Product Description

The new Game Boy Advance SP works essentially the same way previous Game Boy Advance models have, but adds a number of thoughtful features to the design. The most obvious difference you'll see is the lighting feature built into the screen so you can play in low-light situations without bulky external game lights that too often leave a hot spot on the screen or fail to reach the corners. You can shut off this internal light to squeeze more playing time out of the power source if you're in a situation with enough light to see the SP's reflective screen.

Speaking of power sources, the SP comes with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that provides between 10 and 18 hours of gameplay from a three-hour charge. Also, the new clam-shell design will offer protection for the screen from scratches when it's all closed up. As well as playing all your Game Boy Advance games, the system is backward-compatible with almost all Game Boy/Game Boy Color titles.

.co.uk Review

At first look, you might think the Game Boy Advance SP is a sleek travel alarm clock; when closed, it's just as tall and deep as the original GBA, but only half as wide. Its clamshell design protects the screen from everyday scratches. Open it up and the hinge will seek out a preferred, pre-set angle (about 150 degrees), though you can open it a bit wider or narrower for your own comfort. The hinge stands up well to lateral pressure.

Many decried the original GBA's reflective LCD screen and its reliance on external light sources. The Game Boy Advance SP's main feature--optional built-in lighting--fixes this complaint nicely. The quality of the backlighting is very good; it's bright and clear when looking directly at the screen, though less so from other angles.

The SP comes with a power adapter that recharges a built-in lithium battery; our informal tests found that it takes about four hours to fully charge (you can play it while it's plugged in and charging), and the battery lasts about 11 hours with the backlighting constantly on. Using the backlighting less often will conserve battery power.

Size, power, and affordability don't come without trade offs, though. There's no headphone jack here--you'll need a separately sold adapter--and the system isn't very loud at its highest volume. The L and R shoulder buttons are a fraction of the size they were on the GBA, and thus are harder to hit, and the reduced size of the SP is slightly less comfortable for adult hands than the GBA. The cartridge port placement on the lower part of the console is fine for GBA games, since they are flush with the console body, but older Game Boy Color carts will stick out in a way that takes some getting used to.

Overall, the SP is a significant improvement on, and seems just as rugged as, its predecessor--which has proven to be very rugged indeed. --Porter B Hall