Have had the system for a while ... my overall thoughts ...
The Good
1.) System design is so slick. It really is the coolest looking portable device I've ever laid eyes on (sorry Apple). Dead sexy.
2.) The screen of course is very sweet.
3.) Ridge Racers is a pretty solid racer. Definitely gives you a mid-late 1990s arcade vibe.
4.) Movie playback is a cooler feature than I imagined. Spider-Man 2 looks great and I can't wait to show that off to friends.
5.) Ripping video files to MP4 is pretty simple ... well thanks to PSP Video 9.
6.) The slider analog stick is better than I thought. Still not quite as good as full blown analog, but for some reason it feels a bit better than the Dual Shock analog sticks (simply because its "tighter").
7.) The buttons are nice. Easy to hit. No big problems with my square button either.
8.) The battery life isn't as bad as you'd expect. Being able to change the screen brightness also comes in handy when you want to conserve some power.
9.) MP3 audio quality is very, very nice.
10.) System feels very nice and comfy when holding it.
The Bad
1.) What the hell is up with the exposed area on the UMD discs? It's going to be a total pain in the ass now to carry around extra games/movies. Not nearly as pocket friendly as the DS games. And it seems like, try as you might, your fingers invariably end up touching the exposed part of the disc (argh).
2.) Loading times for some of the games are somewhat of a downer.
3.) The d-pad looks cool, but its not great. I hate that "concave" design Sony uses. The DS d-pad is much better, which really sucks. I hope I can still enjoy Street Fighter III
on this provided Capcom makes it.
3.) The audio from the speakers is nice, but seems a little low in volume.
4.) Screen issues, obviously the dead pixel thing. Seems to be very common, much moreso than any other portable game system I've ever seen.
5.) Graphics aren't actually as good as I think they've been hyped to be. Gretzky NHL runs like shit, even compared to old PSOne or N64 hockey games. Ape Escape really doesn't look much better than Mario 64 DS. Ridge Racer and WipeOut seem to be the standouts right now but even those don't really come close to PS2 quality.
Although this can also be attributed to the fact that Sony has "capped" the system so far. Once better battery paks arrive, hopefully Sony will "uncap" the system and we'll see better looking games. A lot of the software seems to be rushed as well.
The Ugly
1.) Memory Stick prices. Yeah we knew this going in, but its another kick in the balls when you have the system at home but realize it would be so much more functional with a 1 GB Memory Stick. But I'm not buying until the prices drop further. Hopefully Stringer will address this soon since he has said Memory Stick prices are ridiculously high.
2.) Shame on Sony for forcing Canadians into buying the Gretzky bundle. A horrible game.
An even bigger shame on retailers like EB/Best Buy/Future Shop for pushing this bundle on consumers and claiming that the regular Value Pack bundle was unavailible. My brother returned his Gretzky bundle at EB and then told the lady he was going to go somewhere else to get a regular Value Pack -- and wouldn't ya know it, she mysteriously finds a regular Value Pack in the back room right that instant.
