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Introduction
Ever since the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) was announced at E3 in May 2004, we have been eagerly anticipating the hottest console launch (sorry Nintendo DS) this year, even if it is only for the Japanese market right now. We were fortunate enough to get a unit to test a mere five days after the Japanese release date and have been playing with it all weekend. The Sony PSP features a large 4.3-inch 16:9 widescreen LCD TFT screen with a 480×272 resolution, button layout similar to the PlayStation with a digital control pad, an analog stick, circle, square, triangle, x, and 2 shoulder buttons, USB 2.0 connectivity (via mini-USB), a Memory Stick Pro Duo media slot, and 802.11b WiFi support. It uses Sony’s proprietary Universal Media Disc, which stores up to 1.8GB in a format reminiscent of MiniDiscs. The Japanese launch release date was December 12th and the first shipment of PSPs quickly sold out.

Box
We got the Standard edition PSP, which comes with the PSP itself, a battery, an AC adapter, and a manual, along with Ridge Racers and Minna No Golf Portable. (The Value Pack adds a 32MB Memory Stick Duo, a soft carrying case, and headphones with an in-line remote.) The box does not come with a sticker seal of any sort, which we weren’t quite used to considering anything and everything comes with some sort of factory seal here in the US.

When we shook the product box, we could hear some rattling around. We weren’t too thrilled about that, since the unit did come a long ways from Japan. Luckily, when we opened the package, the PSP fits snugly into the surrounding cardboard, the rattling we heard was mostly likely the power adapter cables. We noticed a lack of any type of demo disc included with the unit. Some PSP Value Packs apparently do come with a UMD Demo Disc, but we’ve also heard from a few people that got Value Packs without any demo discs inside as well.

Unit
When you first lay your hands on the PSP, you immediately notice the screen. The 4.3-inch display dominates the device, it looks like it takes up two-thirds of the real estate on the front fascia. In other words, massive. The unit feels expensive, and exudes sexiness, much like Apple’s iPods (and you know how big of a fan we are of iPods). The unit feels perfectly balanced when held with both hands. It does not feel like a $200 console (Japan MSRP for console only) at all. We’re sure Sony is losing a few hundred bucks off each unit sold as the PSP easily feels like it’s worth $400 of gadgetry (when compared to portable video and audio players and the DS). We feel Sony could have gotten away with a $300 sticker price, but in an effort to destroy Nintendo’s firm grasp of the handheld gaming market, they’ve set the price just $50 more than the Nintendo DS (which was released in both Japan and US markets just last month). It feels like an extreme bargain for two bills. The screen is immersive, drawing you in when playing videos or games and so big that you may not need your glasses to play. The black color fits well and matches the Playstation 2’s color. The dimples across the top row of the screen reminded us of carbon fiber, currently the rage in import tuner cars.

When you pay for a new console, you expect it to be perfect. Alas, ours was not. We noticed two lit pixels (always on pixels), one in the middle of the screen, about one-fourth of the way down, and one near the very right edge of the screen. So out of 130,560 pixels on the LCD screen, we got two defective ones. It’s actually not too noticeable unless you look for it and we didn’t notice until we played with the PSP in pitch black darkness.

While we could cry wolf about it and make a big fuss, we’ll just deal with it and accept it. But we can always hope that Sony will be as honorable as Nintendo when fixing units with dead pixels for their customers.

Another complaint of the PSP so far has been the ejecting UMD problem in which the user in the video appears to flex the PSP quite a bit to get it to eject spontaneously. We’re happy to report that we didn’t have such problems with any self-ejecting discs and that our PSP is built rather solidly, though we didn’t dare to twist the unit as hard as we could. We initially had some light squeaking noises when we pressed right on the directional pad, but after a weekend of use, the annoying sound has disappeared.

The PSP, with battery, Memory Stick Pro Duo, and UMD inserted, weighs 10.3 ounces, making it fine to put in a jacket pocket (with case or cover of course), but not exactly friendly in a pants pocket with its long form factor. We’ve heard of some Japanese folks wearing the PSP like a necklace (there is a strap handle at the bottom left section of the PSP), but as cool as that may make them look, we didn’t think our necks could take the strain.

Unfortunately, with the fine glossy screen comes the problem of fingerprints and smudges. While we didn’t use latex gloves while handling the unit, we were very careful to try and handle it with the utmost of care. That said, there were smudges around the control buttons within seconds. It’s pretty much unavoidable to smudge the smooth front cover, so we recommend a very soft cloth to wipe off smudges and smears, but make sure the cloth doesn’t scratch up the LCD. The back of the unit is textured plastic and does not smudge. Within an hour of playing some games on the PSP and constantly wiping off smudges, there were some light scratches on the screen. We’re hoping that Sony will sell replacement PSP faceplates at a reasonable price.

The front of the PSP unit has the directional pad on the left side, and the analog thumb stick (looks like speaker mesh) below that. The analog thumb stick is quite a burden to use since it’s so far down, as there is no thumb support from the unit when you use it. It was fine to play Ridge Racers with it, but after 15 minutes, we felt as if we were getting thumbitis with a sore thumb joint. To the right of the LCD is the standard circle, square, triangle, and x buttons any Playstation junkie has become accustomed to. The left and right trigger buttons are at the top of the unit and are clear, looking a bit like jewelry. All buttons on our review unit were easy to press and click fast if necessary.

The bottom edge of the PSP is raised ever so slightly, with buttons for Home, lowering and raising the volume, brightness, sound settings for various music genres, and Select and Start buttons. While Home, Select, and Start are quite easy to press since the size of the buttons are a good size, the volume and brightness and music buttons take quite a bit of effort to depress as the buttons are half the size of the other ones and further away if you use your thumbs to depress. Since you may use the volume buttons quite a bit, it’s a bit of a pain and there seems to be enough room on the left bottom side to put in larger buttons for volume. But at least the volume buttons are not essential for quick pressing during gaming. For brightness, there are three settings, from Dim to Bright to Brightest (our wording), we found Bright to be the adequate enough. When plugged into the AC outlet, there is an additional level of brightness. Since there’s still not much sun in Seattle this time of year, we were unable to test the PSP in direct sunlight.

The left side of the unit has the WiFi switch, a quick flip up and the WiFi mode is set to on.

At the top edge is an infrared trasmitter, a mini-USB connector and the Eject button for loading UMDs. Sony is planning an infrared remote controller for the PSP, and it looks like any future PSP add-ons will be plugged in up top, as there’s two locking holes on each side of the mini-USB port.

