You know those complaints about the ugly, old-school looking interlacing lines that many (ourselves included) have reported seeing on the new PSP-3000? The specific issue has been uncovered -- but not by Sony. A group of concerned French gamers with a 40x microscope think it all comes down to that most mellow of colors: blue. LCDs are comprised of RGB pixels that, combined, form all the rainbow of hues in between. As you can see in the picture above, the PSP-2000's LCD (left) used pixels in a vertical orientation, and the blue pixels were fairly light in color. On the PSP-3000 (right), the pixels are now arranged horizontally, and the blue ones are far darker than before. The dark horizontal lines result in the heinous interlacing, an effect that any Command & Conquer player will tell you wasn't even cool in the 90's. Sony's already called this a "feature" and not a flaw, so if you absolutely must buy a PSP this holiday season the folks at Logic-Sunrise who took the above pics recommend you buy an older 2000-series -- while you still can.

[Thanks Pierce]

Hope all you would-be PSP buyers out there are into that PSP-3000 Ratchet & Clank Entertainment Pack that just went on sale a couple weeks ago, because it's going to be the only bundle available from here on out. That's the word straight from Sony, which says that "ongoing discussions" with retailers have led it to kill the previously-announced $169 4GB Memory PSP-3000 bundle in favor of offering a single SKU -- although the company helpfully points out that you can still score a 4GB PSP Memory Stick PRO Duo for an additional $45. Yeah, thanks for the tip, guys. The current Mystic Silver bundle will be joined by a Piano Black version sometime in December, so you're not totally limited option-wise, but we're not exactly pumped about throwing extra money at a game we don't necessarily want -- we'd happily drop the extra cash on a non-interlaced screen, however.

We first caught wind of a slightly revamped PSP months ago, and the long-awaited handheld -- complete with a new, fancier and in some cases more dreadful display -- finally hit US shelves this month. For those that picked one of these up and have spent some quality time digging into the latest firmware, how are you liking things? Particularly for those that upgraded, are you pleased with the new build? Are you being plagued with those mysterious screen problems features? Could you stand to see a few more things tweaked for the PSP-4000? We suspect there will be quite a few mixed messages flying in this one, so let's get those comments rolling.

Ruh roh. Seems that swanky new LCD on Sony's PSP-3000 could be garnering more complaints than anything else. If you'll recall, the aforesaid system was touted as having a brighter, better screen than the PSP-2000, but now the PlayStation forums are filling up with irate PSP-3000 buyers who are experiencing unexplained scanlines and totally peculiar interlacing problems. As you can see above, the 3000's screen looks noticeably worse than that of the 2000, and while we always hope that these issues are contained, we have at least one Engadget staffer and a Joystiq comrade who can attest to this being real. SCEA has been contacted and is currently "looking into" the matter -- we won't dare say that r-word just yet, but this doesn't look particularly good on the surface. We'll keep you posted.

[Via Joystiq]

Update: A Japanese Sony Computer Entertainment representative has informed us that the interlacing-like lines are just "features" of the new LCD, and currently, there are no plans to fix it with a future software update since it is in the hardware.

We know they're hitting the streets, and we've already seen some unboxing pics and a nasty gutting, but we felt we needed to give Sony's new PSP-3000 the proper Engadget treatment. As you can tell by the photos, there's not much new here, though as you should know, the guts are where it's all going down (new screen, built-in microphone). Still it never hurts to take a close look at a shiny new toy... so enjoy yourselves in the gallery.

Now that the PSP-3000 (or PSP Brite, as our Joystiq friends like to call it) has hit the streets, it was only natural for its innards to be splayed for all the world to see -- it's all part of the circle of life, or some similarly cliche lyric. We wouldn't really know where to begin running through these parts and figuring out what's new, but Impress Watch says it's pretty much the LCD getting all the love here, and that otherwise they're seeing way fewer internal changes than they saw when Sony released the PSP-2000. Sounds about right to us, but we're really just in it for the senseless violence of it all.

[Via PSP Fanboy]

Given that a PSP-3000 Ratchet & Clank Entertainment Pack managed to sneak out a few days back (and, you know, being that today's the official launch day and all), you shouldn't be too floored to hear that the altogether brighter PlayStation Portable is now available across North America. 'Course, you'll have to fork over $199.99 for the aforementioned bundle if you want it today -- the less-frills black PSP-3000 kit (with just a 4GB Memory Stick) should be around next month.

Due to be launched next Tuesday, the PSP-3000 Ratchet & Clank Entertainment Pack has managed to slip into at least one Best Buy a few days early, where it was quickly snatched up by friendly tipster Aaron G. He sent us a few unboxing shots out of the kindness of his heart, and now he's undoubtedly too engrossed in National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets and that ultra-bright screen to pay us much heed. Oh Nicolas Cage, what a charmer you are.

We're not sure which part of "you can buy a new, larger battery from Sony to extend your gaming time" John Koller didn't mean, but evidently we (read: the world) had it all wrong. In a recent posting from the Director, he "clarifies" things by asserting that "the new PSP will have equivalent battery life to the current PSP, about 4 to 6 hours for games and about 4 to 5 hours for UMD videos." He continues on to affirm that the new, brighter and altogether lovelier display does suck down more power, but Sony's dutiful engineers apparently managed to "reduce the power consumption of the overall system" in order to counteract that. At this point, we'll just wait for real world battery tests before believing anything.

[Via Joystiq]

According to a GameSpot interview with Sony's US director of hardware marketing John Koller, that new PSP-3000 screen may look a bit better... but it's going to cost you about 20 minutes of battery life. Luckily for you gamers with endless pockets out there, Koller assures that minor wrinkle will be offset because, "We're going to have the extended life battery that's still available for consumers, so we're still going to get the eight-to-ten hours out of that battery." So just to make that clear, the regular battery life will be diminished, but you can buy a new, larger battery from Sony to extend your gaming time. Got that? Good. Watch him say it for real in the video after the break.

[Via T3]

Looks like Sony wasn't foolin' when it said that the new PSP-3000 has a noticeably improved screen from the PSP-2000 -- check out this comparison shot of the new rig vs. the old. Man, our first-gen unit is starting to look like a real clunker -- anyone else feeling the need to upgrade?

[Via PSP Fanboy ]

Don't want to blow any minds here, but Sony's new and improved PSP-3000 LCD happens to actually be new and improved. According to our bestest pals over at Engadget Japan, the new screen has double the color gamut, about five times the contrast ratio and double the response time. PSP-3000... will you marry us?

[Via PSP Fanboy]

It's not like Sony could really keep this thing under wraps for much longer, but the company finally did the deed by announcing the PSP-3000 at the Leipzig Games Convention. The unit itself will look exactly like the PSP-2000, though it will feature an "improved screen that's better outside with no glare and a built-in mic." The juicy tidbits have yet to surface, but we are told to expect the new handheld in Europe for €199 ($291) on October 15th.