PSP evolution: Samsung indicate possible 60GB Hard drive for the Sony portable.

Mike Bantick
Saturday, 30 December 2006 06:35

Opinion and Analysis

It has been talked about for as long as the PlayStation Portable has been available.  Is it now likely that the second incarnation of the PSP will include hard drive storage at long last?

Over at Engadget they, like me, are trying to decipher an announcement from electronics manufacturer Samsung around their new N-Series 1.8 inch Hard drives.

It seems that the new 60GB drive is just right for watching movies on your PSP, boasting capacity to hold 60 movies of 135 minutes each.

To be honest - this would be the PSP I have been waiting for.  With the death of Universal Media Disc (UMD) as a movie format - not due to the format, but mostly due to movie studio politics and greed - the PSP has struggled to flaunt its most valuable feature, the excellent viewing screen.

When it comes to viewing media, the PSP has a visceral impact that is currently hard to competitively match.  The big downfall though, was getting content to the screen. Memory Stick Duo is a wonderful storage medium for such gadgets as digital cameras, but for a multi-media device it struggles.

There have been some third party add on drives that boast a significant capacity (4GB) at a reasonable price compared to equivalent Memory stick configurations.  But if these 60GB rumours were true, it would give the PSP a fantastic shot in the arm for Sony.

Of course the omnipresent question of price for such a device is also left un-answered at this point.

We await comment by Sony