E3 2005: Level Up
Got Memory?
Product: Memory Stick Pro Duo
Company: Sandisk
Date: 05/31/2005
Avaliable On:

If you have a Sony PSP (and you probably do if you're reading this story), then you have at least one Memory Stick Pro Duo card; the 32 MB stick the PSP comes bundled with. While this is great for storing a few saved games, you'll need greater capacity to release the PSP's full potential.

That's where SanDisk comes in. As the people at SanDisk point out, the Sony UMD Disc medium is not recordable and, therefore, many of the multimedia aspects of the PSP require additional memory. The PSP is capable of playing MP3 files, JPEG images and even MPEG-4 video (if formatted for PSP). All of these require either a Memory Stick Duo or a Memory Stick PRO Duo. Furthermore, if you're looking to put your music library onto your PSP and listen to it on-the-go or if you want to put video of any decent size on your PSP, you'll need much higher capacities than the included 32 MB stick. And, while you're at it, you'll want to get a Memory Stick PRO Duo, as it allows for faster transfer rates and higher capacities than a Memory Stick Duo can.

At E3 this year, SanDisk introduced their 2 GB Memory Stick PRO Duo gaming cards to meet the needs of Sony PSP owners. It seems that the consumer demand for high-capacity flash memory cards for the PSP were greater than expected. As such, SanDisk is working on increasing its production of its high-capacity Memory Stick PRO Duos, including their new 1 GB Memory Stick PRO Duo gaming cards as well as other capacities.

The 2 GB card is expected to ship in July and will have a MSRP of $349.99.

Stay tuned for in-depth reviews when we get some units in-house for some hands-on evaluation.

Geck0 aka Robert Perkins

GameVortex PSIllustrated TeamPS2