The combined power and hold switch is on the lower right side, you can push the switch down for hold, and pushing the slider up turns it on. The button always returns to the middle after pushing it up, which we found a bit annoying. A simple On/Off/Hold switch would have been easier to handle. When you power it on, the PSP returns you to where you left off (like returning from a hibernation state in Windows XP, but without any delays at all). When you toggle hold during a game, the PSP buttons become disabled, and the game just continues. Hold is probably most useful when playing a video or a music album and you don’t want any accidental button presses to interfere.

The bottom right is where the AC adapter plug goes in, which we find is quite an odd placement for it. When gaming with the power line plugged in, your right hand will feel the cord and plug. While it doesn’t interfere per se, it would have been much neater if the power port was placed on the top edge of the unit. Not a huge knock, just a slight inconvenience. The left side is where the headphones plug in. When used, the headphone plug doesn’t interfere with our movement as much as the AC adapter one because the headphones plug is on the bottom half of the PSP. Also at the bottom edge a sticker in a recessed area, with the product number and serial number in the middle. We don’t we see it lasting after a few years of months of hardcore use nor do we see the point of this sticker, as there is actually an etched serial number in the battery compartment.

USB Connectivity
In USB Mode, if you have a Memory Stick Pro Duo inserted, you can connect a mini-USB cable to the top of the PSP, and it acts like a USB drive, allowing you to access any folders or content on the Memory Stick. Windows XP immediately recognized the device as a Removable Disk after we plugged in the cable. File transfers both ways were incredibly fast thanks to the USB 2.0 support.

Universal Media Discs
The Sony PSP uses a proprietary 1.8GB Universal Media Disc (UMD) format, in part an effort to thwart piracy and so they can control what gets released for their system. They are much like MiniDiscs (the actual disc just slightly smaller), but with one serious drawback, a gaping hole in the back of the plastic case (no doubt for the PSP to read in data). While we know some of you are very meticulous and careful when handling your disc-based media, we also know quite a few people that have scratched up DVDs and games. We just don’t get why Sony didn’t put a metal faceplate over the hole like they do for MiniDiscs.

UMD games are packaged in a plastic section which the UMD fits snugly into. But there is no small plastic case for UMDs (ala Gameboy carts) and one can not reasonably be expected to carry around the full game box when transporting extra games with the system. We’re sure third party UMD plastic cases will be out soon enough, but for now, you’ll have to resort to carrying the whole game box, as we don’t recommend just putting a UMD in your pocket to carry around.

The UMD drive makes a whirring noise at times when loading games or levels (but not while actually playing). It’s not too obnoxious and sort of sounds like a hard drive spinning up, but you do hear it. After living with solid state handheld games (cartridges), we had to get used to load times again. The original Playstation 1 had horrid load times for some games, but it did improve over time as programmers got to know the system. We hope the same will be true for the PSP as it took 19 seconds after selecting UMD to get to the Namco logo on Ridge Racers. During the game, it took 10 seconds to load the course after selecting all the options. For Minna No Golf, it took 25 seconds to get to the intro screen and 16 seconds to start playing from the menu. It’s tolerable but an aspect that could use some improvement.

Adult target
While kids will surely want the Sony PSP (my 4 year-old nephew asked his Daddy for one immediately after seeing it), Sony is targeting the more mature audience. We don’t see younger kids handling the UMDs with the open area well and we can just picture screen scratches within a day after little Jimmy has their hands on one. As a friend pointed out, this system is perfect for the Japanese audience, a country where they are known for cleanliness, neatness, and taking care of their electronics well. That, sadly, can not be said for the American audience (in general), we are just more rough with our gear. It will be interesting to see if Sony changes the PSP at all for the American audience and we’re thinking the USA warranty should be at least a year. This may be an item where you will actually want to purchase the extended warranty program from a store.

First bootup
At first bootup, we were greeted with a language option, between Japanese and English. Next you can give your PSP a nickname (for network play) via cellphone type text entry (press 2 three times for the letter C, etc). Seeing how the PSP has plenty of room for a keyboard layout on the screen, we would have much preferred that. The Japanese are used to the phone keypad text entry system, so I’m sure it’s not a big deal to them, but for the US release, we hope they change it. Another annoying interface aspect was when we entered our IP address for the PSP. We had to scroll up and down through 256 numbers (0 to 255), rather than manually entering numerals. It’s not very fun to scroll for 16 sets of numbers.

After setting it to English, the menus are pretty self-explanatory, the main options are Settings, Photo, Music, Video, and Game. Some of the options may not be available if you don’t have a Memory Stick Pro Duo inserted.

Japanese differences
As was the case with Japanese version Playstation 1 and 2’s, the button you choose to select what you want is the Circle button, and not the X button (like in the US versions). The X button thus becomes the back or cancel option. When you’re used to using X to select everything, there will be times you forget and accidentally hit the wrong button. The manual is in Japanese, not that we needed it at all for anything. Other than those two things, the PSP itself is very English-speaker friendly.

Battery Life
The PSP is powered by a 100-240V (5A) universal power adapter, which means you can use it anywhere in the world practically. Your PSP is ready to travel the world with you. There have been reports of a weak two hours of battery life when playing complex 3D games. We fully charged up our PSP battery and popped in Ridge Racers for nonstop gaming. We set the brightness to the middle level and set the volume to 15 button presses from 0 (the max volume is 30). That level of brightness and volume we feel is adequate for the average gamer during gameplay. With no breaks in between, we played non-stop for 3 hours and 35 minutes. We also tried another Ridge Racers test, playing one game, then letting the system run through the replay in an infinite loop. That test also resulted in a playtime of 3 hours and 31 minutes.

While not superb, we feel 3.5 hours is acceptable and you can always buy a spare battery (~$45) if you need it. Cheaper third party batteries will show up sooner or later as well. We had really hoped the PSP could be charged via mini-USB (just like the DS can be charged by USB), but unfortunately Sony did not include that support. But to be fair, our mini-USB cable was not able to charge our Motorola RAZR V3 cell phone either, though the phone is supposedly capable of doing so. So it may be that we have a bunk USB cable. If anyone has gotten their PSP to charge via USB, let us know. We’d also like to see a cigarette lighter power adapter for long road trips.

After 3.5 hours of nonstop gaming, the unit is just barely warm to the touch. I ejected the UMD and the disc felt just the tiniest bit warm too. So hopefully that’s a sign of no overheating problems (which plagued the first-generation Sony Playstations, anyone remember turning it upside down to alleviate the problem?).

