PSP or PDA? My brain melts!

I've had a go at GTA on a PSP and seen a video clip on it - and yes, the screen is very nice indeed.

I'd go for the PDA - you could probably also install/write your own software on/for it quite easily (SNES emulator?), extending its usefulness.

got only a PDA, never seen a PSP in real, so iam a bit biased...

my pda is an asus mypal 730w, nice big highres screen (640x480 or 480x640 dependent on how you look at it), no hw/vga chips, only what the xscale cpu gives (so far ive seen it has some hw-stuff for video decompression/rotation etc).
i mainly use it to read ebooks and stuff in pdf format or play some 2d games in boring uni class'es (sp?!?). 3d games if you find any are in PS1 quality or less (maybe the new hd-vga-chips will change that)... but then i got 640x480 that surely kills fillrate...
if you got a sd-cards 512mb+ you can convert movies/videos so they play on your pda. if i remember correctly it can play vids with like 400x280 @400bit/s in divx format without a problem. The quality looks really bad on a normal pc, but on the pda display you wont see the low quality (in this quality setting a 1hour video will take aprox 200-300mb).
however its long ago that i converted a vid for my pda (i dont use it to watch movies or listen to mp3s) so the bitrate etc can be incorrect...

what else... ah yes, there are viewers for pdf, chm, ppt etc for windows mobile,
imageviewers, anti-virus software (most useless piece of software IMHO), notes/pocketpaint/pocketword/etc, street navigators (but check if you pda supports them before investing money in tomtom etc. it may not work), compact .net framework => allows .net aps to run (it supports less stuff than the normal .net framework, but dont ask me what the exact difference is),
games like: age of empires, simcity 2000, pocket scumm (play lucas art games on your pda), tomb raider (yes it runs, looks exactly like the orginal...)
but my pda wont run doom or quake1 (has no hw opengl) ...


so if you want to play games while not on your gaming computer/console you should consider a psp, but if you want to use it for other stuff get a pda

@ben: so far i've not found a snes emulator (but i havent searched that intensive for one) and yes in case of windows mobile you can download the sdk and eMbedded Visual C++ 4.0 from microsoft and start writing your stuff, or write it for compact .net framework in VS03/05 (at least i think it works that way...)


edit: just to mention it: 2.5hours with the default battery/accu (light on and at full speed), got 2 of these accus. some pdas can run longer but afaik they are all around 3hours with full speed and backround light etc... oh and you dont need to carry anything except the pda around (in case of one big sd card where all your stuff is installed), for a psp you will have to take the game cardridges(sp?) or play only one game...


T2k

I have both a PSP, and a Dell Axim x50v.

I usually only use the PSP for games, as alongside the Axim, the PSP is IMHO a bit rubbish at movies, music and general usefulness.

Movies look amazing on the Axim's 640x480 screen; it's like watching a mini HD screen. Also it plays pretty much any movie format directly, so no messing around with converting files, like you need to on the PSP.

Also for the price of 2 1GB memory sticks, I got a 6GB micro-drive in the Axim, that fits a good few movies, as well as loads of mp3, and all my other data.

The OpenGL 3D accelerator is nice, but don't expect it to be able to match the 3D capabilities of the PSP. I'd say it's about 1/10th the speed (dispite the Axim having a 600 Mhz processor to the PSPs 200-300). But is fine for messing about with your own 3D demos.

The PSPs screen is much bigger, and has a much better viewing angle, but I find the lower resulution makes it very difficult to see whats going on in some fast moving action films. This is where the (more than double) the detail of the Axim's screen is an advantage.

Of course for games, there's no context. The PSP wins hands down. PocketPC games look very 'shareware' and 'amateur' alongside the PSP. If you're into emulators though, the Axim wins.

So to summarise, I use...

PSP for Games

Axim for Movies, mp3s, emulators, sat nav, internet access through my mobile phone, bluetooth mp3 playback in my car (through car stereo), interactive maps (e.g. London A-Z), taking notes in meetings, e-book reading on the train, programmable calculator, to-do lists, and generally organising my life.

I'd say it depends on what you're planning to do, if you want games mostly with a bit of media a PSP is probably the best idea. If you want a more multi-purpose device that can hold your diary, various notes, play games, videos etc a PDA would be better.

Personally I have a Axim x50v. I'm not using it that much now as I've got a windows mobile smartphone which has all my diary stuff on but I use it for portable video and games (I mostly play bejewled 2 and a dos emu running the original civ). I find video viewing is perfectly good as long as you have a pair of headphones.

If you're trying to make your brain melt, I would recommend a good old-fashioned microwave rather than a PSP or PDA. They're way cheaper too.

If you just want to thaw it, use the defrost setting.
But if you want it nice and bubbly, put it on "Cook 1" or "Cook 2".

Well having been stuck standing in a doorway with 10 other people on a train for two hours, I can tell you that no-one was watching the guy move a stick around on a screen, we were all watching the guy playing SSX's PSP like moths round a lightbulb.

I would go with the Axim. My opinion is bias though, I have owned 2 pocket pc's in the past and loved them, bt have never owned a PSP. I had a HP ipaq and a Viewsonic V73. They were both good, 400Mhz Intel XScale CPU, 32MB ROM 64MB RAM and an SDIO slot. I got the Viewsonic after my iPaq shitted out on me(I got it used so I wasn't much surprised whn it did die). I used the pocket pc every day(literaly) I never left the house without it. I played SNES games on it with an emulator(morphgear I think it was) and also bought AOE for pocket pc. One of my favorite features though was the IR port. The iPaq came with Nevo one of the best years in high school. If we were watching a movie in class or the TV was sitting in the corner pluged into the wall I had the ability to turn it off, on, change the channel/volume and all that good stuff. I could also control the VCR. That was good times.



