Why PSP is better than iPhone

The Sony PSP and Apple’s iPhone are great little devices, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.  Apple is starting to tout the gaming capabilities of its portable device, and although there is no direct competition between the two, people are beginning to question the need for a dedicated portable gaming device.

We all know that the iPhone has a lot of features, but does it do them all well?  I still carry around several gadgets, simply because they all do their specific tasks better than any all-in-one device.  Now the Apple Advertising Phalus is trying to make me believe that the iPhone is a worthy gaming device?

It is my belief that the PSP is the most superior portable gaming device, across all markets.  Here are my Top 8 Reasons why every self-respecting gamer should have a PSP, regardless of what other portable devices you have.

8. The PSP is cheaper
It can be argued that a PSP with extended battery and huge Memory Stick can cost more than the iPhone, but that is simply not true.

In actuality the PSP ($169) with 16GB memory cards($100)  is still cheaper than a 16GB iPod Touch ($299).

The 8GB iPhone 3G ($199) may appear a good value at first, but becomes exhorbitantly more expensive when you consider the additional charges you pay just to keep the iPhone running.  You can pay nearly $100 a month for Voice and Data service, costing you over $1,000 in the first year alone.  Even if you found the best deal in the world, you’re still essentially “leasing” your iPhone from Apple (or AT&T, however you choose to look at it).

7. The PSP’s storage is upgradable
The maximum capacity of the iPhone is currently 16 Gigabytes, but most people will opt for the cheaper 8GB version (there is no way that 8GB of flash memory is worth $100).  That may seem like a lot of space, unless you actually use the iPhone’s capabilities.  If you use this device for music, videos, and games, then you’ll have to manage which entertainment gets priority… you ONLY have a maximum of 16GB so you can either have a lot of MP3s and a few videos, or a lot of TV shows and a handful of MP3s.  And then you have to make some space for your documents and downloaded applications… and the storage isn’t upgradable.

With the PSP you can upgrade your storage capacity with removable Memory Stick cards.  They can be purchased rather cheaply (I bought an 8GB card online for $30, and 16GB can be had for $100).  You can have a 16GB card for large games, another card for your music, another for emulators… and 32GB sticks are coming.

6. PSP batteries are replaceable, upgradable
The PSP comes with an 1800mAh battery, which allows for 4-6 hours of nonstop playtime (or up to 11 hours of audio).  Upgrading to the 2200mAh battery allows for up to 8 hours of gaming.  Assuming you could actually stomach playing an iPhone game for that long, you’ll only be able to do that for a few hours (especially if you have a battery-sucking 3G)… and then you lose the use of your phone until you can find an outlet.

If your PSP dies, you can simply throw in another battery.  You can’t do that with Apple’s devices.

5. Overclockability
Even with a CPU and GPU designed for gaming, a modern PSP game can sometimes slow down to choppy framerates.  The Solution:  Overclock the processor.  The chip in the PSP is rated for 333Mhz and a 166Mhz bus, but is underclocked to 222Mhz by default.  Once running at its full potential, you’ll never experience a slowdown.  You can overclock on-the-fly with some specialized software, or upgrade to Sony’s 3.5 BIOS, which releases any underclocks.

4. Bigger screen
The PSP’s screen is very large at 4.3 inches, and has an aspect ratio is 1.78:1, which is the same as true widescreen HDTVs.  The iPhone has a comparitively smaller 3.5 inch screen.

The iPhone has a resolutoin of  480×320 pixels, and the PSP has a resolutoin of 480×272 pixels.  So you’re missing out on 23,680 pixels… I call this a draw because the iPhone is meant to be more general-purpose, and the fact that the iPhone doesn’t have VGA resolution is a detriment.

