In June, Sony updated the PSP and unlocked the full processing potential of its 333MHz CPU. But now the Japanese company says that if you've got your PSP's Wi-Fi connection enabled, the clock speed of the console returns to its previous inferior setting of 266MHz.
The 67MHz (25 per cent) speed boost may not seem like much, but it allows software developers to write games that look better and are more smoothly animated. This limitation means that games such as God of War which use the PSP's increased CPU speed will not look as good when you're playing multiplayer.
That's because the 266MHz of processing power has to be shared with the Wi-Fi connection, so there isn't as much power available for graphics processing.
PSP competes with the Nintendo DS
While Sony has confirmed the CPU limitation, it has so far refused to offer a reason why. The sensible explanation would be battery life.
The PSP has always had a notoriously bad battery life, due to its smooth graphics, big bright screen and wireless connection. Increasing the PSP's CPU speed by 25 per cent saps even more battery life. Sony perhaps thinks that coupled with a live Wi-Fi hook-up, the battery life would not be sufficient to run at full speed for long enough.
