When the original PSP (eventually known as PSP Phat) arrived, it was a little bit bulky, although it wasn’t really way too big to make playing on it a hassle. When they released the PSP 2000 also known as PSP slim, a lot of people were amazed at the very thin and light device that actually had a little bit more hardware compared to the Phat one.
To enumerate, these are the features and changes to the PSP slim with regards to the PSP Phat aside from the obvious weight and thickness. The first additional feature was the TV out which allowed the slim to connect to the TV giving you a much larger display. The Slim also had a replacement screen for the LCD. It now utilizes an OEL (Organic Electroluminescence) screen which makes it a lot brighter and less prone to dead pixels than before. It also draws a lot less power that adds to the longer battery life in the Slim. Another feature of the slim is the larger flash memory capacity. This allows the PSP slim to receive much large updates in the future.
It should already be expected that the PSP slim should be a lot more superior compared to the PSP phat since it is, after all, an upgrade to the older system. But a lot of people have found that the PSP slim is a lot more fragile compared to the PSP phat. Due probably in part to the great reduction in size, the slim doesn’t have the sort of resilience that the phat enjoyed. Some people have even testified to dropping a PSP phat a couple of times and still play a game after. Something you surely can’t do on a PSP slim.
Another thing that some people were griping about was the custom firmware that they can install on the PSP phat. Some people hacked the PSP and installed custom firmware that allowed them to install homebrews and more controversially, pirated version of games despite the risk of ‘bricking’ your device. Since this is actually illegal, Sony has taken steps to safeguard their future devices from being hacked. This made it very hard for people to change the software in the slim.
Despite being a little bit flimsier than the original, the PSP slim is still a lot better compared to the original. The added features more than makes up for the fragility of the device. The longer battery power and lighter weight also allows gamers to use their PSPs a little bit longer.