies in SW:BFII for the PSP made the experience utterly dreadful when trying to shoot your targets. Also, in a game like Warhawk I am spoiled with the fluid spot-on controls of your avatar. In Rouge Squadron this is something to be desired. Moving your character around the playing field is a somewhat jerky affair and the turning around to do a 180 to look behind you seems to take entirely too long and is hardly smooth. But hey, for the PSP I still think it's a more than worthy attempts at multi online play.
1 last thing, let me reiterate for those of you who have never owned a PSP to date. Even though I have a computer for the web, and a PS3, and an iPod, I still use the heck out of my PSP for pics, games, and music on the go. Also as a very convenient podcast catcher/RSS feed handler, if you're into that kind of thing. I never knew I'd be using my PSP so much in this way before I got one. This is one thing my iPod can't do and something I rather not clutter around with on my computer if I don't have to. And although I haven't quite found the ideal way to capitalize on this function yet, you can pair up or marry your PSP with your PS3 and you can actually view everything saved up on your PS3 at home on your PSP anywhere you can get a broadband connection!!! Although you can't play your PS3 games by this method or watch you DVD's or Blu-rays yet, I still think they will make better use of this ability in the future.I really hope all of this info in my review helps you all out there because it's the review I wish I could have read before I made up my mind to buy the new slim PSP.
 I love my PSP May 25, 2006
Juan C. Ayala (Portland, OR)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
I commute into work every morning on the light rail in Portland Oregon. I bought myself a PSP earlier this past spring with the intension of watching my TiVo on it while I'm on the train. So every night, I let the TiVo download to my PC and it's kind of like a PSPcasting.
All of my Season Pass shows like Lost, My name is Earl, ER, Desperate Housewives, Numbers and all of my favorite shows I don't have time for I'm now watching on my PSP. I have a 2 gig memory card that is automatically loaded with my tv programs while I'm asleep and when I wake up in the morning I just pick up my PSP from the dock and go.
I also play video games on it, its great for that too. But I'm watching way more TV on it then playing games.
With out a doubt this is my favorite toy that I've purchase all year long, although it only half over, I don't think I'll be purchasing anything else that comes close to how much I enjoy this thing.
Almost Perfect! June 10, 2006
Daniel V.
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
I have had this system for 9 months now and it's still working perfectly. So far I own 4 games and 6 UMD movies. This system is perfect because you can listen to music, watch movies, play videogames, look at pictures, go on the internet, watch TV, etc. But for the internet and TV you'll need a 2.5 upgrade which you'll eventually get.
As for the games, there aren't many out right now and some I'm not even interested in playing, but I believe (and hope) that later this year there'll be more. The graphics are probably the best I've ever seen on a handheld system and the movies are perfectly clear. On my PSP I have 3 dead pixels but while you're playing or watching a movie, you'll hardly recognize them.
As for the cons, this system is easily breakable and I mean if you drop it on concrete floor, it'll most likely break. So be really careful with it. As for the screen, it must be cleaned alot or you'll start seeing scratches which can make it look ugly.
Overall, the PSP is worth your money and time and it's a system for everyone. But on second thought, I would rather wait for all the good games to come out and maybe even new colors for the PSP.
Hope I was helpful enough!
Good bare bones PSP. November 17, 2006
M. Warren (Iowa)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
If you want to get a PSP to use it for media, then this is the best thing to go with. Why? Because you save fifty bucks!!! Now that may not sound liike a big deal, but I feel that it's a very good package, and especially if you already have a menory stick (especially if you use Powershot cameras). And besides, the stuff you get in the value pack is not very impressive. The only good thing is the hand strap, and you can just get one seperatly (probally say it's a replacement, that would definitly work). The Case is easily destroyed by the logitech case, and the headphones are just crappy earbuds that don't work well. Headphones, in general, are a whole lot better. Earbuds also increase risk of hearing loss. And the lint cloth is worth jack. And if you want the (and for the record, they still sell value packs, but the entertainment pack is getting more sales) card, get a bigger card, or buy a used 32 MB card for a low price. I lost my first one, and I got a MB card for only 8 bucks. And for the demo disc you get, there's nothing but a bunch of weak videos. At least the Petey Pablo music video has hot girls (and he is a terrible "rapper"
Basically, get this instead of the value pack. The entertainment pack is great, no doubt, but if you do not like Atv Offroad fury or Lords Of Dogtown, then just get this. However, if you do like it and have an iPod (and this cannot replace iPod as far as media. But it does things that iPod cannot), get this. Sony was actually thoughtful because they gave us some things to choose from, but the technophobes may be confused by this. That's okay, and that's where we reviewers come in to help the people we like: the buyers.
The PSP is quite amazing. December 4, 2006
Rusty J. Razzaq (Madison Heights, MI)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
This portable gaming system is amazing! The screen is so big. The video quality is amazing. Also, not to mention, the graphics for the games are quite cool as well. I also found the Wi-Fi very useful. A lot of restatunts, colleges, book stores, and other places have free Wi-Fi. The game sharing option was a very good idea. Only one person has to have the UMD game disc, and another person in the same room can play against you, without a disc. It just uses the internal memory. I suggest buying a 1GB or 2GB Memory stick. I have a 2GB San Disk memory card, and I have 1 and 1/2 hours of video on there, and there is still about 1GB to spare. So buy this, if you have the $200.00 to spend. All the good, there is one bad part. The battery life. It only last 3-4 1/2 hours. Buy a spare battery. Thats about it....
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