A Tale Of Quality Control... Or... How Sony Might

[bast525]

Okay, this is a long post, so grab a snack. First off let me say right of the bat I am NOT some Nintendo fanboy here to kick up a ruckus. I am a hardcore gamer thru and thru and own just about every system out there... I play no favorites. I'm no DS fanboy either, matter of fact some of you probably noticed not too long ago I got very close to ditching my DS, when my GP32 first showed up.


At any rate... I had preordered a Jap PSP... then kinda got screwed... then, as I was pursuing other means of getting one, started hearing "THE RUMORS" about problems with the system... not to mention that Sony has a reputation with their first generation game harware... so I figured... whatever, I'm better off. I'll wait for the US ones to debut, pay a hell of a lot less and probably get a much better unit. But... that sexy little machine kept beckoning me. I should have stuck with the plan man...


Well... after much discussion with my wife, and much hinting, she decided to put our first born child up for sale to finance a shiny new PSP for me for an Xmas present. And, after seeing a few posts on here and chatting with a few guys on IRC whom all swore that "THE RUMORS" were untrue, that their PSP's were perfect... well I figured... why not?

I REALLY... shoulda stuck with the plan man.

In the last month, I've purchase FOUR handheld systems. Yep... four. First there were two DS's, one for me, one for my wife. Now... mine had two dead pixels on it... so... mark one point against Nintendo. My wifes was perfect. And mine was too, minus those two pixels. Not ONE speck of dust under the screen cover (SP's were pretty bad about this... I had THREE that all had dust in there) and no scratches at all present on the screens (until I put some there). And then, one of the two dead pixels even fixed itself... no joke. But... that last one still bothered me... so finally after being told by the retailer that the chances of me getting an exchange thru them were slim, at least any time soon... I decided to call Nintendo themselves. Long story short... I expected to have to be without my system for at least a week... and pay shipping out of my own pocket to get it to them. WRONG. Nintendo sent me a replacement FIRST, sprung for 2nd day air shipping via UPS to get it to me fast, and paid for return shipping to get mine back to them. So... now I once again have a pristine DS... good job nintendo... they may just make a fanboy out of me yet.

Then I ordered a GP 32. Well... long story short on that... yeah I ended up with a BLU+... but... big deal really, only a few things I've been interested in suffered from the grey line, the emus and games I was most interested in worked fine. On top of that, the system itself is PERFECT. You know... coming from some small unheard of korean company, I didn't expect a pristine system like this. No dust trapped inside the screen... no dead pixels... not even the faintest mark or hairline scratch on the plastic screen cover... and Gamepark seem to be the only company smart enough to attach some kind of protective film to the screen cover to make sure it stays in new shape until the moment you open it up. TAKE NOTES SONY AND NINTENDO!!!

Well... I got my PSP today... and... well... damn what can I say other than I shoulda stuck with the plan man!

Sony... I know they're knew to the handheld arena... but damn... take some notes on what your competitors are doing next time, eh??

Brand new out of the factory sealed box, and let me tell you... first off the thing has quite a few fingerprints on it, thumb smudges on the screen... the works. But that's just the beginning. Held at the right angle to the light, quite a few hairline scratches make themselves apparent on the screen cover. Brilliant. Take a closer look... hmm... dust... not a speck or two... or three or five or ten even... a LOT of dust. Most of it small enough, that with the backlight on and the system held far enough away (a benefit of the larger screen, thank god) it's not noticeable.. but... it's there. My friend came over to check the system out, and it was the first thing he commented on.

But it gets better. I can't say for sure, but it looks like there is some kind of film over the LCD, maybe some of that anti reflective film, I dont know. Well... mine has 3 or 4 nicks in this film, bout the size of a ballpoint pen tip. Not on the plastic outer screen, but on the LCD itself! Also... the film looks like it was applied in a big hurry... held to the sunlight, the screen has this horrible ... god I dont know how to describe it... like the middle section of this film had been warper or burnt... all ripply and wavy looking. Not wavy as a texture... but the way the light passes thru that area... it gets all wavy rainbow looking. I wanted to photograph this for you all to see, but couldn't get it to come out in the photos.


And the list goes on... a UMD door that doesn't seem to close all the way flush against the system, and kinda hangs cracked open the slightest bit and crooked... oh yes and of course, one lovely dead pixel.. yep... a damn dead pixel.


All these items are a lovely thing on a system with which you get no warranty.


