- This, my friends,
is every single Sony PlayStation handheld of all time,
starting with the PocketStation.
Now, this might not seem like a true
handheld Sony PlayStation,
but I can fit it in my hand and it's got a PlayStation logo,
so therefore I submit that it counts.
Now, unlike the PSPs and Vitas
that we're gonna be talking about very shortly,
this was from an earlier time,
back when this thing called the PlayStation 1 existed.
- [Jared] So it only existed in Japan,
and they originally planned to release it in other markets,
but it became so popular in Japan
that they couldn't even keep up with demand.
- Can I just point out that their mascot
was clearly rendered on a PS1.
His textures are not matched correctly.
He's a little warpy and weird.
- [Jared] Aw, you keep saying he.
That's not just anybody.
That is actually Sony's mascot Toro.
- Toro.
- [Jared] And his debut was on the pocket station.
- And that was his demise to him.
- [Jared] Apparently, I don't really hear
about him now.
- Oh, it's so cute!
So outside the actual pocket station itself,
we've got ourselves a lanyard.
You know what?
Before we did this video, I had no idea that this existed.
If you wanna take your PocketStation with you on the go,
sounds pretty portable to me.
Oh, look at this.
Even the little watch battery has a PlayStation logo on it.
See, this has all my favorite things.
PSness.
- [Jared] Okay, okay.
- [Joanna] No, video's over.
- [Jared] We're not even at the PSPs.
- Is that a PlayStation logo burned into the screen?
That seems less than ideal.
So we've got ourselves looks like an A button.
We've got four little D-pad buttons here,
and then we've got a speaker, the battery.
So you can plug in your PocketStation directly to your PS1,
and that allows you to have a wide variety
of different saves and whatnot
dropped onto your memory card.
On top of that, some of them would give you
some very interesting little bits and bobs
of information on your screen.
I don't know how to use it, though.
- Oh good Lord.
- [Jared] Oh, I don't think
that was supposed to come off.
Did you, why, you immediately broke it!
- Anyway, I fixed it.
(both laughing)
Now, when you say-
- [Woman] PlayStation.
- Handheld, the thing that I think is gonna come to mind
for most people, is the PlayStation Portable.
2005 was a magnificent year.
Not counting the PocketStation,
this was the very first Sony PlayStation Portable.
Nintendo dominated the market.
So what Sony did, was they came in
and they threw their biggest advantages at it.
This PSP was astronomically more powerful than the Game Boy,
and even the DS.
It had a beautiful 16 by 9,
272P resolution screen, full color.
Nothing against the DS, obviously it sold tremendously well,
there are a lot of great games I love on the DS.
But if you were a real gamer in 2005, you wanted a PSP.
Now, unlike the puny cartridges of a Nintendo console,
instead you had the beauty of the universal media disc.
The one thing that this really missed on,
was it didn't have dual analog sticks.
Instead, it had a single little nub,
which definitely meant that you were a little bit limited
when it came to certain types of games,
like First-Person shooters, and even some racing games.
This also had tons of other cool features.
You had an internet browser.
And believe me when I say, having a portable device
that I could bring my bedroom and use the internet on
was really great for 13-year-old Austin.
I was super excited.
I mean, look, how else would I view YouTube
and Wikipedia and other kinds of wholesome media sources.
- [Jared] Yep, uh-huh.
- Now there were certainly some downsides.
Sony in all of their infinite wisdom,
love some proprietary bull (censored) media.
And oh, and oh boy.
And oh boy, did they love Memory Stick Pro Duo.
So the UMDs were obviously proprietary,
but also the media was too.
And I'll tell you a one gig media stick,
I wanna say I paid like 80 bucks for it or something.
It was so expensive.
But it was important
because the PSP also had PlayStation store.
You could actually download games on your PSP.
Should we go down memory lane together
and experience some PSness together?
- [Joanna] Oh.
- [Jared] Never heard my DS make that sound.
(all laughing)
- Do you actually know how big UMD was?
I don't know.