Memory Stick Pro Duo
The Sony PSP alone will make the Memory Stick Duo (Pro Duo) a viable format, as the PSP does not take any of the older Memory Stick formats nor the Memory Stick Pro. It only takes the tiny Duo flash memory card, which is about 85% of the size of a Secure Digital (SD) card. We believe the highest current available size is 512MB, retailing for $130 at stores (or about $85 shipped on eBay) as we have not seen the 1GB version in stock anywhere. You will need a Memory Stick to save your game states and if you want to play MP3s or videos on it. The Ridge Racers save game takes about 700kb and Minna No Golf Portable needs about 769kb.

After formatting your Memory Stick Pro Duo in the PSP, you get a PSP directory, and GAME, MUSIC, PHOTO, SAVEDATA folders within that. The game folder will eventually house downloadable games or demos from the Internet, music is for your MP3s, photo for your JPGs, and savedata for your saved games. Video files need to go in a different folder which we will get into later this week.

Photos
For photo viewing, GIF, BMP, and PNG files aren’t supported by the PSP, but standard JPG ones are. When you have a full-sized 4 or 5 megapixel JPG file, the PSP takes a bit of time for it to load, about 3 seconds for a 1.8MB JPG file. It automatically crops the photo (most photos are in the 4:3 format), leaving white space on the sides of the picture when it is displayed (see above).

For photos that you have cropped or Photoshopped to the PSP’s native 480×272 resolution (say hi to my Yorkshire terrier, Yoda), the picture loads immediately and looks sharp with excellent detail. You can get file information (filename and file date), do a slideshow, or zoom in to certain parts of the picture. The photo gallery works much like Windows Explorer, showing a thumbnail of the picture, the filename, and date. You can also create folders within the PSPPhoto directory in Windows Explorer to organize your photos. In the Photo section, when you press the Triangle button, you can delete folders or pictures, or get more information about a picture, including its full resolution and which camera took the shot by accessing the EXIF information within the JPG file itself.

Music playing
The biggest knock on Sony in the past has been their insistence of using the ATRAC format, forcing you to convert your beloved MP3s to their proprietary format before their players could play it. They have finally listened to their users and done away with ATRAC only with native MP3 support in the PSP. Just drop files into your PSP/Music folder and your PSP can play them directly. The speakers are at the bottom of the unit, and the two little holes on the bottom produce good sound. We played a variety of MP3s just fine including variable bit rate ones, but we’re sorry to report that we didn’t have any ATRAC files to test out.

Video playing
Videos look amazing on the widescreen. The picture is sharp and detailed and colors are vibrant. While it’s fine to hold when playing games or watching short clips, it gets a bit tiresome if you are watching an hour long or longer show to just hold in your hands (rest assured however, as Sony will be putting out a stand for the PSP).

WiFi setup
The 802.11b WiFi support in the PSP is easy to setup. Just name your connection (Home, Work, etc), put in the SSID access point name, a WEP key if any, and then setup IP and DNS addresses (or choose automatic if using DHCP). There’s a network test when you are done, telling you your current signal strength and whether your Internet connection succeeded or not. Taking a page from Microsoft, you can also update the PSP OS via a Network Update, but as our PSP is less than a week old, there were no updates available. Our tech geekiness led us to try to update the system (it’s less than a week old) before even playing games. Our system already had the latest version, as there were no updates from Sony.

PSP in public
No one noticed, not that we expected anyone to, when we whipped out the PSP to wait in line at the post office (for a lousy 30 minutes!) to mail a package they screwed up on. But we were surprised when we started playing while standing in line at Best Buy (to get a Sandisk 512MB Memory Stick Pro Duo for a whopping $130) and got no attention, though we were only in line for about 10 minutes. The checkout droids didn’t say anything either.

But when we took the PSP to the mall for a little tour (just outside a game shop), it was a different story. Within a few minutes, kids (looked to be 10 to 12) were asking about it, namely where we got ours from and how much. Kids these days must be on a different allowance scale than what we got as kids, because when we said it would be just $200 come March or so, they were all over it and were sure that they’d get one. Within 10 minutes, we had gathered a small crowd of ten, all drooling over the gorgeous screen. The PSP is also a watch-while-I-play kind of system. Whereas with the Nintendo DS, anyone looking over your shoulder may have a hard time to see what’s going on, the people that were looking over our shoulders at the mall didn’t have any problem seeing what was going on. We didn’t stay too long, fearing a mob scene as people were soon calling their friends over.

Versus Nintendo DS
The bulky Nintendo DS feels and looks like a child’s toy from the 1980s, but the PSP feels like a well-designed slick handheld. The PSP feels just a slight bit heavier, but it’s easy to hold with one hand, where we feel the DS isn’t. Currently, the DS easily has more games, since it has that backwards support for Gameboy Advance and Gameboy titles. The DS weighs exactly 10 ounces with the thumb strap, battery, and DS game inserted (10.4 ounces if you add in a GBA cart), just slightly less than the PSP’s 10.3 ounces. But two 3-inch screens does not beat one 4.3-inch one, at least in this case.

The DS also has a touchscreen on the lower LCD for more interactivity than the PSP. The PSP would make for a great PDA if it had touchscreen functionality. While Nintendo is planning to add music and video to the DS for $50, the PSP has both features already, and video just won’t be the same on a 3-inch DS screen, compared to the PSP’s 4.3-inch one. When we consider that the primary purpose of the PSP is to play games, the graphics of the PSP just blow away the Nintendo offering. The two powerful 32-bit MIPS R4000 CPUs overwhelms the Nintendo DS ARM7 and ARM9 processors. One direct comparison would be Ridge Racer DS vs Ridge Racers for the PSP, both created by Namco. The DS version has some chunky pixellated graphics and the lower touchscreen looks rather useless in terms of gameplay usage. The PSP’s Ridge Racers is Playstation 2-like, with smoother graphics and more detail in the cars. The one redeeming factor of Ridge Racer DS is that only one copy of the game is needed for up to 6-player wireless multiplayer action.

