Something that has been so painful for
many users of any portable entertainment device over the
last decade or so is battery life. Thankfully, Sony has
addressed this issue in the PSP by using a Lithium-Ion rechargeable
battery for the console. It is estimated that during game
play, should expect to get 6 hours of use from one full
charge, and 5 ½ hours of movie watching. For music
listening only, you should get at least, an estimated 8
to 10hrs from the charge.
Like most modern units on the market today, the system has
a number of built in power saving options to help preserve
battery life. These include a display backlight timeout,
a wireless LAN power-saving mode and a sleep feature that
puts the system in hibernation after a certain period of
inactivity. There is also a switch on the side of the PSP,
which allows the wireless networking to be turned off completely,
thus conserving battery life further.
For those users who are going to be away
from a rechargeable energy source which exceeds the six
hours life expectancy recommended by Sony, as you would
except, there is the option to buy spare batteries which
can be re-charged and taken with you on the go as a backup.
Incidentally, it takes just 2 hours and 20mins to charge
a PSP battery from 0% to full.
USB Connections ?
Managing Media on the PSP is a really
straightforward process.
The PSP's USB allows access to the memory stick from a PC
or MAC. There is a menu option on the PSP called "USB
Connection” Selecting this option puts the PSP it
into connection mode. Then when you connect the PSP to a
PC or MAC, the PSP will be recognised as a PSP and the memory
stick becomes a drive letter, just like it would with a
digital camera. From here, you can drag and drop files on
or off the memory stick. This allows the stick to be accessed
through “My Computer” (Windows) and then it
is a simple case of drag and drop onto the device.
MP3`s ? No Problem
To transfer MP3 music onto the PSP, we
put the PSP into “USB mode”. The PSP supports
music encoded in MP3 and ATRAC formats. We copied over a
few MP3s to test sound playback, which was excellent. Transferring
was quick and easy, with no special software required.
However, you will need a data transfer
cable which is not included with the PSP Value pack.
To transfer images, the same process was
used and worked in the same manner, connect the PSP, browse
to my computer and drag and drop. Transferring photos in
this way was quick and easy and we could easily start a
slideshow to view the photos.
There is a range of options available
including various zoom settings and rotation options for
photos and images. If you have a Sony digital camera that
uses Duo or a Duo Pro card, then you are in luck. Just take
the card out of your camera and stick it into your PSP to
instantly see your photos.
