As befits an item that has been hyped since last year as the must-have gadget of 2005 - despite the fact that two-thirds of the year have elapsed before it reached UK shops today - Sony's PlayStation Portable is about more than mere videogames.
Its large, crisp and contrasty screen is ideal for displaying movies, it can play MP3s and is even equipped with Wi-Fi. But can it challenge Apple's iPod to be the nation's favourite mobile entertainment device?
The answer to that would have to be "No". While the PSP's multimedia capabilities are decent and, in the case of video playback, exceptionally good, it takes an über-geek with plenty of time and patience to unlock them. Frustratingly, at every turn the PSP provides evidence of why Sony, even with its valuable and much-loved Walkman brand, consistently fails to come up with an MP3 player that can challenge the iPod. And, worse, it constantly reminds you of Sony's arrogant insistence on retaining control over proprietary file formats that no other manufacturer would dream of supporting.
That said, the PSP is a mighty fine movie playback device. At the time of the UK launch, you can buy 32 movies on the machine's Universal Media Disk (UMD) format, including Spider-Man 2, Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, xXx, Alien and Sin City. UMD movies operate just like DVDs - pop them in your PSP and they will launch automatically; you can fast-forward to scenes and so on.
You have to fiddle around in the video settings if you want to hear sound through the speaker, but it makes more sense to employ the PSP's headphones. Visually, playback from UMD movies is stunning. Considering its size, when viewed as a movie playback device, the PSP is among the best on the market.
But are we really going to re-buy our entire DVD collections on UMD, just so we can watch them on our PSPs? Sony has been crowing about how well UMD movies have sold in the US, but we won't take to them so enthusiastically over here - especially at the rather steep price of £19.99 each. No other nation is as movie-obsessed as America, where home cinema set-ups are the norm rather than the exception.
Fortunately, it is possible to rip the home movies you already own onto Memory Sticks for playback on the PSP. There is a free encoding software package specifically designed for the PSP, called PSP Video 9, available from www.pspvideo9.com/. This works well, offering decent control over bit-rate and therefore the quality versus compression trade-off. Crucially, it will also automatically create the arcane folders required on your Memory Stick in order to let your PSP know that it has video files on it. Sony makes a similar program called Image Converter 2 but, cheekily, will charge you $20 for it.
It is well worth trawling the web for all the PSP support software you can find, because the PSP's firmware (essentially its hardware-stored operating system) is pretty dire. It is over-basic, clunky and unfriendly. The main problem is that it lacks basic file structure, so you have to create precisely named folders and sub-folders for video, audio and still photography on every Memory Stick that you insert into it - otherwise, it will not be aware that those files exist.
Although applications like PSP Video 9 will automate that process, getting any files on to a virgin PSP involves much use of the manual. Sony refuses to learn the lesson that ease of use is paramount in consumer multimedia devices, as taught so eloquently by the iPod.
Sony has missed another trick: one rival handheld device, the Gizmondo, has a dedicated, automated music download service, which the PSP glaringly lacks. The company may initiate one at some point - for details, keep your eye on the official website, www.yourpsp.com
There is light at the end of the tunnel, though: once you connect your PSP to your wireless network or connect it to a computer, you can automatically download firmware updates. The PSP hooked up to my network without any fuss, bringing up the possibility of web browsing. Again, the PSP's browser is pretty basic, and hamstrung by a text message-style soft keyboard - but it works. Keen browsers should invest in portable keyboards for their PSPs.
The PSP's video, photography and audio playback applications support the most popular file formats, such as MP3, MPeg4 (not AVI) and JPeg.
Storage is a slight issue. Memory Stick is the most expensive and confusing form of Flash memory - it comes in several flavours and shapes, and a 1GB Memory Stick will cost at least £70, compared with £45 for the equivalent Compact Flash or SD Card. And a 1GB card is essential for anyone with a PSP - you could just about squeeze two movies on to one.
While the PSP has multimedia capabilities, which vary from adequate to exceptional, unlocking those capabilities is much more fiddly than it ought to be. Firmware updates and improvements to the currently uncommunicative Your PSP website will help, but Apple executives won't be losing any sleep over this launch.
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