Versus Creative Portable Media Center
The Creative Zen Portable Media Center (PMC) is a portable media player with a 3.8-inch 4:3 screen and a 20GB hard drive, but beyond the hard drive (and perhaps 7 hour video battery life and TV output), it does not compare too favorably with the PSP. Since we do not yet have the Sony Image Converter software, it is easier to transcode video files to the PMC. But the PMC is a lot thicker and uses the 4:3 screen format, which in the current age of HDTV is going the way of the dodo bird. Interestingly enough the Sony PSP AC adapter can actually charge the PMC as well since the plug fits and both units use the same voltage power. Watching standard 4:3 size videos is okay on the PMC, but when you go to 16:9 format shows or movies, you definitely notice the annoying black bars on the PMC. In direct video comparisons, the PMC picture looks washed out (as you can tell in the pictures) and much grainier. I’m not sure why the 4:3 video on the PSP wasn’t bigger, but it’s still more clear and detailed. In the 16:9 Shark Tale trailer, I have no idea why the PMC didn’t set the video to 16:9 format, as the original source was widescreen, but again, the PSP handily wins that comparo as well.

The PMC has only one speaker (at the bottom right corner of the screen) for mono sound, whereas the PSP has two little speakers for stereo sound. The PMC has slightly better sound (even with only one speaker) and has a higher maximum volume, but when using a pair of Shure E3C earbuds to listen to some MP3s, we found audio fidelity to be great in both devices, with no noticeable quality difference.

Versus Apple iPod Photo
Apple’s iPod Photo handily beats the PSP in terms of the MP3 interface, ease of use, playlist creation, and storage space. We didn’t have an standard iPod or iPod Photo to do direct comparisons with, but we did do a listening test with an iPod mini. Again using Shure E3C earbuds, we found no discernable difference in audio quality between the PSP and the iPod mini, as both were equally superb with a variable bit rate MP3. When viewing JPGs, the 2-inch iPod Photo screen size just doesn’t bode well for viewing pictures, plus you need to use iTunes to convert any JPGs into a format the iPod Photo can read. The PSP can directly read any JPG file (and fits the JPG onto the screen) and the pictures look gorgeous on the 4.3-inch screen, but the only downside of the PSP is that you can not listen to an MP3 file while browsing photos and it doesn’t output the picture to a TV.

Is the PSP an iPod (or iPod Photo) killer? No, but iPod video killer (when and if that finally comes out)? Perhaps, but only if Memory Stick prices go down in price and storage sizes go way up. Or if Sony makes the UMD format open (we can hope, can’t we?) and more prone to piracy by letting users write to their own 1.8GB UMD discs. We’re not sure what Apple has in store in terms of a video iPod player, but they must make the screen somewhat comparable to the PSP and loads better than the iPod Photo’s 2-inch screen.

Games

Ridge Racers is a definitely hit, and we’ve yet to hear anyone buy the PSP without buying RR too. Just like the original Ridge Racer was a success when the Sony Playstation came out, Ridge Racers is a system seller. The intro CG looks amazing, and when you play the game, you get a sense of speed, which you need in a racing title. There were no graphic popups, but you can notice jagged edges (jaggies) if you look close enough, namely the edge of the course (the bottom of the side walls) as you are driving. It may be a little distracting to some, but we aren’t that critical to count it as a major flaw. The game itself has some intentional motion blur (we hope intentional at least) when you see the computer controlled cars turning in corners, their brake lights will blur a bit on the screen. There is some Japanese language in Ridge Racers, but overall, there’s plenty of English and one can navigate through it reasonably well without knowledge of Japanese. We had to tear the PSP unit away from our test group of gamers to even try our other game.

Minna No Golf Portable (Everybody’s Golf, or Hot Shots Golf in the US) is a good golf title. The graphics are solid, but it is golf, and we didn’t find anything spectacular from the title. We do find it weird that our character runs at hyperspeed immediately after striking the ball, and waits at the spot for the next swing, even as the ball is rolling to that point. You can put topspin or underspin on the ball, and you can also hook and slice the ball around trees. It uses the familiar old three click method for the golf swing, click once to start your swing, once to set the power, and once for accuracy. It’s the same method that’s been used since Links for PC has been around. The menus are heavily in Japanese, and while we were able to start a game by pressing the Circle button a few times, we had no idea what we chose. There may be guides or FAQs at GameFAQs by the time you read this.

Conclusion
The Sony PSP is a great handheld gaming console, one that is as revolutionary as the original Nintendo Gameboy was, not only because it’s basically a handheld Playstation 2 with powerful graphics, but because of all the other value-added features it comes with, namely the photo viewer, the audio player, and video player. It’s an excellent value for $200 retail. There is no handheld gaming competitor that comes close to it right now, and it delves into other specialized market segments (portable audio and music players) and holds its own, save for its low storage space. The most amazing thing about the PSP is the large 4.3-inch screen, which is simply amazing to see in person. Sony didn’t half-ass the extra features and the PSP does each very well. The photo viewer is superb and sharp and the audio player can play MP3s very well, on par with an iPod mini at least from our testing. The videos when played back from Memory Sticks are superb, there’s no doubt that movies on UMD will look just as great on the wide screen.

Now may be the time to put in your pre-orders for the February or March 2005 US PSP launch, that is if you can resist importing a system (around $500+ right now, check our PSP price watch). We really hope Sony holds to their word of no region coding on PSP games (we don’t mind so much if UMD movies are region encoded), because we’d rather not have to rip apart our PSP to install a region-free modchip (which will surely come if there is region coding for games). You will pay a bit of a premium for a PSP now unless you know someone in Japan that can get you one. The question of worth is of course dependant on what your income level is and how much you value having the latest system. We think it’s easily worth at least $300, and an instant buy at $200 retail. But, the current prices of $500-600 are a bit extreme for all but the hardcore gamer with cash to burn.

Dead or lit pixels will continue to be an issue for any PSP buyer (as it is for LCD monitors) and it’s the only main gripe of our system. We’re more forgiving than most and tolerating the slow load times as it is the first generation software, but we do want to see that get better. We advise getting another battery if you plan on playing more than four hours a day away from an AC outlet. We do wish that it could be charged via USB and that text input in the Sony operating system menus were easier. It’d be nice to see a demo disc included and an Internet browser within the OS, seeing how easy the WiFi was to setup and get working. Greater Memory Stick Pro Duo storage sizes at more affordable rates should come as the system matures, as the PSP would an amazing powerhouse with 4GB of storage. Sony has raised the bar for not only a handheld gaming device, but for all handheld gadget devices.

A special thanks goes out to Siu-Wai Ho of Kicks Hobby in Seattle, WA for providing the Sony Playstation Portable unit to us a mere 5 days after it’s Japanese release. Thanks bud!

