PSP Go was available for sale in retail shops on Thursday in US, Europe and Asia. Opinions and reactions were mixed as the Go was highly priced, putting off many prospective customers. For comparison, the new PSP Go (PSP-N1000) retails at a MSRP of USD$249.99 whilst the older PSP-3000 at USD$169.99 in the US. (On a sidenote, the PSP Go retails for $412 in Singapore)

The PSP Go is 16 percent lighter and 35 percent smaller than the PSP 3000, has a smaller 3.8 inch screen, versus the 4.3 inches of the PSP-3000, has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity and most importantly of all, has its UMD drive removed. All contents including games, digital media etc must now be saved to the console’s 16Gb of onboard flash memory or a Memory Stick Micro (M2) card. For now, all games and demos can only be purchased from the PlayStation Store and downloaded to the console's flash memory or M2 stick via Sony's software on a PC, or through a PlayStation 3.

In our opinion, the PSP Go is a refresh of the older PSP-3000 with no improvement in graphics, significant new features (besides Bluetooth) and gaming capabilities.  To rub salt into the wound, Sony’s decision to remove the UMD and migrate to a proprietary mini-USB cable has left many users frustrated. According to PC World, many users are also complaining about the uber-slow download speeds when they buy a new game from Sony’s PlayStation Store. Average download time was reportedly at least around an hour.

Unless Sony brings the price of the Go significantly down and allow users to transfer their original UMD games to the Go, I guess many will stick to their PSP 2000/3000 for now…

"The Sony PSP Go launched on Thursday, and judging by the early reviews opinions are mixed. On the one hand, you have a slick, more portable devic e with a crisp screen and new game formats. But legacy PSP owners will be dogged with some crossover issues, and most Sony PSP Go content is available through only one retail source. PC World's Matt Peckham will be handing down his own impressions of the device soon, but here are some early impressions to whet your appetite"

News via [PCWorld]