One complaint about the current smartphones on the market is that they don’t offer any real gaming performance like some of the handheld devices. And why should they… they’re phones, right? Well, Sony is offering a solution with their PSP phone, but I’m not yet convinced this is what we as consumers need, but it might be something we want. But will this phone meet our expectations of both a phone and a gaming device?
Smartphones are missing major physical components to be good gaming devices—a real directional pad or joystick and buttons to accompany it. The overlay buttons that homebrew developer ZodTTD created for the iPhone are the closest substitute for these missing features; of course, I could mention the d-pad on the DROID, as well, but it hasn’t had much positive feedback. So it seems the PSP will definitely take care of this avenue. Additionally, being that the device is built for running PlayStation games, it should have better gaming performance than other smartphones on the market.
However, with all this performance comes a price, and I don’t mean the monetary kind (though I’m sure we’ll feel it there too), I’m talking about battery life. I simply can’t wait to see what Sony’s solution to the battery life problem is. The phones with large screens on the market can barely last a day without needing a charge session. Normally, someone would put their phone away and use their portable gaming device as a separate unit—meaning it has its own dedicated battery. Now that the two will share one battery, will it be a massive one? We hope? Or maybe we don’t hope, since a massive battery doesn’t really appeal to pocket space.
Another concern is the media format in which games will be contained. Will they go with the protected micro SD format? Or will they further develop their PlayStation Network to work with Android for game downloads? How about both? Obviously the advantage of having games on removable media is that they you can lend them to friends and vice versa. What are your thoughts on this new device? Will it be what gamers everywhere desire, or a battery hog you need to charge every two hours?
Photo courtesy of Engadget
