Review: Madcatz Power Pack for PSP
In my obsessive quest with my PSP one thing has always been a Pain, Battery life! Now unfortunately for me I never started looking at battery's till a while after the 1000's Stamina Battery was pulled from the market and none have been around on ebay.
So looking around I came across the Power Pack for PSP by Madcatz.
It's an odd little thing I tell ya, its like an additional cell for your current battery
How it seems to work is piggy back on the Original PSP's Eeprom and adds itself as an extra cell, to start to use it may catch you out you have to
* Charge your PSP Battery Fully
* Put the PSP Battery into the Power Pack
* Put the Power Pack into the PSP
* Charge The Power Pack + PSP Battery till the Orange Indicator goes Green (PSP's Battery Indicator Says 100% Through this)
Then your good to go, After it does seem to read charge and discharge from the combo correctly, My guess is this is to sync both battery's charge levels.
This readout is with my XMB at 266/133 Clock Speed, Maximum Brightness, 80% Volume although with Medium Brightness, 50% Volume and Default Clocks the PSP did in fact show 16 Hours. This is obviously Subjective and is in XMB game time would vary depending on the title but it was a better way to compare to a Standard 1800mAh Sony Battery which at the same settings as the image was taken gives 5:57. The Power Pack Claims it can Double the life of the PSP and looking at this it seems it can deliver on that promise.
BUT... all is not dandy and there is flaws as you can imagine.
The two ive come into one minor and one more major. Starting with the minor, Some of my games when im just starting the UMD up after launching it kicks up a exit game prompt like I pressed Home or opened my drive, its not often but has occurred only when the pack was in, however just pressing No was enough and it would not appear during play.
the more major one is its size. its frigging HUGE
As you can see it comes out just a bit farther than an open UMD Drive about 0.6 Inches this can be a strain on people with smaller hands such as myself, I couldn't find a comfortable way to hold it and be able to use the R button. if i had both my fingers at the top one on the battery the other on the R button (Similar to how you would hold a PS or 360 Controller) my little and finger next to it would get tired within 20 mins supporting the right side of the PSP with the additional Weight, if i used one finger on the top but 3 supporting the PSP pressing the R button felt somewhat awkward and hard to do.
Wrapping this up
Pro's:
Does what it claims and indeed does double the battery life of the PSP
Could be good for people with large hands
Makes the PSP Stand perfect, Good for movie watching (if it didn't muffle the sound)
Cons:
HUGE
Not as plug and play to use at first start
can tire your fingers trying to support it
Final words: The Madcatz Power Pack does what it claims, but is too bulky I feel for a good majority of gamers, worth a look if you find it cheap (as I did £5) and good for movies and a long trip.
Available from this Ebay Seller:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Power-Battery-...-/190478143669
if this item is not available then check his other items
_______________________________
Originally Posted by yanazake
I would know I been in the scene since the old 1.50 exploits was originally found
