Giant Bomb Video Game News

Remember how sleek and sexy the PSP looked when it first came out over three years ago? Lots of tech, tiny package! Over time, though, the PSP appeared to be putting on a few pounds as smaller, lither pieces of portable electronics hit the market. It started to feel a little clunky, really. And that matte plastic finish? So gauche. So I was stoked when Sony rolled out the more compact PSP-2000 late in 2007, making the thing lighter, thinner, and shinier, and improving the screen and face controls to boot.

Having just bought a 2000 earlier this year, I was understandably less stoked when Sony unveiled yet another revision just a few months later. Two new hardware versions in one year?

Turns out, I'm glad I stuck with the 2000, as a bunch of unhappy posters over at the official PlayStation forums have discovered an unpleasant issue with the new PSP-3000's brighter, more colorful screen that makes scanlines glaringly obvious on fast-moving images. User xythen put together a quick comparison image which I have stolen, below.

















Yikes. Yesterday PSP Fanboy got a response out of SCE America that the issue is here to stay.

On some occasions, scan lines may appear on scenes where brightness changes drastically, due to the hardware features of the new LCD device on PSP-3000. Installed with this new LCD device, PSP-3000 offers more natural and vibrant colors on its screen, but the scan lines have come out to be more visible as a result of improving response time to alleviate the afterimages on PSP-3000. Since this is due to hardware specification, there are no plans for a system software update concerning this issue.

That one photo isn't exactly conclusive proof that the 3000's screen totally sucks, but you should probably get your hands on a demo unit and try it for yourself before you pick one up. The flaw doesn't seem to have stopped many consumers in Japan, 140,000 of whom are now enjoying Monster Hunter on the new PSP. But since the improved screen was the biggest selling point of the 3000 (the only other one being an integrated microphone), this might make you want to seek out one of the remaining 2000-model units before they disappear from stores completely.