haha, yeah ... personally I don't like my GBA-SP, cause it feels uncomfortable to use; but the brighter, backlit, anti-glare screen REALLY helps a great deal. Also the extended battery time from 10hr to 14hrs was quite nice to (provided your not using the backlight).
The Sony PSP is a threat to the DS, simply because it is a PS2 in your pocket; however this said, the N-Gage has been selling for around the same price as the GBA-SP (atleast near me).. it has a much more powerful CPU & Graphics Chip, more Ram, is capable of much more...
While it is technically superior, the fact you have to take the bleeding back off to change caridges, and the buttons are fiddly.. makes it extremely annoying to use. This also echos with the PSP I'm afriad. While sure it is technically impressive, the problem remains in the design:
- Buttons break easily
- Twisting during gameplay can eject (quite spectacularly too) the disc
- On a good number of occasions, turning it on will mean it just sits there makes the PSP sound but shows nothing before turning itself off again
-
3 HOURS BATTERY TIME!!!
Sony are making a huge loss with it, and they have to shift one hell of alot of units to make thier potencial market large enough for people to use it.
What might actually end up more worrying is that Nintendos' next generation gameboy is making use of the technology that Sony poured alot of money into developing.
High-Quality TFT, Media Discs, etc.. Nintendo have purchased through Panasonic these exact same technologies for thier own purposes. So they get something similar at the fraction of the cost, not to mention added with Nintendo's very own 'sturdy' designs.
Nintendo have dominated the market with ageing technology for almost 2 decades, the original gameboy was simply a NES made Handheld.. Pocket made it smaller.. Colour gave it colour (still the exact same hardware mind you).. Advanced added more power but only a little.
Now there is the Gismondo, PSP, DS, on the market finally Nintendo actually have themselves some competition again, which always helps push technology further. When you dominate often there is no need to really upgrade much past token gestures.
Now Nintendo are really being force to show what they can do.
Can't wait to see 3G at E3