News and New Products

Handheld Game Systems Proliferate, Touting Varied Features and Price Tags

By Brian Dipert, EDN -- Electronic News, 1/25/2006

Traditional TV-tethered video consoles are in no danger of obsolescence, but portable counterparts are beginning to supplement and, to a limited degree, supplant them.

Although mobile units don't directly drive large-screen displays, they don't need to; instead of viewing them from several yards away, players hold them a foot or less from their eyes, and the portable consoles' fine-pitch LCDs deliver lots of detail. They don't hook into a surround-sound speaker system, either, but a set of headphones and sufficient CPU horsepower, which dedicated hardware acceleration often supplements, can deliver an immersive virtual-surround experience. And, speaking of CPU horsepower, it, along with graphics muscle, is a fundamental reason for portable consoles' burgeoning success.

Potential customers have long appreciated the transportable benefits of a mobile system, but the consoles have only recently become capable of delivering engaging game play, along with high-quality sound and images, while supplying sufficient battery life to justify their "portable" classification.

What characteristics delineate a portable gaming console? That's a tough question to answer; to understand why, look at another rapidly growing mobile-electronics category: the portable computer.

For more of this story, written by Electronic News ssiter publication EDN, click here.