PSP World

PSP and DSi Feature Comparison

When the Nintendo DSi launches in the United States on April 5th, it will come with a hefty price tag of $170. Sony PSP fans will notice that this puts the Nintendo handheld at exactly the same price point as the PSP 3000 core pack, which currently retails for $169.99 in the United States. Excitement for the DS successor couldn't be any higher as we wait for it to arrive, but does the DSi offer value at its current price? To find out, we compare the features in both the Sony PSP 3000 and Nintendo DSi right out of the box.

What’s in the box?

The new Nintendo DSi will come with some extra value items right out of the box, but it won’t have everything you need to fully enjoy the handheld. Bundled with the DSi in America will be the console itself, a power connector, a slightly longer stylus, and manual. Strangely absent are the headphones that came with our original DS Lite. The system will also come with more powerful on-board software that provides some cool multimedia functionality, discussed below.

The Nintendo DSi comes with 256 MB of internal storage, but you will probably need to buy a high capacity SD card if you want to take advantage of all of the great paid content that will be available over the Nintendo DS WiFi store. Also, the DSi will not come with a case of any kind, owing to its protective clamshell design. Still, for all that money we wish that Nintendo would provide more in the way of accessories right out of the box … heck, even a wrist strap would provide one additional bullet point on lists like these. The $170 PSP 3000 core pack comes with the console, power cord, and onboard software, but similarly lacks a case or headphones.

Multimedia Functionality

The DSi upgrades Nintendo’s handheld multimedia capabilities, and puts it on par with the PSP in some areas. Firstly, the system now includes a fully featured music player that supports the MP3 format and can play songlists from any SD card. The DSi also comes with on-board music visualization software with 14 different patterns, and a nifty but not particularly useful pitch manipulation feature.

The biggest new feature on the DSi is, without a doubt, the inclusion of two cameras. One 0.3 megapixel lens points away from the user, while another 0.3 megapixel camera points at the player. Onboard software allows users to capture, edit, and manipulate still photos and video clips, which can be saved on the SD card. However, the resulting resolution is so low (500x500 pixels) that few users will want to do anything other than play with images on their handheld. Still, Nintendo definitely has Sony beat when it comes to image editing software, since the 3 megapixel PSP camera is not available in America, and costs approximately $99 to import.

The DSi also comes with an on-board internet browser, but so far users have complained that it is slow and lacks necessary features like Java and Flash support.

Games Library

By far the most important feature of any handheld gaming system is its library of titles. The DSi shows a lot of promise, since it follows on the coattails of one of the most beloved handhelds in history, which already boasts an impressive back catalogue of more than 1000 titles. For the moment, however, there do not appear to be any games that take advantage of the new features of the DSi. With so many old DS Lites in hands around the world, few publishers are willing to take the risk of creating a DSi exclusive. Based on the popularity of Nintendo consoles, however, we are certain that they will come eventually, and you will want them.

Right now the PSP is going through a bit of a slump when it comes to game releases, but there are some fantastic titles coming up in the next 6 months that are definitely going to be worth a look: Resistance Retribution, Loco Roco 2, Patapon 2, and Phantasy Star Portable are among the titles to keep an eye out for. You can read our full preview of upcoming PSP games for 2009 here.

Our Verdict

It is hard to pretend that we are unbiased with a name like “PSP World”, but our honest opinion is that the Nintendo DSi is simply not worth the exorbitant price tag it commands at launch. We contend that prices have been artificially driven up by the weak Japanese Yen and the massive hype for all things Nintendo here in the States. We think that many new converts will find the DSi to be little more than a cosmetic upgrade to the DS Lite until several months from now when actual titles start to arrive. Our advice is to hold off on buying one until the inevitable price drop comes or an exclusive game catches your eye. For the moment, few handheld devices can match the value of the PSP.