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Nintendo Or Sony? The Best Deal On A Portable Gaming Device

You can only buy one of the top portable gaming devices this year.  Which will it be - the Sony PSP (Playstation Portable) or the Nintendo DS?  In considering portable gaming systems, a buyer must be careful to analyze product and price.

The Scoop On A Nintendo DS Games System

It's very questionable if throughout its entire 20+ years in marketing, if Nintendo has ever produced a truly superior product than its competitors.  In the 90's, the Nintendo Game Boy, despite being a highly simplistic, low-powered and monochromatic device, dramatically outsold other portable gaming consoles with color and better graphics quality.  It set a world record in portable gaming history that has yet to be defeated.  The Nintendo's DS Games system, like tradition suggests, is inferior to the Sony Playstation portable gaming computer in terms of hardware and multimedia practicality.

Sony PSP Portable Gaming Computers

One of the reasons Sony PSP's might be more appealing than a Nintendo DS is for its extra features.  It has a USB connector so that it can be plugged into a USB port for data transfer to a PC.  It makes efficient use of wireless technology and offers not only downloadable upgrades for games but also web browsing.  It can play music and movies, whether from disk or memory.  For these extra features, the Sony PSP can be considered more of a portable gaming laptop than just another game console for kids.

The Nintendo Advantage

However, Nintendo holds a couple of advantages over Sony.  First, in price.  The Nintendo DS was originally priced at $149.99 and has been recently reduced to $129.99.  The DS is also available in different console colors.  (Not quite an advantage, but a cute offering)  The Sony Games PSP, on the other hand, is sold as part of a Value Pack, Giga Pack or Core Pack, along with a battery, memory stick, earphones, remote control, wrist strap and sample disc.  The price of a pack starts at $249.99 (for a value pack), a significant different from Nintendo's product.  Even the console, though it's not usually sold on its own, is priced at $199.99.

The other advantage is in battery length.  Though both systems use lithium-ion rechargeable batteries, the PSP is believed to use more battery power due to its extra features and higher graphics capabilities.  Sony recently made an adjustment to preserve more battery life; many PSP games previously ran at 333 mhz and have been adjusted to about 222.  While the Nintendo DS also uses a lot of battery power, it is generally believed to be less, and the DS replacement batteries are also priced lower than the Sony PSP's.

While the Sony PSP might be the better product in technology, the Nintendo DS is a definite consideration if price and battery power (which also relates to continuing prices) is a major factor.