- [Jared] So it can hold up to 1.8 Gigabytes.
- That's a lot of data, right?
I mean that's denser than like a DVD of the time.
'Cause DVD is way bigger
and can only hold like 4.7 gigs.
Yes, there were trade offs with UMD,
but the thing was Sony did a really good job.
Things like skipping and whatnot was very rarely an issue.
And while it did make it a little vibrating,
and I will certainly say it impacted battery life.
But gotta consider it's 2005.
So let's play some Blazin' Trails.
All right, wow these graphics look great.
Listen to that beautiful audio,
and that sub 30 frames per second.
While not a perfect start, this was a huge win for Sony.
And really their best shot
at trying to take on Nintendo's absolute dominance
in handhelds, but they did not stop with the PSP 1000.
Oh no, the PSness continued for many years to come.
- [Jared] This is ridiculous.
- No more PSness.
I apologize, okay.
- [Jared] Hey, you know what?
- I said it enough times,
it sounds a little sus now, I'm sorry.
We'll move on to the PSP 2000 yet now.
Now this my friends is the PlayStation Portable 2000,
which came out a little over two years
after the original model.
I mean, in some ways it was a classic Slim model.
It also was significantly lighter.
I mean, you put these two side by side,
I mean it feels like it's significantly less.
But also as a traditional Slim model,
they removed some features.
So things like the IR Blaster is gone,
but they did add some cool features.
So while it still has both the mini-USB,
as well as it's got the little like barrel plug
that you can charge it with,
this also supported charging via mini-USB.
Now this was also a more powerful version of the PSP.
So we had double the ram, It went from 32 to 64 megabytes.
And it also had more internal storage.
And by this point, they had also unlocked that CPU,
So was always running at that much higher frequency.
On top of that this had, a smaller battery.
What?
- [Jared] Just to be clear though,
although the battery is smaller,
due to efficiency increases,
it actually will have the same battery life as the original.
- One of the things I miss most about the PSP 1000.
So you pop the UMD here, listen to this.
(UMD clicking)
Solid, chunky, satisfying.
I'm doing the same thing on the PSP 2000.
(UMD clicking)
(image shouting)
It was no longer spring-loaded.
It's just this little like door.
It worked totally fine,
but it also didn't quite feel as hefty.
The PSP 2000 though did add one very important feature,
the ability to run video out.
Now mind you, you had to get like a really specific cable
that was proprietary, surprise, surprise.
But you actually had the ability to take your PSP 2000
and run it up to your TV.
Wow, I totally was ready for that.
This is said really weird connector.
So you plug it in here,
and then you can connect it
to your fancy high definition television,
and get your 277P output from it.
This was the Switch before it was cool.
Like see this on your DS.
The PSP, the original, like it's got like the little
like slightly kind of scooped grips on it,
and that extra kind of weight and stuff to me feels good.
Mind you, I'm biased.
This, because it's so thin
like there's nothing really for you to grab on.
Feels significantly less comfortable for me.
Like I almost have to like grab it with my middle fingers,
which it supports, but it's fine.
The original PSP just felt better.
This just feels a little too light, a little too cheap.
I mean, look, this thing looks terrific.
Now mind you,
the screen doesn't really hold up all that well,
but the fact that this was running on portable hardware
in the year 2008, mobile games at the time were laughable
in comparison to what you get with the PSP.
And mind you, this was the PSP 2000.
This has already been around for a couple of years
at this point.
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Moving on, we have the PSP 3000,
which I have a boxed copy that I actually purchased
when it was still new in the store.
And I'm not gonna open it, 'cause I'm gonna save it
for a special occasion.
But I have a already opened PSP 3000 here.
Now this actually came out only about a year
after the PSP 2000, and the main upgrade was the display.
So in some markets, this is actually called the PSP Bright,
but regardless, you'll see the screen is a whole lot,
wow, that's literally two seconds and you can see,
this had basically all the features you'd want.
And I would say if you're gonna play a PSP today,
this is probably the one you wanna get.
