Gardiner Bryant

Why Everyone’s Picking Up a PSP Again in 2026

> Over the past few months, I've spotted something a little odd and unexpected happening to Sony's old PlayStation Portable. There's been no corporate push, no announcement of the truly portable Sony handheld we used to hope for (sorry, Portal). Instead, through something far less predictable, considering it's 2026, people are...

#Retrospectives #PSP #RetroGaming #BryantReview

https://gardinerbryant.com/psp-in-2026/?utm_campaign=widget&utm_source=mastodon

Why Everyone’s Picking Up a PSP Again in 2026

Over the past few months, I've spotted something a little odd and unexpected happening to Sony's old PlayStation Portable. There's been no corporate push, no announcement of the truly portable Sony handheld we used to hope for (sorry, Portal). Instead, through something far less predictable, considering it's 2026, people are

The Bryant Review
Mar 23 at 6:38pmWeb
Show threadThad4d ago
@gardiner_bryant I keep meaning to test my PSP against my Vita to see which one I should be playing PSP games on. The Vita does non-integer scaling on PSP games but I haven't done a side-by-side comparison to see how noticeable it is.
Show threadNazo4d ago

@Thad @gardiner_bryant I don't know since I don't have a Vita myself, but I can think of two factors that might make it not matter.

First, I can tell you from playing NDS games on the 3DS that it's honestly not that bad if you're not a bit obsessive about bit-exact rendering (some people legitimately are.) To be clear, I think the 3DS originally had bad scaling and I remember hearing a lot of that, but I think they fixed it with an update, so be careful if you search that.

The second thing is the PSP for reasons wildly unknowable to me used interlacing on the screen. It's a LCD, yet it did interlacing as if it was a CRT. I can't, for the life of me figure out why, but I always hated it. If the Vita doesn't do interlacing you're probably better off just by default...

Show threadThad4d ago
@nazokiyoubinbou I do find the fractional scaling noticeable on the 3DSXL, but that could be because it's an XL. @gardiner_bryant
Show threadNazo4d ago

@Thad @gardiner_bryant Yes that is because it is a XL. The DPI works out very badly on the XL/LL models. It looks fine on a normal sized 3DS.

I always found it a shame that the normal size was pretty much discontinued even in Japan long before the death of the 3DS. The normal model is smaller, lighter, has a better finish, and even looks nicer (except I guess shiny was in.) At that size, the DPI comes out pretty much ok.

I know people like that it's easier to see a XL/LL, but without more resolution that makes for very large individual pixels.

Show threadNazo4d ago

@gardiner_bryant This reminds me of how my biggest hope with the Switch was that it would basically just end up being a 3DS with games that didn't have to have SD characters and miniaturized worlds on principle. (That was one thing that bothered me about the 3DS. A lot of it wasn't hardware limitations. A lot of it was devs just seeing "Nintendo handheld" and dumbing stuff down on purpose on that principle alone.) I enjoyed the idea of the fact it could connect to a TV, but I wanted it to be primarily handheld. Yet in the end the Switch got bigger and bigger, heavier and heavier, and so much is being made so poorly optimized that even on the big screen (with the CPU, GPU, and RAM all going up) they still play badly.

The PSP found a right balance of quite a lot of things. I miss that

Show threadFratm4d ago
@gardiner_bryant I bought a psp a few years ago and jail broke it, now it runs emulators, it's a great portable gaming device now.
Show thread__ˣ𝙆𝙊𝙎𝘼𝙈𝘼ˣ__ 4d ago
@gardiner_bryant The easy to swap battery is also a huge perk.
Show threadJudeau (NES TMNT is GOOD!)4d ago

@gardiner_bryant That's a great article & I think it definitely nails what makes the PSP so great.

For several years my PSP went with me everywhere. It was my handheld gaming machine, my MP3 player & my internet on the go, provided there was Wi-Fi around me. I never picked up any UMD movies though I can totally see the appeal.

I even had the video out cable so I could hook it up to my TV like a Switch.

What's old is new again & in a world of privacy invasive devices, the PSP respects.

Show threadRusty2d ago
@Judeau @gardiner_bryant you got it. The corporations wouldnt ever think of giving us a device we actually own again. The era of that is over.
Show threadJudeau (NES TMNT is GOOD!)2d ago

@bridgeenjoyer @gardiner_bryant Definitely. That's why I like retrotech so much. Especially PDAs like the Pocket PC.

They are privacy respecting devices & operate much like a smartphone but without the phone. They have tons of apps & games and I use mine on a fairly regular basis. I also don't have to worry about my information leaving the device to be packaged & sold by data brokers or to train AI.

Unfortunately, I think you're right. I don't see a future while we will own our devices again.