While Cingular may offer the MOTO RAZR V3 for $500 (with two-year contract), they do skimp a bit, as they do not include the nice aluminum case, a Motorola PhoneTools CD nor a USB sync cable, and it only comes with one Bejeweled Demo as the lone game, where retail versions of the RAZR V3 include the missing items, and come with 3 Java games. What they do offer, though, is the cheapest price on the slickest-looking phone available in the US this holiday season. They do lock the quad-band (GSM/GRPS 850/900/1800/1900 MHz) to Cingular service only, but there are stores that provide unlocking service or if you are so inclined, you can probably hack it yourself. Unlocked RAZR V3’s are going for around $650 on eBay.

The packaging is very weak, especially for a phone of this caliber, Motorola’s current flagship model. The phone is boxed like any other Cingular phone, there’s no wow factor at all to give the user of what they are getting. There’s not even a side shot of the phone on the box showing the RAZR slimness. I usually keep product boxes and I’ll probably keep this one, but the box is just flatout plain and boring.

Look Ma! No antenna!
Without question, the biggest draw of the RAZR V3 is the looks. In the incessant Cingular ads, the RAZR slices and dices away, implying razor sharpness when open. What you don’t see in the ads is that the phone is a bit wide. Yes, wide. Not obnoxiously wide, thankfully, but wider than phones that I’ve been used to, namely the Motorola T720 and a Nokia 8290, my last two cellphones. However, I found that it’s still easy to hold even while talking for 30 minutes. The lack of the antenna helps keep the RAZR V3 shapely without any annoying half inch antenna bulges sticking out.

Utilizing magnesium and aluminum has allowed Motorola to keep the RAZR a scant 3.3 ounces. The phone has a solid feel, with no creaking or cheap plastic feeling during normal use. It is easy to flip open or close with one hand, I prefer to open it up with my middle finger of my left hand as it is less stress than bending my thumb in an odd way to open the phone. One handed operation is important to me, as I am often doing several things at once and I try to be as efficient as possible.

I left the phone out in the living room, and it gets quite cold rather fast, no doubt due to the aluminum housing. There have been reports of the phone getting pretty hot sitting out in the sun as well, but as this isn’t sunny season right now in Seattle, I have yet to test this out.

The mini-USB port also jets out just a bit on the back of the phone, ruining the smooth design in the back. I’m surprised they didn’t position the port just up a bit and further down, as that would have made the design on the back more symmetrical.

Screens
The main screen is absolutely gorgeous, a 176×220 pixel TFT LCD screen with 262k colors. It’s a beauty and there’s three skins included to choose from (Moto, Scarlet, and Silver) of which I’m partial to Silver. It’s the most ‘business’ like color and isn’t overly colorful like the others. The front cover LCD looks good and also doubles as the self-portrait LCD (no look at the silver reflection here) after you turn on the camera and close the lid. Look, there’s Yoda, my Yorkshire Terrier, posing for my wallpaper.

The startup time is quite lengthy, I timed 32 seconds from when I pressed On to when I got to my default page with my custom wallpaper. That seems unnecessarily long, so I’ll just turn the ringer off where cellphones aren’t welcome rather than turn it off.

Buttons
The keypad buttons have a tactile feel to them, I’ve found them to have a slight sticky feel to them even after cleaning. While the buttons are flat and do not stick up from the keypad, you can push them in and get a good responsive feel. I found the buttons on the top lid (on the side of the phone) to be a bit of a reach, as you have to move your thumb quite a bit to press those buttons on the left. The top left button on the lid is for Voice Records, the button below that is for Volume (up and down). The button on the right of the LCD is for Voice Name dialing, which is in an easy position to press. Since the keypad lights up blue, it’s easy to dial and use the phone at night or in the dark.

Menus
When you flip open the phone, the Camera and AOL Instant Messenger are default options which are prominently displayed and selectable by two of the three top buttons. The usual navigational icons (up, down, left, right functions) are hidden by default, but if you press any of them, the selected option will appear. All of the default menu options can be changed in the Personalize section of the phone.

Cingular Branding
I find the Cingular branding to be obnoxious. There’s the cingular logo (at least it’s in white and not over the top) on the back of the phone, and when the phone is in use, the bright orange Cingular logo shows up on the top cover LCD until you close the phone. It’s one thing to have the LCD display the cellular network you are on, but the orange logo turns you into an easily seen walking billboard for them. I’d definitely be interested in learning how to hack the phone to remove or change this picture.

Pictures
The RAZR V3 can take VGA resolution pictures, at 640×480 resolution. There is a 4x zoom, but it’s digital and as digital zooms go, pretty awful. The pictures it takes are of a okay quality, but the camera is definitely not this phone’s strong suit. It’s there and it works, but in the age of cheap multi-megapixel cameras, the RAZR’s onboard camera isn’t that impressive. When considering that Nokia has quality 1.3 megapixel cellphone cams, it’s yet another knock on this phone’s camera. Here’s some images (resized) taken by the RAZR:

Call quality
Call quality was superb, very clear, especially for not having an external antenna. It’s definitely the best call quality that I have personally experienced on any cellphone, and the friends I called commented I sounded fine. One in particular said that he couldn’t tell I was calling from a cellphone, whereas before he had always complained when I called on a cell that I sounded like I had just drank a fifth of vodka because of the raspiness in my voice from bad cellphone voice quality.

I do have to note, however, that while the earpiece is very clear while talking, if you move your ear a bit and cover up the small speaker hole, it becomes very muddled and hard to hear. So you don’t want to be jostling too much while talking, or you could miss some important details.

Ringer
I left the ringer to both ring and vibrate when I get a call, and in my pants pocket, the speaker is loud enough that I notice and the vibrate buzzed me enough, much better than my previous phones. I do like the fact that I can set any MP3 as my ringer, but I haven’t decided what I want yet, though, perhaps some Britney Spears will do.

Memory
Built-in storage is only 6MB, and to top it off, there’s no memory card slot at all. So while the RAZR can play MPEG-4 videos, MP3s, and view JPGs, you’re not going to be able to store many of the space hogging videos or MP3 files on the phone. This is a glaring omission, and with some Nokias having 96MB onboard, with even more possible with a memory card, 6MB is just flat-out pathetic.

Battery
The RAZR V3 battery is rated for 7 hours talk time and 10 days of standby, during my testing (talking quite a bit, taking many pictures, Bluetooth file transfers, and playing around with menus) I found that the battery lasted about a day and a half, which is quite a bit, as this would translate to three days with my usual phone usage. I’m satisfied with the battery life, you can’t expect too much out of 680mAh battery. The back cover is a bit awkward to take off and put on, I still can’t do it smoothly. Removing the battery cover will need a fingernail, it’s a tight fit to push in the cover release button.

