PSP Glare Shield review

Ok this might be considered one of the sillier PSP accessories out there. It's definitely the laughing stock of many PSP owners who come across pics of it.

Today I was watching some video on my PSP, but it was one of those really bright overcast days. Anyone who knows the PSP knows that the screen is really not viewable under normal outside lighting conditions.... it gets washed out by even indirect light. My Sandisk E280 has a way brighter screen. My DS Lite has a way brighter screen. I'm wondering if the iPod Touch has a brighter screen. As great as the PSP screen is in terms of showing off visual quality, it's just not bright enough to use in normal daylight.

I came across this GameDR brand Glare Shield for my PSP-1001, got it on clearance from EB games awhile back. I hardly ever use it, but I decided to try it out on my PSP-2001.

It screws on the top side of the PSP. The screws are big, with really big screw "threads" so you can use a coin or even a fingernail to screw the Glare Shield on.



The USB port is visible, but unless you have an amazingly thin plug on your USB cable, you can't use the USB port with the Glare Shield attached.


When folded up, it sits fairly compactly over the PSP, and has space for the face buttons & D-pad. Though this was made before the PSP Slim came out, but it still seems to fit alright.






They try to emulate the back of the PSP with the circle logo. Seems alright.

Attaching the Glare Shield to the PSP is a bit tricky, because it's spring-loaded, everything's meant to "flip out". You have to keep things pressed in while you're screwing it on.

When you want to use it, you lift up the cover-- as I said, it just goes *whup* and flips open.





It's very light, doesn't add any real weight to the PSP. If you're not using a clear screen protector you might be concerned about the screen maybe getting scratched by those "wings" that sit on the sides.

It vaguely reminds me of those old Coleco mini arcade games:



More info about them can be found here. And man, was it ever HARD to look those up on Google.....

And when I think of those things I start thinking about that PSP cardboard arcade thing:



So this Glare Shield really brings up some weird associations with me.

Does it look silly to have this big tent-thing sitting on your PSP? Maybe. But does it work? Yeah, it does work fairly well. As long as the light is facing ahead of you, the shield blocks it well. because it goes up so high, it does block some of the reflected light too.

As weird as it looks in pictures, in real life it doesn't seem that big. I included pics with a UMD box to get a sense of scale, it's about 3/4 the size of a UMD box, which isn't all that big.




Pros:

• lightweight.
• offers a small amount of screen protection.
• does what it says.
  

Cons:

• Looks silly.
• Shouldn't be used as a primary screen protector.
• Can't use the USB port with it on.

I probably posted way too many pictures of this thing, but a video of it in action:






later
don