I still prefer how comfortable the 1000 is.
Look, the screen alone on the 3000
really does make a tremendous difference.
And especially once you got
into some of the later model games like Gran Turismo,
you kind of needed that extra ram,
otherwise the load times were incredibly slow.
About to win this race.
Everyone wanna watch me win a race?
Look at that, look at that.
That's what I call skill.
- Mario Kart's looking really weird.
- Can you go back to your corner?
- I'm sorry, did you, you're forgetting a console.
- Oh, oh Jared, you're totally right.
This stupid (censored) existed.
Oh, I totally forgot.
This is the PSP Street.
The reason I forgot about it
was because this was an ultra-budget version of the PSP
that was never launched in the US, I don't think, right?
- [Jared] No, this was only launched in in PAL regions.
- PAL.
- [Jared] This wasn't even in Japan.
- Who wants to live in a PAL region?
50 hertz, get outta here.
- [Jared] As your subscriber count drops by half.
- Wait, can you watch my videos in PAL regions?
- [Jared] What do you think you're just banned-
- Boy oh boy, Europe, you all are great.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Jared] Here, here, do one
for all the British people out there.
- Hallo.
- [Jared] (laughing) For some reason
that was the most offensive one.
(both laughing)
- The PSP Street, it was for the cool kids
who didn't need those extra features like wifi
or a microphone.
The cost cutting was all over the place.
I mean, single mono speaker.
You didn't even have the video out.
You only had the headphone jack.
All the buttons and switches feel worse.
I mean, look at this.
So compared to the PSP 1000,
which has all these very fantastic tactile buttons,
you had all these shortcuts.
This has like touch sensitive nonsense.
Select start, that's it.
I mean, uck, ehhh.
This was like, oh we're gonna just use
the last few sales outta PSP.
- [Jared] Let's go.
- Let's go with the PSP Go.
The PSP Go launched in 2009.
This was the world's first fully digital console.
Maybe there's some weird obscure thing before it,
but certainly the first completely mainstream console.
Now the other thing is, as you can see,
especially compared to the 1000, wildly smaller.
I mean literally in every possible way
because it had that sweet sidekick action
where you could just pull it out,
and then you would have not only
your literally kind of small buttons,
but also you have your very small level nubbin.
This was not wildly successful.
Now there are certainly some downsides
to shrinking the PSP so much to create the Go.
It had a smaller 3.8 display,
which admittedly was the same resolution,
so it was a little sharper.
But everything certainly looks a little bit small on here,
a little crunchy, especially with big boy hands.
You got a like kinda little that twisty action.
Look at it compared to like a phone of today, right?
I mean you can just see just how tiny this thing truly was.
I mean this is a small Pixel 7, right?
It's not even like one of the big chunkiest phones.
But the fact that entire relied on digital games
meant that while Sony were living in the future,
sadly that future has passed,
'cause the PSP store no longer with us.
I don't think there are any games on this, right?
- [Jared] There are.
- Are there?
- [Jared] This is just
what you had already downloaded on it.
But there are games.
- I'm glad that out of all the games lost to time,
this is the one that was saved.
Honestly, this actually looks pretty good.
Mostly because the art style
very much kinda leans into the PSP aesthetic.
And sadly while this console is basically no longer with us,
'cause you can't do anything.
It really set the foundation for the next generation,
the PlayStation Life.
- [Jared] You're missing one.
You're not forgetting any consoles,
but you are forgetting a phone.
- Oooh, the Xperia Play.
This my friends, is the PlayStation phone.
No, not your stupid batphone or your Galaxy S22 Ultra
with a controller or whatever nonsense, no, no, no.
The Xperia Play is a device that I actually made videos on
back in the day.
'Cause this was an Android powered device
that actually was really designed for gaming.
So not only do you have, so your shoulder buttons,
but you actually have a full slide out range of controls,
including two little touch pads.
This had the full back compatibility
with PlayStation 1 games.
And they really kind of marketed this as a phone
that you could actually buy games
that were specifically designed for it.