WAP/Internet
The WAP and Internet experience on this phone is passable, I’m not one for much WAP use at all, I just can’t stand typing without a keyboard of some sort. Since my Cingular plan is not at all geared towards data usage, I did not try to pair it up and use it as a Bluetooth data modem, which I’m not sure is even possible with this phone.

Bluetooth Connectivity
I was able to successfully connect via Bluetooth to my Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop, a Dell Axim X30 Pocket PC, and a Motorola HS810 Bluetooth headset after some initial difficulty. I still think it should be easier (I spent quite a while getting them all to talk to each other), and the Motorola manual was pretty lacking when it came to Bluetooth instructions. For the record, the default passkey for the RAZR V3 is 0000 (are all Bluetooth passkeys set to 0000 as default?), which I couldn’t find anywhere in the manual. That is, I set the passkeys to 0000 on every device and it worked in my case. Bluetooth connectivity definitely should be easier to use.

Using Pocket Informer 5 on my Axim X30, I am able to send a number from my contacts list to be automatically dialed on the RAZR. Pretty neat and useful, however, due to the phone’s limitation, I was not able to use my Motorola HS810 Bluetooth headset if I wanted to use the Axim X30 to dial. I believe it’s the phone can only have one Bluetooth connection at a time, since I successfully used Bluetooth with two devices simultaneously on my laptop, sending a file from the RAZR to my laptop while syncing my Axim X30 at the same time.

Gripes
Yes, even this chic phone isn’t flawless. The front cover does not sit flush with the bottom of the phone. I’m not sure if it’s just my phone, but when closed, the cover sticks up about 1 or 2mm and isn’t smooth when running your fingers up and down. When I push the cover down as much as I can, the cover will sit flush, so it may just be my particular phone (I have yet to see the phone in person at a Cingular store). There also seems like there are some imprints on the LCD screen of the keypad graphics. I don’t think the LCD has been scratched at all, but it is something to watch out for in the long run.

Ideally, I’d like the top cover LCD to always be on so that a thumbnail of my wallpaper and the time would always be bright, but I couldn’t find anything in the options menus to do so. It would also probably be a battery drain, but it’d be nice if I could choose to have that. As it is now, the
LCD backlight turns off 10 seconds after the lid is closed. After the cover is closed, the top LCD shows the current time and wallpaper. But without the backlight on, it’s rather hard to see the top LCD without some light shining on it. In a completely dark room, there’s no way to see the time without flipping the cover open. As I use my phone quite a bit to check the time (no watches for me), I would like to easily see the time without having to fumble with it.

Also, the center Select button, in the middle of the directional arrows, is a bit hard to use, as the circle button is quite small. Using a thumb to control the navigational buttons as most would do, I found myself to accidentally press down or left instead of the center Select button. Fortunately, in almost all menus, you can choose to use the bigger top right button which is also the Select button. You could use your thumbnail to use the circular Select button, but then you may scratch the keys, which I’ve read can happen. And that’ll be one sad day if you scratch up this beauty at all.

Conclusion
Overall, I like this phone a lot. Yes, I’m a sucker for good design, but the phone functions as it should and its features work as advertised. Did I mention the phone looks cool? Do I even have to mention that? Motorola has a winner here and I’m sure that more designer fashion phones are headed our way since this phone will be a success. The only real critical aspect missing in the RAZR V3 is the lack of a memory card slot, or perhaps more onboard memory. The average fashion phone buyer may not care about memory and only about looks, but the fact is there are power users that like nice-looking phones as well, and many will be put off by the lack of memory.

The phone is definitely pricy and it isn’t for everyone, so one should definitely try to scope it out in person before purchasing. I do think it’s a bit overpriced, maybe by $100 or so, but you often do have to pay a bit more to have the absolute latest gadget as you well know.

Introduction
Now, as of July 2004, over 2 million people out there subscribe to Netflix. Most probably at $21.99 per month as well (for 3 out at a time rentals). They have over 25,000 different titles, 16 million total DVDs, and they ship out 3 million DVDs per week. Netflix’s market capatilization is roughly $800M, thus each customer is worth about $400. Netflix has also changed the way of life for us DVD fanatics, not just with no late fees, but with the wide selection of titles available to peruse. But how does one get the most out of the service? Well read on…

The information in this article applies mainly to people that have a Netflix distribution center close enough so that they can get DVDs from Netflix in 1 day, and those that live close enough to a Netflix center so that Netflix receives the DVD back in 1 business day. This article is also geared towards more hardcore Netflix users, not casual Netflix fans that rent 6 titles a month. Though most people should find some use out of this article.

Getting New Releases First
Netflix ‘hides’ the upcoming new releases for the week. When you click on ‘New Releases’ on Netflix, it generally won’t show the titles that were just released or titles coming in the next week. The New Releases may show movies that were released anytime in the past two months. Usually, they won’t show you any titles that have any wait time when you click on any of their links, such as New Releases or Critic’s Picks. If you search using the search box, you can find titles that have a wait time, such as Ringu (the original Japanese version of The Ring). You will find the wait time, if any, only after you click on Add to your Queue. Just as a FYI, new DVD releases are released in stores on Tuesdays, the same day as new music CDs.

Your best bet to finding out what’s coming out in a particular week is checking out TheDigitalReview. There is a calendar in the top left corner of the page, and right underneath that, there is a DVD release list for the upcoming week. That or circulars in your Sunday paper (the Best Buy one is usually adequate) highlight some of the more popular DVD releases. Now that you know what’s coming and which title(s) you may want, type it into search bar in Netflix. Netflix carries ALL the major releases, and some of the more obscure ones as well. They definitely won’t ever have every single DVD that’s being released in a certain week, as they don’t do some of the soft ‘adult’ titles nor some of the sports titles.

What you want to do to be able to get the newest releases as soon as possible is to rank them #1 in priority in your rental Queue. Now, here’s the trick. You want to make sure you return a movie or two on Saturday so that Netflix receives it on Monday. In most cases, Netflix will ship out a new release for you on a Monday. But, if you wait until Monday to return the movie, Netflix won’t receive it until Tuesday. Popular new releases will get ‘sold out’ and Netflix may run out of that title to ship to you when Tuesday comes around. That is why you want to make sure Netflix receives your last rental on Monday.

