PSP World

PSP Crystal Hard Case

Some ideas sound great on paper and then fail to impress when actually executed. Crystal Pepsi was a good example of this, and unfortunately, so is the PSP Crystal Hard Case. Like the previously reviewed PSP Charging Cradle, the PSP Crystal Hard Case comes in blister pack plastic packaging from the company “GameTop”. The Hard Case is easy enough to install, securing itself to the PSP via the two screw holes on the top of the PSP. Installing it has its drawbacks, however.

Once installed, the “case” feels secure on the PSP, but it doesn’t take long before problems begin to appear. When properly installed, the bottom of the plastic should line up with the bottom of the PSP, and it does so almost perfectly. Unfortunately, once installed the analog nub of the PSP becomes almost useless due to the opening for it being cut way too small, causing the nub to lose almost all of its downward and right motion.

Of course, the biggest feature of the Hard Case, in a literal sense, is the large “stick” which sits overtop of the d-pad in an effort to make the PSP work and feel more like a normal controller. This stick does its job admirably, that is until it falls off. During our testing the “stick” came off the PSP 3 times in 5 minutes, rendering the d-pad useless. Since we’ve already told you that the analog nub loses some of its useability from installing the case, when the “stick” falls off you had better be fast on the pause button. We found this situation to be completely unacceptable.

The buttons that cover the action buttons work great. They actually feel better than the stock PSP buttons, at least to us. We never had a problem with them getting stuck or falling off, which actually surprised us after the other problems we’d had with the product. Another selling point of the Hard Case is protection for your screen. It does protect the screen well on the outside — very well, in fact. Unfortunately the case isn’t snug enough on the PSP to keep all the small particles of dirt and the like from coming in through the top and bottom of the screen, meaning that a separate screen protector would still be necessary for complete prtection.

We don’t like giving products bad reviews. It’s not fun for us, and not something we ever go out of our way to do. That said, in our effort to provide our readers with the most accurate and meaningful product insights we can provide, it sort of comes with the territory. Unless you absolutely have to have every PSP accessory out there, or if you absolutely despise both the d-pad and the analog nub of the PSP, we don’t recommend picking up this product.