The Sony PSP is a great portable device. The games available to it may not be very large (without Homebrew), but what it lacks in that, it more than makes up for in media capabilities. It is an entertainment system integrated into a single portable unit. I’d say it’s the best handheld in the world today.
I have compared using my PSP to using my brother’s Nintendo DS. I came to this conclusion: Let’s say I’m going on vacation, I have my PSP, I can listen to mp3 files through the music on my PSP. I could play a game if I feel like it. You could watch a movie or a video clip. Show my uploaded photos to friends. You could read a magazine or even the Bible through the browser. The Nintendo DS is just limited to gaming.
If you buy a PSP at your local electronic store, you will be able to do all of the above. I’ve had my PSP for about 3 years now and I remember using my PSP as being fine. But then I found out that not all PSPs can do the same things. Everyone on the Internet kept talking about Homebrew. According to Wikipedia, Homebrew is a term frequently applied only to video games produced by consumers on proprietary gaming platforms. Well, I did some research and found that I hadn’t unlocked the true gaming potential of my PSP. Now I do believe that if I count the games that the PSP can contain, it would be the largest list, surpassing any other game console. Why? Because the PSP can emulate many other consoles, for example, NES, SNES, SEGA GENESIS, MASTER SYSTEM, GAMEBOY, NEO GEO and many, many more.
Installing the latest custom firmware will allow you to run Homebrew on your PSP. What this means is that you will be able to emulate many game consoles from the past like the ones mentioned and download games that are designed to run only on the PSP. All this is possible just by purchasing a memory card, since everything will reside in memory. I recommend getting a 4GB or 8GB memory card, so there’s plenty of room for additional games, movies, video clips, pictures, music, and more. My use of my PSP now is much more than it used to be before I learned about Homebrew. I have almost 100 games, plus all my multimedia needs.