3. Processor built for games
The iPod Touch and iPhone have a 620Mhz general-purpose ARM CPU.  This may sound superior to the PSP’s 333Mhz MIPS R4000 on paper, but consider that the PSP’s CPU was designed specifically for gaming.  I have a Pocket PC with a 620Mhz ARM processor, and games are horribly slow. The PSP also has 32MB of main RAM with 4MB of embedded DRAM and has a GPU with 2MB of onboard VRAM.

Chips designed for a specific purpose will always perform more efficiently than a general-purpose processor.  This is why a modern Intel processor that costs hundreds of dollars will use up 80% of its power encoding an MPEG video, but a $5 video-encoder chip does the job without even getting warm.  Comparing the processing capabilities of the iPhone to the PSP is comparing Apples to Oranges (pun intended).  The graphics of the best iPhone game cannot even begin to compete with what the PSP does.

In addition to this, the PSP has a much more robust GPU than Apple’s offerings.  If you doubt that the GPU is important, then replace your PC’s nVidia 8800 card with a generic Triton and see how far you get in Crysis.

2. PSP has much better gaming experience
If you call yourself a gamer, then your iPhone will not be your primary gaming device.  There are only a handful of games for the iPhone or iPod touch, and these are mostly re-hashed web games like Bejewelled and Solitaire, or casino games like BlackJack.

Compare that with the huge catalog of PSP games.  In addition to arcade classics and casual games, the PSP also has tons of popular gaming franchises.  Tomb Raider, Star Wars, Ratchet and Clank, Daxter, Madden, Final Fantasy, FIFA, NBA, NHL, Need for Speed, Prince of Persia, The Sims, Tom Clancy… the list goes on and on and on.

There are even a lot of homebrew emulators available for the PSP.  There are emulators available for MAME, Nintendo NES, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Gameboy, Atari 2600, Atari 800, Sega Genesis and Sega Dreamcast… and you can have them all on one memory stick.  Oh, and many Playstation One (PSX) games work flawlessly on the PSP (you’ll need a PS3 to transfer the games, though).

1. The PSP can be hacked
The real value of your PSP is unlocked once the unit is hacked, which is very easy to do and requires no special hardware.  Once hacked, you can play homebrew ports of popular PC games like Doom, Quake and Hexen.  You can also download and play all of your old console favorites using an emulator.

One of the biggest advantages of a hacked PSP is the ability to make backups of your UMDs.  Placing a UMB image on a Memory Stick increases battery life, as the UMD drive’s motor is not spinning and the laser is not active.  Having the images on a memory stick also lets you have your entire gaming collection in your pocket without carrying a bunch of little discs around.  Most UMD ISOs are around 700MB, and the largest one can be is 2GB.  The ISO images can also be compressed (CSO images), which allows you to stuff more games on a single Memory Stick.  The average gamer can put 8-10 full-quality UMD images on a single 8GB Memory Stick.

There are lots of addons you can use with your hacked PSP.  You can take screenshots of your games with a simple button press (which writes a bitmap to the Memory Stick), or enable cheats for your favorite games (hold a button for a few seconds and a menu appears on top of your game, allowing you to enable god mode, infinite ammo, and many other cheats).

iPhone does excel at some things
There are still some things the iPhone can do better.  For one thing, it’s a freakin’ phone.  Integration with iTunes makes it very easy to download new music, podcasts, and games.  The iPhone can also be constantly connected to the Internet via 3G or WiFi.  Also, if you dig motion-sensitive controls like the Wii, then you’ll like the one or two games for the iPhone that use this mechanism.

It’s great to have one gadget that does everything… but that gadget still does not currently exist.  With the iPhone, cramming a variety of media into a small 16GB space is very limiting.  I can easily fill up 16GB worth of music, much less store videos, games and applications.  Until they come out with an 120GB iPhone then there will not be an all-in-one replacement for my PSP, PDA, camera, cell phone, iPod and notebook.

Like we’ve all known it: the iPhone is a jack-of-all-trades but master of none, especially when it comes to gaming.  For a serious portable gaming experience, stick with the PSP.