Thus, even though the Netflix site will say Title X ‘Releases on Aug 31, 2004’, by the end of Tuesday, the title may go to Short Wait or Long Wait status. I had to wait over 2 months to get The Barbershop because it was in such demand. Netflix will not ship out certain new release DVDs on a Monday, but I’ve found in the vast majority of cases that they will ship you out a New Release movie title on Monday. Some DVD TV series, like Knight Rider or Sex in the City, may not get shipped out until Tuesdays. Sometimes you may not be sure when the New Release will get shipped out, but in most cases, Monday is the day they get sent out.

Getting an Extra Day of Rental
Netflix is closed on Saturdays. That means they don’t work at all on Saturdays, well at least they don’t process anything on their website on a Saturday. So anything you send in on a Friday, they will process on Monday morning. So… that means you can get an ‘extra day’ rental for free. How? Well, don’t return any DVDs on a Friday. Return it on Saturday instead, and you get your extra free day, without any penalty. Yes, I know there are no late fees, but this article is about maximizing the Netflix experience, trying to get as many Netflix titles as possible, and assumes you have the time to watch any Netflix titles you get the same day.

Hard to get DVDs
Some of the titles that have long wait times are foreign DVDs. Netflix doesn’t carry 100s of a foreign title like they do for Pirates of the Caribbean. The hardest to get TV titles are the Disc 1’s of any season. I’ve heard of people waiting several weeks to get the first disc of The Sopranos or Nip/Tuck. 24, Alias, and Smallville were also hard to get at one point. When I rent a TV series on DVD, I hate to watch it out of order, as does the majority of people. Thus, the first discs are high in demand. Certain shows, like CSI, may not have as much necessity to watch the series in order, whereas it’s critical to watch 24 from first disc to last disc. If you want to preview a show that doesn’t require you to sit through them in order, check out Disc 2 or 3 of a set, as they will more likely be Available Now.

New Users Availability
Also, trial users (or new Netflix subscribers) will find that pretty much ALL movies (except perhaps rare out of print) titles will be Available Now. This is to try and keep the new subscriber as a customer. A very smart tactic from a business standpoint. Customer acquisition and retention is key to growth. So if you are new, you won’t have any problems getting any DVD you want. Your ability to get any title at any time will get lessen as time goes on, apparently. See the Netflix Allocation Study.

Netflix Distribution Centers
At last count, Netflix has 28 distribution centers. They are located in: Atlanta, GA; Birmingham, AL; Boston, MA; Chattanooga, TN; Chicago, IL; Cleveland, OH; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; Fort Lauderdale, FL; Greensboro, NC; Houston, TX; Lakeland, FL; Los Angeles, CA; Minneapolis, MN; New York, NY; Newark, NJ; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; Portland, OR; Richmond, VA; Rochester, NY; St. Louis, MO; San Jose, CA; Seattle, WA; Stamford, CT; Tampa, FL; Washington, DC. I notice a lot of the high tech cities, like San Jose, Seattle, Greensboro have a Netflix distribution center. Gotta satisfy us geeks! If you live within one mailing day of any of these cities, you will get your next Netflix title in one business day. I have no idea how close you have to be to these cities to be able to receive DVDs in one day.

Maximum Number of Rentals
With the three out at a time level, the maximum number of DVDs you can likely get in a month’s time is roughly 24 DVDs. This is assuming you watch your DVDs and return them the following day. Thus, the cycle would be like this:

Monday – Netflix Ships out 3 DVDs
Tuesday – you receive 3 DVDs, watch them all
Wednesday – you mail back the 3 DVDs
Thursday – Netflix receives the 3 DVDs, and ships you out 3 more DVDs
Friday – you receive 3 DVDs, watch them all
Saturday – you mail back the 3 DVDs
Monday – the cycle repeats all over again…

Thus, you could get 6 DVDs a week and 24 a month. Holidays and other postal office closures do muck up the cycle. Though technically, you could receive the DVDs in the morning, watch them throughout the day, and mail them back the same day at your post office…

While this is the maximum number of DVDs you could get, there are times when Netflix will take more than one day to get you your next title. I have found that the more obscure movies (foreign ones especially) may not ship from your nearest distribution center. If it ships from a different distribution center, it may take 2 to 3 days for you to get that title, and that lowers the maximum number of DVDs as well. But $21.99 + tax in most areas for roughly 20-24 rentals is a good deal. It makes your per DVD rental price only $1. Even if you rent only 10 movies a month, it’s still only roughly $2 per DVD. And no late fees to boot! From Netflix’s own stats, with 2 million subscribers and them shipping out 3 million per week, it looks as though the average (or would that be median?) consumer rents only 6 movies a month. I have heard of people with the 8-out at a time plan getting 56 or 60 movies in a month. I have no idea how they have so much time to watch all these movies.

Comparisons with Other Online Rental Sites
With Wal-Mart DVD Rentals only being $18.76 a month for 3 out at a time, and Blockbuster’s new service being $19.99 a month for 3 out plus a few free in-store rentals, the $21.99 for Netflix seems rather pricy. That is, until you try the other services and notice they absolutely SUCK. Last time I tried Wal-Mart, their selection was shoddy, and it took forever for them to ship me out a new movie. When they did, it was at least 2 days for me to get it.

Blockbuster was even more ridiculous. Their receiving center is in the same city as me, and I know they got it the next day after I shipped it. But, they didn’t list it as received on their site until 2 DAYS later. And then, after that, they still didn’t send out a new title for another day. Ugh, what’s the point? There’s my mini Blockbuster Rentals review. If you are trying to enter a new market, especially one that has a dominant player, you need to make sure your service is up to par, if not better, than the dominant company’s. Price alone really ain’t gonna cut it. Well, it may, for someone uninitiated to Netflix, but it’ll be hard to convert anyone that has tried Netflix. Still, I miss the old $19.99 price point, there’s just something psychologically beneficial of knowing it’s under $20 (one bill) rather than $21.99 (three bills!). Though there is tax for Netflix in most states as well.

Cancelling Your Account / Customer Service Phone Number
If you try to CANCEL your Netflix account online (from the Your Account link), Netflix in most cases will try to keep you as a customer by offering a lower rate for a few months. I have yet to try this myself, but I have read reports of this working and the member saving a few bucks. Netflix’s customer support phone number is 1-888-638-3549, which is not listed on their website anywhere.