I say go with the Axim.

I'd go with the PDA. There aren't that many games on the PSP that interest me. The main feature for me would be 1) being able to take notes, keep my calendar and other "boring" tasks. 2) Having a long enough battery life to make this useful to me, and 3) To program stuff on. :D

And the PDA wins at all these. Especially the last one. The PSP isn't exactly an open platform. Of course, to some that's just an additional challenge, but eh, I'd rather have a well documented platform where I can focus on making the programs/games I want.

But that's just me.

Oh, and of course, not choosing the Sony product does allow me to feel all warm and fuzzy and smug. I'm seriously tired of Sony, especially after their blatant idiocy regarding DRM and rootkits... (Not that it'd stop me from buying a Sony product if I wanted it, but it does make me feel better when I choose the alternatives [wink])

Let's imagine you could afford both, let's also imagine that the novelty efect wears off after a month.

Which remains more useful? The PDA of course. I hate to say it, but in the short time I had a PSP around, I used my PDA far more, and mind you, I was still under the "novelty effect" period...

The PDA has the ability to re-invent itself with each piece of software that comes out.

Take as an example my iPAQ 3660, an oldie by now. I use it to keep my ToDo list up to date, to read the daily news on the subway, to listen to music, to show trailers to my friends, to use as a note-keeper for keywords when I'm programming... even in my AI research projects and robotics, as the brains for my robot, running a C++ core with Lua scripts for greater control...

Go with the PDA m8, and enjoy your christmas...

Quote:

Original post by WillC The OpenGL 3D accelerator is nice, but don't expect it to be able to match the 3D capabilities of the PSP. I'd say it's about 1/10th the speed (dispite the Axim having a 600 Mhz processor to the PSPs 200-300). But is fine for messing about with your own 3D demos.

check your power setting options. It defaults to underclock it to 100mhz.

---

Go with the PDA, dude. You don't have to hack the thing with dubious code that may kill the thing permanently in order to develop apps for it. I have an Axim x50v and it is an amazing piece of hardware. Dell doesn't sell it anymore, they've released a new model, the 51 with the x and the xv options. I got my x50v off ebay for $270USD.

Thanks for the help all! I think I will get an Axim PDA for sure. I was looking at the AximTM X51v, which seems quite groovy. Only problem I have left with the PDA is Snes emulation, but I suspect this isn't the place to go too in depth into that subject.


[Edit - Fixed link. Props to HelplessFool]

[Edited by - boolean on November 19, 2005 1:28:28 AM]

your link is broken, since it's cookies based. you could try linking to the base model though.

also, zophar.net for emulation related stuff.

Quote:

Original post by benryves [...]I'd go for the PDA - you could probably also install/write your own software on/for it quite easily (SNES emulator?), extending its usefulness.

If it has windows mobile 2005, you need VS2005 standard or better to install the SDK. Without the SDK, you'll have to use loadlibrary/getprocaddress for any functions not in windows mobile 2003, and AFAICT the docs aren't on MSDN so for all practical purposes you can't target WM5.
Also, while there are many emulators etc already made for PDAs, the controls on PDAs are not at all suited to fast games, but fast games are all that seem to be made on the PDA.
I would be developing slower games that suit the pda if not for the fact that the new sdk requires VS2005

I was looking around some sites and came across a link to the GP2X

The thing is completely homebrew software, runs on linux, and has no official games. Emulators for it seem to be working very well, and as said by a PSP fanatic "It is superior to the PSP in every way regarding homebrew/media playing"

I'm going to post on their forums and have a look through their site to see what types of software they support (pdf etc.)

Has anyone else heard of these things? I myself had never until I ran across the link on a forum. It seems freaking amazing!

edit - Preview of the GP2X from Oct 18

That GP2X goes alright. Too bad it runs on batteries though. Im pretty sure that the GP32 had a great assortment of emulators, namely one for the SNES, so I imagine this would be good on that front as well. I'd still go with the PDA though.

You might have to write your own productivity software for it, but the GP2X is a beauty.

I seemed quite obvious from your first post that what you want is really a PDA, but you just wanted more people to convince you about it. Am I right?

/MindWipe

I had purchased a PDA many years ago cause I'm a gadget guy. I wanted it for playing games and such. Well, it pretty much sucked as a gaming platform (keep in mind this was about 3 years ago). I didn't really use any of the other features and it was a little too bulky to justify taking it with me every where in addition to having a cellphone.

I do own a PSP. It's a great little device. For awhile the games have been so-so, but now they are coming out with decent ones. I just got socom /w a headset, and it's an addictive game. Usually when I'm out and about I can find an unsecured wireless connection that I can hop onto and get some multiplayer action going.

If you are looking for something to play with, get a PSP. If you are looking for productivity device for organizing your life/job/education, get the pda. And as mentioned, the media for a pda is much cheaper. So if you are looking for a multimedia device, the axiom might be cheaper; but it's also 2.5X the base price of the psp. For the psp you can buy 1gig mem sticks for under $100. Encoding as mpeg4 you can squeeze a few movies on that.