The PSP has been making headlines in two different ways recently.  First is the PlayStation Phone, something that has been rumored for years now.  Pictures have been popping up that are supposedly early models of the device and they are pretty convincing.  On the other side of the fence we have the PSP2, which according to reports will be quite powerful, have a touch panel on the back, and also possibly contain features that make it more like a netbook computer. 

All this sounds pretty great right off the bat, but do we really want a device that can do all those things, or do we want a machine that just plays games? 

The original PSP tried to do the same thing:  play music, browse the web, watch videos, look at your pictures …oh, and you can play games, too.  Since it’s initial release other features have been added like Skype and internet radio.  The question is, how much are these features actually used? 

The rumored PlayStation Phone. Image from Engadget.Let’s reverse it now and look at the PlayStation Phone, rumored to use the Android OS.  I’ve used an Android phone before, and they’re not too bad.  Even the games are pretty decent.  But what if instead of Angry Birds and solitaire it was God of War and Gran Turismo? 

So now we’re left with two questions unanswered, and immediately I want to dismiss both by just saying “I don’t want a device that does that much!”  Let’s look at a scenario.  When I travel I bring with me my PSP or DS, my phone, which also acts as my connection to the internet, an e-reader, and an MP3 player. 

Now I am all about keeping my travel gear trim, in fact I bring all I need in a carry-on, so having one device that does everything would be great, but there are reasons why I don’t just bring one.  Let’s look at the phone.  I use an iPhone 4, so along with being my connection to the internet, I can also use it for music, videos, reading, and games, however there are a couple of reasons why I don’t.  First of all, my iPhone only holds 16 GB.  This is for everything on the device, therefore all those items I mentioned are sharing that space.  Even if I have a 32 GB model, it’s not much for all that.  Think about how large some games are on iPhone, such as Tales of Monkey Island.  All I have on my phone are apps, and still I only have 3 GB left, which is not much for music or video.  So for music I have my iPod Classic, which holds 160 GB, plenty of space for my collection of music, but sadly, the screen isn’t good enough for video.  So for that I have a Zune HD.

I could go on about why these devices are better at certain things than others, but there are two issues that sum up why I need more than one device.  First is how well it works for the task I want to do.  A PSP is worse than an iPhone at web browsing, but it’s better at games.  So if a PlayStation Phone is available, now I have a device that can do both.  So what’s wrong with that?  Well, this brings us to what is probably the most important factor in all of this:  the battery.  The main reason I use another device instead of my iPhone on a plane is because when I get to my destination, I don’t want to have to spend my first hours on the ground charging my battery.  Sure the iPhone has good battery life, but not that good. 

It boils down to this:  if Sony wants to create two devices that do multiple tasks, they have to focus on making each aspect of the machine work as if the unit is made just for that, and they have to give it a battery crazy enough to make it through the scenario I just gave.  Do that, and these devices will be a success.  I think everyone can agree that we would love to see both of these turn into solid products.