Sony’s first PlayStation Portable PSP handheld gaming console was first announced at E3 way back in 2003 and first arrived in UK stores in September 2005.

Fast forward four and a bit years and Sony has finally released a pocket-sized version of the PSP, dropping the hugely unpopular Universal Media Disc (UMD) format in favour of digital downloads via its online store.

The PSP was Sony’s attempt to capitalise on the massive popularity of its PlayStation 2 while moving across into a new market – and one that was pretty much owned by its number one competitor in the gaming space, Nintendo.

And while it’s easy with the benefit of hindsight to say that Nintendo’s ‘disruptive’ strategy with its lower-cost, dual touch-screen device has proven to be far more popular than Sony’s notably higher-spec and costlier option, the truth is that Sony has still managed to carve out a significant market for itself with the sleeker, faster and sexier PSP.

Perhaps the major problem with both the original models of the PSP, as well as pretty much all of Nintendo’s various iterations of the DS in the last five years (including the latest DSi refresh), has been that while they can properly be described as portable handheld consoles, they couldn’t really be described as truly ‘pocket friendly’.

Unless you favour cargo pants with immense-O-pocket styling.

Until now, that is, because the most immediate benefit of Sony’s PSP Go is the fact that it’s tiny enough to easily fit into the pocket of a loose-fitting pair of.

by Adam Hartley – TechRadar