PC Mag pits DS Lite against PSP in LCD tussle

While most folks' personal opinions on handheld consoles are likely too entrenched by now to be swayed by something like an in-depth LCD comparison, it is still a somewhat notable exercise, you know, in the interest of history and all. PC Mag apparently thinks so too, enlisting the help of display expert Ray Soneira from DisplayMate Technologies to pick the the two displays apart pixel by pixel. In the end, the PSP's widescreen display came out on top, but only just, beating the DS in DPI, viewing angle, and picture contrast, while Nintendo's screen double-team topped the PSP in brightness and color gamut. What's more, Soneira says that the both displays could perform even better with the proper firmware tweaks. Now that's the kind of firmware update we'd welcome.

[Via PSP Fanboy]

[Matt @ Oct 27th 2006 8:08AM]

The first comparison calls the PSP superior. In the second, the DS is stated as superior in brightness and of course they give it due credit: "Clearly, Nintendo wants to destroy your eyes faster than Sony."

I don't own either, I just think it's bullsh*t to throw stuff like that into a "comparison" at least call it a "biased comparison".... I learned more from the comments than from the article!

[Mrfreezie @ Oct 27th 2006 8:30AM]

Fanboys, I choose you! Use flame attack!

[Scott @ Oct 27th 2006 9:00AM]

Face it, Sony had something good, (potentially great) and they INTENTIONALLY crippled it. When will they learn that this proprietary bull*hit only hurts them. If they ripped out the UMD, replaced it with a hard drive, SD instead of MemoryStick, and encouraged development with an SDK then this thing (still)could be HUGE!! They might even be able to pull this off in time for Christmas sales. I'm sure a version like this exists in one of thier labs anyways.

All they have to do is embrace their users rather than treating them like they are they enemy.

In recent news... "Sony posts a 94% drop in profits" Gee, wonder why? Innovation is great but it costs alot of money and unless there is some sort of monopoly it takes a VERY long time to recoup the losses. They may have great technology but Sony needs to realize that people HAVE other choices.

[Jordan @ Oct 27th 2006 9:11AM]

Scott - Not that I don't agree with your comments about Sony, I absolutely do, however I think that their 94% drop in profits could be due to replacing 10 million+ defective batteries.. ;)

[Mr_Fantastic @ Oct 27th 2006 9:13AM]

what a waste of all our time. does this idiot real think that we didnt know the psp screen was better than the ds screen. honestly some people realy do have too much time on their hands.

[James @ Oct 27th 2006 9:18AM]

I hope to god we don't see arguments from fanboys consisting of
"TEH PSP IS BETTR CUSE IT HAS 0.45% BETTER DIPLAY CONTRST!!1!1"
"NO WAY DS BTTER CUS IT IS BRIGHTR WITH BTTR GAMUT COLOUR!!11!!1"

[Scott Culp @ Oct 27th 2006 9:19AM]

I know, I got on a rant and the 94% thing...well it just slipped. Hehehe The battery situation is very unfortunate. Couldn't have come at a worse time.

It just frustrates me that Sony appears to be repeating the same mistakes over and over again. It's like they live in their own little bubble and it looks like they are doomed to go down the same road with Bluray and the PS3.

[James @ Oct 27th 2006 9:35AM]

you people complaining about people complaining about fanboys are just as bad as them. get a fucking life.

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Oct 27th 2006 9:48AM]

Haven't seen PSP, but As DS owner can say that see no problems with DS' two LCDs.

Let's face it: on such small screen you are not into much of details. Details, contrast and gamut - are all more relevant for static pictures. When paying games I barely pay any attention.

And also can add that second screen on DS is good for interplaying things: scores, setup, etc - but really play any role in games. (Most games do not use touch screen.)

[starpause @ Oct 27th 2006 10:36AM]

i would have liked to see a gp2x mk2 in the fray, THAT would have been an interesting shoot out!

[Jdrames @ Oct 27th 2006 12:47PM]

I would like to see the Sega Gamegear in the mix.. Now that was a cool little(huge) device.

[MC @ Oct 27th 2006 12:51PM]

"you people complaining about people complaining about fanboys are just as bad as them. get a fucking life."

haha

[mathew @ Oct 27th 2006 1:31PM]

"Most games do not use touch screen" -- Say what?

I have 5 DS games, and they all make extensive use of the touch screen. Maybe there are tons of crappy games that don't?

Also, is this the dumbest idea of a shootout ever? I mean, does anyone actually pick a portable device based on the screen rather than on the software available?

[aws910 @ Oct 27th 2006 1:53PM]

I gotta second the GP2X request. If I were in the portable game/video player market, I'd buy one of these hands-down. I'd also like to see how the VGA screens on the Dell Axim and i-Mate JasJar stack up.

[Jeff Minter @ Oct 27th 2006 3:01PM]

An Atari Lynx;
Now that would give these two handhelds a run for their money!

[Scott Culp @ Oct 27th 2006 9:17PM]

Uhmmm...THE Jeff minter???

[T.H. @ Oct 28th 2006 1:23AM]

Fanboys suck. And that's putting it mildly. Why do people rant against fanboys? Because when someone is trying to have an intelligent conversation they get kinda PO'ed if half of the posts are insults and rantings from a fanboy.

I don't care how technologically the PSP is superior to the DS. I find DS games are, on average, more fun even if they could look a tad better. But this is more a technological problem and can't be changed. What the PSP can change is the games, though some that make use of the DS's touchscreen of course can't be duplicated. There are indeed some games that make excellent use of the touchscreen (Trauma Center, Feel the Magic, Wario Ware Touched, Metroid Prime Hunters). However, I do not feel that every game needs to make use of the touchscreen though all games should make good use of the dual screens.

Now, the PSP does have a few very good games but these are far and few. In the end, it's all about the games and even the PS3 will fail if all that's produced for it is average games without enough gems thrown in.

[SOyuncastor @ Oct 28th 2006 9:31AM]

not to be a fan boy but it seems the psp is at most at the 2nd level of brightness... Im thinking it was considered into the study how much bright the systems delivers at a predetermined electric consumption. I'm going to take a dive in this theory and saying that at 5V demanding less than 500mA the Nintendo DS clearly has the best bright-electric_demand-cost

anyone thinks the same?