Now, as you may have guessed, 2011 and Android,
not a great combination when it comes to gaming,
which was part of the reason why most of these games
were kind of bad.
But you know what I could do?
I could play the Sims 3.
while not really supported anymore, since it's Android,
you actually can still like download stuff on and side load.
This was a proper gaming phone
way before there was the RAZR phone or the ROG phone.
And it had Sony's backing, problem though,
was that no one really bought it.
Behold the glory, magnificence, and wonder
of what I can honestly say is the best PlayStation,
portable handheld they ever made.
The PS Vita 1000, this had so much.
So keep in mind
that we're coming from the PSP and the PSP Go,
and obviously they made a wide variety
of these things, right?
But they threw it all in the garbage
and instead started fresh with the PS Vita.
First of all, significantly more powerful.
It also had significantly better graphics
and had a much better display.
So I'm gonna fire this thing up.
Behold, my friends, touch.
The Vita had a wild interface.
What this really did was bring the PlayStation portable
into the 2010, 2011 era.
The competition was almost less.
So things like the DS and the 3DS,
and almost more so than the devices in your pocket,
which spoil alert,
ultimately ended up winning over the Vita.
Some of the things this had a 544P display,
there was OLED.
And while this OLED might not match up
to the OLED that's probably on the phone
you're watching this video on right now.
For 2011, the screen was phenomenal.
The Vita really had a major emphasis
on the idea of being an online console.
Yes, the PSP had online games, you could download them,
you could play them against other people,
but the Vita took it up a notch.
Not only did it have terrific support
with not only the PS3 and the PS4,
including things like remote play.
But on top of that with the 3G model, that was an option,
You actually could play completely remotely.
On top of that, you also had a camera on the back.
You have a camera on the front.
Dual analog sticks.
Yeah, my friends dual, count 'em, not one nub, two.
The PS Vita also dropped the UMD
in favor of the much more modern PS Vita to Game Cards,
which are pretty much
exactly what you have on the Switch today.
And on top of that, they ditched the memory stick,
mini micro, Duo Pro- - Oh, so they switched it
to microSD card?
- Exactly.
Except proprietary PS Vita memory cards
that cost a hundred dollars.
- [Jared] But they at least put storage on it
so that you don't have to buy.
- No, you had to buy one pretty much.
But it's fine because Sony loves and cares about us
and delivered a terrific, a terrific experience.
Not to spoil some of the other things that are coming up,
but this was by far the best model,
because when they brought this out, it was expensive,
but it was worth it.
But you know, what I can do,
I could play one of the most unique games
that ever hit the Vita, which is Tearaway.
Tearaway is a game that does a great job
of showing off just how terrific this display looks today.
It also uses not only the touchscreen,
but also the rear touch pad.
And look, you also have gyro controls.
You have pretty much everything you could need.
And games like Tearaway did a terrific job
of showing off not only the gameplay,
but also this terrific OLED display.
Alas, this is where the Vita
started to take a little bit of a darker turn,
because while the hardware was terrific, the graphics,
pretty much everything was great about the PS Vita.
It was launching at a time
in which more and more people
were gaming on their phones, or buying a 3DS
for the very many Nintendo exclusives
like Mario Kart and Mario Kart again,
and Zelda and Mario Kart and Pokemon,
- [Jared] And Mario Party.
- And Mario Party, which meant that Sony had to get creative
because while the Vita was terrific,
and again a phenomenal piece of hardware,
it was expensive, and it did not
immediately have that same kind of explosive growth
that the wide variety of PSPs did.
Which meant that they had to think a little bit
outside the box, the PlayStation TV box.
Okay, you hit my PSP 1000, I'm upset.
The PlayStation TV, not to be confused
with the PlayStation TV that they launched,
that was a TV with the PS2 built in, only in Japan,
because that was a really weird specific thing.
Or, as Jared sprints and Naruto runs over
to pick up our PlayStation 3D TV,
which is a very different device.
