It would appear that Sony hired Rocky’s trainer to give their PSP a much needed workout, since it shed some weight (and the propriety UMD-drive) to take on the champion- Nintendo’s DS range.

Hardware

The PSP Go with its sliding screen isn’t just better looking than the conventional PSP, it’s smaller and lighter too, making it the most “pocket friendly” model available. It weighs only 158 g, and with dimensions of 128 x 69 x 16.5 mm compares favourably to the PSP 3000 (169 x 71 x 19 mm and 189 g) and Nintendo DS Lite (133 x 73.9 x 21.5 mm and 218 g). The 3.8 " LCD screen is a little smaller than the previous PSP’s, but the difference really isn’t that noticeable when playing games.

The display, volume, and sound buttons have been moved, with it now situated between the left and right shoulder buttons. It’s a bit frustrating using them, since you need to take your eyes off the screen to find the correct one. The analog stick is smaller than the previous PSP models’, but it feels durable and sturdier. The PSP Go has a built-in microphone and comes with Skype pre-installed, so you are able to chat with your friends via the built-in Wi-Fi. 

Software

The Go also offers solid multimedia portability since you can playback videos, digital music, and store and view all your photos. Web surfing and data entry on the Go is still as unpleasant as on other PSPs because of the amount of button-bashing you have to do while entering information. All gaming and multimedia content is accessible on the 16 GB of internal memory or a memory card. You can either download software off the PlayStation Store directly to the PSP Go or you can transfer data from your PC or PlayStation 3.

Media bar

Another improvement over the other PSPs is the fact that you can pause a game and return to the cross media bar, which is done by hitting the PS button during gameplay in the bottom left corner of the screen. This will bring up a menu in which you can select Pause Game to essentially freeze your game. It takes almost ten seconds to pause, but this remains a very useful feature when you have to take a break while accessing some of your other media files. 

The PSP Go retails for R3299, making it more expensive than the PSP 3000 and not much cheaper than the PS3 Slim. If you have a PSP already you probably won’t want to upgrade to the Go, since you won’t be able to use your current PSP’s games on the Go. But if you are looking for a portable gaming device with plenty of multimedia functionality, then the Go is definitely worth considering, if you can afford it that is.