DS is officially tougher than PSP - www.brokenreview.com

Press release April 2, 2008 Electronics

DS survives scratching, stamping and dropping - PSP doesn't by Kath Brice

If there's one thing we hate that seems to have caught on among unofficial gaming sites, it's people queuing up for new consoles on launch day, buying one, then proceeding to smash it up in front of hundreds of people still waiting for theirs. We'd like to say it's pathetic because it's consumerism at its most lewd and throwaway.

But we mainly hate it because it's not even funny and usually done by idiots.

Still, a site has come to our attention which at least seems to demonstrate a slightly more worthy reason for smashing up electronic items. It's doing it as a means of testing how tough products are, which will be of primary use when helping a very clumsy person – or someone with very slack handed children who are going to be playing with their stuff – in deciding whether to buy something or not.

Admittedly there's still a certain amount of gratuity – it's arguable whether we really need to know if a PSP can survive being run over by a motorbike – but then a more realistic test involving sequences of handhelds falling out of someone's pocket onto a variety of surfaces might not be quite so interesting to watch.

Anyway, the site, brokenreview.com, has tested a DS and PSP in similar ways to come to the not entirely heart-stopping conclusion DS is both tougher and less likely to get scratched. In total, it scored the DS 87/100, while the PSP Slim & Lite managed 65/100.

In short, the PSP's screen and casing suffered a lot of scratches throughout, its UMD cover popped out of one of its hinges when dropped, and being thrown from a first floor window left it with a completely knackered display, no sound and a broken UMD drive. Later, dropping it at 50MPH fixed the sound again at least. It was also perfectly okay after having a cup of tea poured over it.

DS meanwhile was hardly scratched after being dropped and stepped on, it survived the first floor and 50MPH drops and performed perfectly after having tea spilt on it. It also survived being run over by a motorbike, but eventually died after being thrown out of a 2nd floor window.

The conclusion, then, is that if you're some sort of electronic sadist or have a lot of enemies, you should probably get a DS. Its tough little case and folded away screens make it a far sturdier handheld than most. If you have a PSP, buy it a case and screen protector. Or you know, you could look after it – some of ours haven't got a scratch on them, despite being in near-constant use.

You can see the full run down of scores and videos of crushed consoles for yourself over at the site.

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Electronics