When Sony announced the upcoming release of PSP 3000 sometime ago, its global audience of near half a million gamers eagerly awaited for its arrival. However, after the shipping of the console has begun, not only many people were disappointed, but avid gamers angrily ranted as well. Why? The PSP 3000 doesn’t only look exactly like the PSP 2000, but only has some tiny improvements, and a major drawback.
First of all, let’s compare the PSP 2000 with the PSP 1000:
- Weighs 33% lighter than the PSP 1000 (fat and bright)
- The vertical height is noticeably shorter (19 percent slimmer)
- The WLAN switch is found at the top, when it used to be placed on the side (PSP 1000)
- RAM Size is now 64MB
- The battery is visually smaller
- TV-Out resolution for progessive scan TV’s (HDTVs) is 480 x 27
- Support for a camera and GPS receiver via the top USB port
- 4.3 inch widescreen display
- The speakers are found on the face of the unit; PSP 1000 had its speakers on the bottom
- No more iR port (it had little or no use on its predecessor)
Now, let’s compare the PSP 3000 with the PSP 2000:
Noticed any difference? I didn’t spot anything new as well, until I found the new built-in microphone, the Playstation logo replacing the Home button, and the SONY face mark found where the Playstation logo used to sit. Well, aside from those three, there’s a noticeable improvement on the D-Pad (slight inward inclination), and glare resistance for outdoor play.
This is an edit, 52 minutes after the initial post:
Here’s another annoyance in the PSP 3000 system, as commented by Zjan Turla, a newly-found buddy and an esteemed schoolmate of mine:
…due to the increased color palette of the PSP-3000 system, games that were developed for the 1000 and 2000 series will look unnatural. IGN played a Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots trailer on both the PSP-2000 and PSP-3000 model. To their surprise, the images being outputted by the PSP-3000 were greener than usual and looked unnatural.
Thanks, Zjan!
And now here’s the big drawback: SONY has included an anti-Pandora hardware, which means absolutely no homebrew applications. No more scot-free ISO/CSO games, no more wonder plugins, and no more amazing applications. Since there’s no news of a Dark-Alex firmware patch yet, gamers who own a PSP 3000 would now have to rely on switching UMD’s to enjoy their games. It’s already been quite a while, and no custome firmware. Not even a downgrade or modification.
Now, would you still want to get one of those?
Sphere: Related Content
Posted in 
Tags: 
Actually, disabling Custom Firmware is a plus for me
Also, you forgot two flaws that surfaced with the release of the Playstation Portable – 3000 series.
First of all, ghosting problems occur due to the new screen of the PSP-3000. Unfortunately, Sony stated that they cannot provide a fix due to the problem being in the hardware and NOT the software. If the problem was with the software, it can easily be fixed by a simple patch.
Also, due to the increased color palette of the PSP-3000 system, games that were developed for the 1000 and 2000 series will look unnatural. IGN played a Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots trailer on both the PSP-2000 and PSP-3000 model. To their surprise, the images being outputted by the PSP-3000 were greener than usual and looked unnatural.
Finally, a bunch of Homebrew coders were able to find an exploit in the game GripShift which allowed the Homebrew community to install Custom Firmwares on the new PSP-2000 motherboards and the PSP-3000 model. However, this exploit has already been patched by Sony.
Hi, Zjan. First off, explain why disabled custom firmwares is a plus for you. The rest of the world feels a big disadvantage by that.
Next, I did not mention a thing about the unpatchability of the PSP 3000 being on the software, I even stated that it was in the hardware. And the ghosting problems are legacy. Recent releases of SONY’s firmware have been able to override the framebuffer that caused the previous display ghostings.
The unnatural color palette is one of the things why PSP 3000 caused many thumbsdown from the gaming population. Thanks for mentioning that, I forgot to point it out.
Lastly, I did not mention the ‘bunch of Homebrew coders’ being able to patch the unit since this has already been… patched up by SONY. Rumors indicate however, that custom pandorized batteries and a mod can re-activate that exploit, which is why there are shops in Manila that offer the prospect.
Thanks for dropping by.
I actually support Custom Firmware but NOT piracy. Thankfully, the Homebrew community is slowly inching towards a custom firmware without ISO playback capabilities.
Also, the battery that you are talking about, the Datel Lite Blue Tool, will no longer be released due to Datel being sued by SONY.
Hey, it surfs faster and looks neater. Plus, no more extra twenty bucks for the microphone. But hey, that's just me
hi guys, I have has 1000, 2000 and just bought 3000, I highly recommend the 2000 series as the new 3000 it has no imporvements on its colour resolution at all, I've compared the 2000 versus 3000 and 2000 colour resolution is 150% much better than 3000…
Make sure you do not waste your money on the new version.
Cheers,
I’m never going to pay full price for a game again, flash cards for the win!
Bless god for flash cards, games are unaffordable nowadays and thanks to flash card stuff I can still game without having to pay tons of money.
i got the 300 cos it came later in the carnival colours n_n and also cos KH: birth by sleep and FF: dissidia come out, i guess, for the 3000 which means awesome graphics/colour. also it has faster surfing and even skype (pretty much turning the psp into a mobile phone n_n) also less glare n_n… kinda pissed off bout the anti-cust. firmware thing tho >:o
This message is for Francis Panganiban: Hi, I’m a mother and I have a 12 year old son who wants a PSP. I’m not good with electronics so I would like to ask your help, (hope it’s okay) about what model is best to get, where to get it, and how to put those homebrewed, ISO/CSO games in the system? I honestly have no idea what these terms are. Your name sounds ‘pinoy’ and you mentioned Manila in one of your blogs. I work here in Maryland,USA and my kids live in Laguna. And they don’t have it in the stores near our area. I would really apreaciate if you could help. Thanks.
For heaven’s sake – I hope the next person who talks about bad colors get hacked or something; if you know anything about anything you’ll realize that just as new graphic card features (and new versions of DirectX) require new games (or patches to current games) to take advantage of those features the new PSP 300 will require new games and these will look fantastic compared to the old ones.
Your NES games wouldn’t look better on the SNES or as Wii Ware, and your PS2 games sure as frak won’t look better on a PS3. Ah! Come to think of it – they would look worse.
Only difference is that this is presented as an upgrade, the better resolution specificly, while they’d be better off not having it compatible – like the PSP Go (and that’s a whole other subject).