Well... anyways just thought I'd tell my tale. I'm really dissapointed (on one hand, but on the other, not really surprised) with Sony... I mean.. such an advanced piece of hardware, and they can't even put it together cleanly? Really quite a shame. I HOPE they fix them up by the time they release here. For anyone considering buying a Jap one... well... now you know what you may be able to expect. I'll be reserving a US one at a local game store... my wife doesn't mind dust/dead pixels/scratches at all... she'll be happy to have a PSP of her very own

 

[Kop_007]

Harsh. It does sound like your PSP was 'used' before hand though for it to be in that condition. Where did you get it? Lik-Sang, PA?

I dont know about anyone elses PSP, but mine didnt come sealed or anything, I suppose it could have ben opened and shut again.

 

[sam fisher]

Yeah well my US ds isn#t amazing either for some reason. Ill post the comparison of my brothers japanese DS to my US one.

 

[finty]

There are 2 differant builds of the American DS, one has a sort of protective layer over the touch screen, which when looked at from the right angle can make the screen look grainy, while the other has a completly clear screen.

I have the grainy one myself, but I'm glad if it keeps them scratches away.

 

[CABBAGES]

i have to agree with kop it sounds as if your psp has been used b4. I have 2 right now and both are great. just got a few new games too

 

[Kop_007]

If you got it from Lik Sang, I bet it was the one they ripped apart. Ha Ha Ha.

 

[CABBAGES]

maybe your right kop . You got any new games yet kop ? i have 5 now

 

[Kop_007]

Nah, I was thinking of getting Dynasty Warriors though.

I should have got it.

Still loving Risge Racers though.

What's your 5 games?

 

[CABBAGES]

ridge racers
vampire chronicle
dynasty warriors
mina no golf
lumines

Oh and i should have another battery soon and a 512mb memrty stick .

 

[Kop_007]

Is Dynasty Warriors good?

 

[CABBAGES]

just got it today and played it for about a minute so not sure yet. Once i play them i will let you know if threere any good.

 

[Alpha2]

Certainly sounds used to me.

I guess this is one argument for waiting untill it's released for your territory, atleast then you can return it to the store if there's a problem.

 

[finty]

I wonder if sony's return policy will be as nice as the big N's.

 

[Blah]

Certainly sounds used to me.

I guess this is one argument for waiting untill it's released for your territory, atleast then you can return it to the store if there's a problem.

​

That isn't always ture, Wal-Mart wont let you really return anything, except food.

 

[Kop_007]

Certainly sounds used to me.

I guess this is one argument for waiting untill it's released for your territory, atleast then you can return it to the store if there's a problem.

​

That isn't always ture, Wal-Mart wont let you really return anything, except food.

​

Do they accept it in vomit form?

 

[Blah]

As in unopened stuff that's obviously got something wrong with it.

 

[generalnmx]

As in unopened stuff that's obviously got something wrong with it.

​

If it's unopened, how can you tell there's something wrong with it?

 

[bast525]

No I didn't get it from Lik Sang, got it from a local import store. I've dealt with these guys for years and never gotten something from them in bad condition before. I've bought several systems from them including a few handhelds.

If it was taken out and used before I bought it, it wasn't just used, it was taken apart and put back together. But then there must be an awful lot of people out there who want to see the inner workings of the PSP... as I've heard tales of quite a few others getting systems with many of the same problems I'm listing here. The 'bubbly' looking LCD is one I have heard of several times already, as well as the dust in the screen. I MAY take it apart and see if I can't clean it up a bit....


Well... whatever, better to have one in semi-shoddy shape than not to have one at all. And it's a great thing about having a wife who likes handhelds as much as me (but is not nearly as picky about their condition) I can always buy one early... import or whatever, then hand that one off to her if it's not in great shape, when the US ones or a later shipment comes out and get myself a perfect one.

 

[spray]

dude, you just gotta accept that if you're an early adopter this sort of thing will happen.

if you'd have picked up one once it had been released in your region you could rectify these problems by simply returning it to the vendor.

at the end of the day, gadgets, like life, ain't perfect, you talk on how great gamepark is but people are constantly complaining about various problems with new units.

 

[bast525]

*shrug* my GP was perfect minus the one 'defect' that is not even really a defect.


hey.. you guys think Sony would help me out at all if I were to contact them about this? Tell them I bought the thing on a business trip to japan or something, or a relative brought one back with them.... I mean... whether I'm 'supposed' to have the thing yet or not, I did buy it, brand new, it is still their product... shouldn't they be willing to fix the problem either way?