No, this is the PS Vita TV.
And America's PlayStation TV in most places,
this was just called the Vita TV.
So what Sony did was they took all the guts of a PS Vita,
instead shipped you a PlayStation 3 controller
and a little tiny box that is all the way in the bottom.
This my friends, is the PlayStation TV,
and it's about as simple as it gets.
So around back you had a few ports, including your power.
It was kind of a micro console before micro consoles
ever really took off, even though they never really did.
With this, you could play almost every PS Vita game.
- [Jared] Aaah.
- And by extension, I said almost, I'm getting to that.
By extension, you could play a lot of PS1 games,
as well as PSP games,
because most of those were available digitally.
The touch capabilities were not available on the Vita,
which meant that any game that required a touchscreen,
either didn't work, or straight up wouldn't even launch
on the PlayStation TV.
So as you can see,
once you actually get the PS TV up and running,
it does support 720P.
And while most Vita games don't look amazing on a display,
you know they're meant to be played on a four-inch
or five- inch ,or whatever size that handheld display is.
But you'll see that a lot of games work fine.
The problem though is that the unsupported titles
are quite extensive.
But this is technically a handheld, adjacent ish.
This is not, this is very much not good.
The thing was the PS TV,
while not quite as powerful as something like the PS3,
it had some performance.
And the thing is, the Vita
really had its sort of best life cycle
with a lot of JRPGs and games.
Because in Japan, this was tremendously popular
for many years, up to the point
where it only really got discontinued
a few years ago, at this point.
Whereas I think in the US,
they stopped selling the PS Vita and the TV like 2017
or something, like was a long time ago.
Fast forward to 2014,
we've got the one and only true hardware revision,
which is the PS Vita 2000.
The 2000 was a, I'll say a better looking console.
It was certainly slimmer,
but also it lacked some features.
Most notably, it dropped this beautiful OLED display
for a okay screen at best.
The smaller size does make a bigger difference.
And I do really like, especially this blue, right?
This looks, I think terrific.
So instead of that proprietary connector,
they did bring in micro USB.
You'd also had a little bit of more storage.
So I believe that's had 1 Gig of internal storage,
not enough to really install games,
but at least you didn't absolutely need
one of those expensive Vita memory cards.
The thing was though, it's very plasticy,
it's very cheap.
It also lost the 3G model.
But you could tell this is Sony saying,
"Hey, the Vita still exists, please play me."
This is Borderlands 2.
First of all, that's a solid 13 frames per second.
Now Borderlands is certainly a very stylized game,
but this looks and runs absolutely terrible.
This is so impossible to control.
It feels like there's like a half second of lag between it.
Look at this.
And mind you, this was after I think,
like three updates to improve performance.
On top of that, if you wanted to say,
I don't know, turn up the brightness of the display.
Certain games such as Borderlands took up too much power.
The Vita wouldn't handle it.
It literally will not let me max out the brightness
because it's already running it a 100 percent.
Just look at them side by side.
The bezels, the thinness,
it was a pretty significant step up.
But keep in mind, that this is three years later,
and at this point, the Vita's still alive,
but it's approaching life support.
This is sadly the last Sony portable console
that they have ever made.
Sony treated the Vita like they had treated the PSP,
stuck in the old ways, focusing on it being a console
in a world that was quickly becoming dominated
by smartphone gaming.
They had so many things going for them,
it felt like they gave up on it exactly the wrong time.
And guess who came along with what has ultimately turned out
to be probably one of the most popular portable consoles
of all time.
(sign snapping)
In just a few short years,
Nintendo was able to deliver a console,
which outperformed the Vita in performance,
in screen quality, in games, and in sales
in every possible way.
They spent all this time building up,
and if only they had given a little bit more of a try.
I truly believe that we would be playing our portable PS4,
the Vita 2.0, whatever they wanted to call it,
and it would be right up there with the Switch.
Well my friends, if we've learned anything today,
if you can't beat 'em, give up, and fail.
That's the Sony motto.
(car tires screeching)