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Hardware Review
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»Mad Catz Mobile Kit
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Mad Catz has always
put out these starter kits and I think they’re actually starting to get
better. I’ve never really had good experiences with Mad Catz products,
but I haven’t used them for a while. The accessories seem to be of good
quality. I’ll go through what I think of the different parts of the
case and divide it by sections. The Bold is what you get in the pack.
Leather Carry Case
I really only have a few problems with this leather case, but otherwise
it’s a pretty solid investment. It doesn’t really do much good when
protecting the PSP from being dropped, but it does protect the screen.
The case also leaves the headphone port and charging ports open, so you
can use it as an mp3 player. It also has a belt loop, so you can attach
it to your belt, but the PSP is a little bit too bulky for me. Put your
PSP on shuffle and put turn hold on and you’ll be fine. If hold’s not
on, it’s kind of a pain to put the PSP in there because the case will
push on the buttons while you’re shoving it in.
Battery Pack
The battery pack doesn’t really seem very practical to me. I realize
that many people like to extend their PSP life a little, but 4 AAA’s
brings me back more so to the days of Game Gear than the PSP. It comes
with a keychain ring, so you could put it on your keychain, but it’s
pretty big to lug around on your keychain.
Headphones
I was really expecting crap with these headphones, but I can’t really
talk bad about them. The sound quality is pretty good and compliments
the case by giving you an easy MP3 player. All you’ll need is a bigger
memory stick now, and you’re good to go. The only problem I really have
with the headphones is that they look kind of big on the ears. They
have like a black plastic covering around the plastic that goes around
your neck that sticks out like an inch and looks kind of dumb.
Otherwise, the “street style” headphones are pretty cool.
12 Game Cases
The Mad Catz mobile kit comes with a whopping 12 game cases. They also
count towards the 22 pieces of accessories in the kit, but that doesn’t
really bother me much. The cases hold one game each and are made of a
transparent plastic and come in blue, black and clear colors. I don’t
really like the way the games fit in there, and had a hard time getting
them in at first, but otherwise, they’re great cases. They’re small and
offer good protection.
4 Screen Protectors
The screen protectors aren’t the best I’ve used, but if you can get
them on right, they work great. They’re made out of a soft plastic and
feel almost like a soft contact They don’t have anything sticky on the
back, so I’m pretty sure they’re safe for the PSP. I didn’t like the
cleaning cloth that came with it though, it didn’t seem to clean my
screen at all and even left some marks. It comes with 4 of them, so you
can take them off at anytime and replace it.
Car Charger
The car charger is pretty much like any car charger in the past. This
one has a 7ft. cord that will definitely allow you to play while
charging anywhere in the car… even in the trunk of your Escalade. The
one thing I didn’t like about it is it doesn’t have a tilting front
like the Intec one had. That said, it didn’t fit into my lighter socket
and kind of disappointed me.
USB Cable
I guess this is a bonus to the kit, but it’s definitely a must have
accessory for the PSP. It’s also a high-speed USB 2.0 cable, which is
pretty standard now, but the transfer rates are great. This will allow
you to put music, videos or firmware updates in the future. USB cords
aren’t hard to come by, but they’re a useful addition to any PSP user’s
collection.
Overall
The kit costs $40, which is probably less than buying all of this stuff
separately but is still kind of expensive. In the future, if you think
you’re going to want all the stuff that comes in the kit, you might as
well just get the kit to save some money. If you’re looking for a
fairly solid starter kit for the PSP, this is probably the one you
want. It comes with everything you need and surprisingly, it’s of good
quality.
Article by: Knives
Posted on: Aug. 8th, 2005 |
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