The PSP Go has finally arrived. The much awaited and anticipated installment in the lineage of the best selling portable gaming devices is not complete gold. And we are here to tell you why.

First of all, we don’t mean to completely knock the newly designed PSP Go. There were definitely a few features that excited us, while others we were a bit disappointed about. First of all, with PSP Bundle Packs at $199, we are  a bit disappointed to see the PSP Go retail at $249. We understand that Sony is probably trying to push as many units out as high a price as possible, and then possible offer a price drop several months (Christmas?) down the road.

On a more positive note, the PSP Go has some pretty nice curves to it, and the sleek black design, as always, is very appealing to the eye. However this unit does measure a bit smaller than the traditional PSP models, with a .5″ smaller screen (from 4.3″ to 3.8″). The screen shrinkage kind of threw us off, as the original PSP Slim isn’t that large to begin with. Another big plus was the inclusion of a 16GB Memory Card which will definitely come in hand for downloading music, movies and playing games. The extra memory will be well needed, since the newly designed PSP Go does not use UMD discs! This was a heavy disappointment to us, as what are we suppose to do with our vast collection of UMD movies and games? Everything will now be downloaded via Sony’s online services. In any event, we see this as the future of video gaming. Eventually, all games may be downloaded via the Internet and there will no need to purchase discs anymore. But c’mon Sony, at least give us the option pre-2020! And oh yea, watch-out GameStop, don’t pull a Starbucks.

Another annoying thing we found on this new console was the placement of the buttons. We found the PSP Slim pretty apt for gaming, and by making the system even smaller, and moving the buttons to be even more centrally located, this doesn’t work out great for our brawny, manly hands. Nonetheless, there were other small additions such as bluetooth capabilities, a nicer TFT screen, and a 43% reduction in weight. Maybe we will even be able to tether our phones to our PSP Go via bluetooth? Sony – will this hold the future for the PSP Phone?

All in all, we truly hoped for a bit more, and the PSP Go is more like a PSP Slim+ although it is physically smaller. We hope that Sony will have a few better additions for the launch of the PSP2.  All the current features, plus re-adding UMD discs, a mobile phone, better controls, maybe even a second analog stick, and better placement of buttons, could ultimately lead to the PSP2 becoming the clear industry leader.