Better described as a premium pocket-entertainment center that happens to play games, Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) is also premium priced - not even worth looking at unless you're of the "disposable income" persuasion.

That said, PSP has "technophile" written all over it, not only for its large, wide-screen, high resolution, console-caliber gameplay, but also as a portable movie & music player, image viewer, Wi-Fi web browser and content downloader (in "hot spots"). Just bear in mind that, in the exacerbating way of the all hallowed Sony, most proprietary game and movie discs (called UMDs) for PSP are also priced at a premium. Snakes and Java on your PDA this isn't.

Also, though the bare bones PSP comes with a 32Mb Memory Stick Duo, you'll need to buy much more memory if your going to use your PSP as a portable audio/video player. You can't even fit a single album on 32Mbs - unless you downgrade your ripped tunes to AM-radio quality. And video? Forget about it.

To tap PSP's A/V multimedia multi-functionality, you're going to need at least another Gigabyte of memory - which is only a starting point but the biggest single mega-chunk you can buy at another $80 - $100 a pop, and you may need multiples, depending on the size of the music/video library you expect to take with you, at which point you'll realize you should have bought an iPod. Or that you're not using your laptop to its fullest potential. Or your Blackberry hasn't been explored enough. Or you really should catch up on that stack of paperbacks sitting dejectedly on your nightstand.

Memory expansion shenanigans aside, PSP does games and feature-length movies out of the gate - but, again, there's an expectation of affluence, with both game titles and movies priced like fully fledged home entertainment in the $25 - $50 range. So though we're usually talking shameless console knock-offs and stripped down DVD movies on those UMDs, you're paying the same amount, perhaps twice ...for something simpatico to the PS2 games and DVD movies likely sitting on a rack next to your home entertainment center already.

Still, if you can spare the coin (and have no interest in donating it to the local playground project, Katrina victims or Johnny's college fund), then PSP is, indeed, quite the spiffy little, tricked-out, mobile mojo machine you've likely heard about. People will "oooh" and probably "ahhh" over your shoulder. They'll go "wow, what is that?!" and you'll go "my PSP" and they'll go "no, I mean that thing playing the game" and you'll go "it's a Sony PlayStation Portable" and they'll go "you mean like Sony Betamax?" and you'll go "no, like Sony Vega TV" and they'll go "you mean the other Sony product that tanked like Betamax?" and you'll go "no, like Sony PlayStation 2" and they'll go "you mean it plays PlayStation2 games?" and you'll go "no, I had to buy this stripped down version of Burnout just so you'd go 'wow' on the bus" and they'll go "oh."

You can expect to play many, many racing games and small variety of other titles that look more-or-less as good as the PS2 counterparts they're knocking off. And you can expect to play/watch for a whole 3 or 4 hours at time before the batteries need recharging (a bit more if you play/listen frugally) - unless you brought the AC adapter (included) with you and the household electrical outlet along with it, or the car adapter and your car. You see where this is going?

All told, there currently about 250 UMD movies available for PSP, most of them geared toward an assumed demographic, with titles such as Spider-Man 2, Van Helsing, Saturday Night Live and every single Adam Sandler movie ever made. There's also The Notebook, just in case you need a good cry or want to fake a sensitive side.

And there are some 70 UMD games available, with a handful of those genuinely verging on outstanding, as described in this Top 10 PSP Games feature.

So there you go. Shame about those 34 million orphans in Africa, but man, portable Burnout? How cool is that?!