Review: PSP Lite

PSP Lite: well worth a look if you don't own a PSP already.

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PSP Lite

Some people say a change is as good as a holiday (personally, I'd rather just have the holiday) but it seems Sony have taken it literally and taken to the PSP with a hacksaw and made it lighter and thinner.

Enter the PSP Lite -- officially known as the PSP-2002 PB.

So, what's new? Besides having had some liposuction -- according to Sony, it's now 30 per cent lighter than the original and 20% thinner -- the new PSP has also had a few things moved about, has more memory, and runs faster thanks to a CPU that is clocked at a higher speed than the original PSP by default.

It certainly feels lighter: hold the original PSP in one hand, and the Lite in the other, and you'll tell which one's the fatty.

And look down from the top and the Lite's rear profile is thinner, having had the slight bulge of the original's battery shaved off.

The wireless LAN switch has moved from the bottom left to the top, near the UMD door, and the speakers have moved from the bottom of the face to the top, a good move.

There has also been some tweaking around the D-pad and the face buttons.

One big change -- and one that I'm not convinced was for the better, though -- is the UMD tray. Now instead of flicking a switch to open it, you prise it open with a finger.

It seems flimsier -- and cheaper -- than the sturdy UMD tray found on the original.

A nice feature is that if you buy the optional component out cable you can PSP output games and movies to a TV or monitor at either 4:3 or 16:9 native resolutions.

Despite the flimsy UMD tray, the PSP Lite is well worth a look if you don't own a PSP already.

- © Fairfax NZ News