My Gripes & Wish List
I have, at times, noticed that Netflix doesn’t always ship out a movie the same day they receive one of your returns. This is completely unacceptable. That’s fine if a movie is not shipped from the nearest distribution center, but there is no excuse for not shipping out another movie the same day. I have no idea why this happens, and the few times I tried emailing customer service, they basically said, “It happens” and offered no reason. I’ve had this happen perhaps once every 2-3 weeks, but still it irks me. Perhaps it is to make you wait more so they can maximize a bit more profit, but hey, they don’t work Saturdays!

Being a long-term subscriber of Netflix (over two years), I am amazed that not more DVDs are cracked or non-working when they get to me. I’d say roughly 2% of DVDs (1 out of every 50) have come to me with any problem. Usually it’s some large-sized scratch which makes parts or all of a movie unplayable. I’d like to see Netflix offer some kind of temporary extra DVD to your account when that happens. So if you rent 3 movies, and movie #3 has a problem, Netflix will send out another copy of movie #3 along with another DVD (#4) in your queue to make up for it after you tell them of the problem with movie #3. I’ve also been naughty and tried to swap a series disc with another one’s jacket. I purposely mixed two of The Simpsons DVDs on purpose (putting disc 1 in disc 2’s jacket and vice versa). It took an extra day for them to report ‘receiving’ one of the DVDs, and the other one was lost altogether and I had to report it as so. Thus, don’t mess with the DVD processing people, they don’t like it when you try to mess with them.

I noticed that Netflix now shows some movie trailers for certain movies (like The Butterfly Effect). It’d be nice if Netflix also linked to a movie’s original Web site provided the movie had one. That and an Internet Movie Database link would be nice, though I highly doubt Netflix would ever link to that, since IMDB is an Amazon.com property. The recommendations feature is very nice and I have found a few good movies that way. It’s amazing to me that the average Netflix subscriber has rated about 150 movies. They do make it very easy to rate a movie, which I like. I’ve only rated about 100.

I’d like to see wait time listed in expanded details of a movie. It’s ridiculous that you have to add a movie to your queue before finding out if there is a wait time or not. See Ringu (if you subscribe to Netflix). There’s no reason that the wait time isn’t listed right then and there. If someone on IRC or IM tells you of a hot movie you just have to see, you want to know immediately if you can get it in 2-3 days. Movies that have no wait time would thus have a Available Now written on the details page. It shouldn’t be hard at all to implement this into their site.

Netflix also really needs to add a Search bar in their Queue page. I believe the function used to be there, but they changed it out during their last redesign. I find it extremely annoying to have to go back to Browse just to search for a movie. Heck, ALL websites should have a search button on every
page.

Conclusion
Overall, Netflix is a great service. There is a free 10 day or 2 week trial for any new members. I’ve always recommended them to friends and family and they do deliver what they promise. The selection is awesome and beats any local video store. There can be some improvements, but the service, in general, is superb in bringing you entertainment. My favorite part is the wide selection they offer, though I would like them to see add more PrideFC and UFC fighting DVDs, but they have been improving on that the last few months.

TheDigitalReview

Netflix Allocation Study

Netflix Company Stats

Lexus Taste of Luxury Review
www.LexusTasteOfLuxury.com

Seattle, WA (at Alki in an empty parking lot)
August 7-8, 2004
8am to 6pm

This is a BIG event. You wouldn’t think it’s that big driving up, but the tents are absolutely huge. Definitely not your flyby affair. The entrance is pretty flashy, with the Lexus fleet outside the entrance. After signing in, getting my access pass, and signing my life away on a disclaimer form so I can’t sue Lexus, they did a little introduction on the whole event. The beginning short introduction by a Lexus orientation person made me feel like it was one of those timeshare pitches, but thankfully, it was a short introduction to the event, and at most took 5 minutes. It made me wonder what percentage of people here already had a Lexus vehicle or previously had one.

The event is one big sales pitch, but very elegant and everything is free. It’s all about selling the Lexus brand as luxurious, and I think they pull it off very well. Lexus promotes the ‘luxury’ of their brand nicely.

After the introduction, there’s a few display rooms, that showcase the Lexus technology and innovation. They had an RX400h, the soon-to-come Lexus Hybrid on display, as well as a room to showcase the Mark Levinson sound system that are available on Lexus models. There is a free buffet (apparently you are only supposed to go through once though?), as well as free golf instruction with a putting green and a net setup with a golf pro analyzing your swing. Tiger Woods, I am not. I whiffed a few times, but he gave me some good tips, mainly on form. Then again, I haven’t swung a club in 2 years now. There is a kid’s area as well and there were cooking demonstrations as well throughout the day. So they have the women and children covered. The main thing there, though, was of course, the test drive courses! One regular road course for all non-SUVs, and a SUV drive course for the SUVs. The food was good, not great, but still good, there was cheese, veggies with dip, Caesar salad, quiche, turkey, and some club sandwiches. Also, fruit and cookies for dessert. Free water, pop, and I believe coffee and espresso too.

I will be focusing most on handling and luxury, as that’s the main criteria the event allows me to critique. I also didn’t take too many pix, as I forgot to bring a second Smartmedia card with me. All shots taken with an Olympus D-40 4megapixel, then shrunk down with Photoshop.

First off, BMW’s iDrive absolutely sucks. I dunno what idiot came up with this interface, but they obviously never had user’s inputs or tested it out before it was implemented widely (in the 7 and 5 series). I had about 5 minutes in the car to wait before I could test drive the 745i, so I tried to fiddle with the radio. What did I want to do? All I wanted was to set the radio to C89.5 (local high school dance station). I COULDN’T FIGURE IT OUT. Lemme tell you this, if I can’t figure it out in 5 minutes, there’s not much hope for the middle-aged successful person to be able to use this interface easily on a
daily basis. (Did you ever see Ozzy Osbourne try to change stations in his 7 series on his MTV reality show? The words ’@#$#$% $@^&$#@$’ came to him rather quickly.

They had a lot of the Lexus vehicles on hand, so the lines were fairly short for any Lexus vehicle. They had 3 SC430 convertibles on hand. Luckily, the weather cooperated today, as it was a bit overcast when I first got there at 11am, then later it became sunny. The lower end Lexus cars were not that popular to test drive (IS300, ES330) as more people wanted to try the high end convertibles (Cadillac XLR, Jaguar XK8, Lexus SC430) and ultra luxury cars (Mercedes S430, BMW 745i, Lexus LS430.

My opinion of the SC430 beforehand wasn’t too favorable, as I never liked the styling too much. But, boy, it was a blast to drive. It’s fairly compact, but very sporty and has some power (300 hp). Though not as grippy as the German cars in general, it had quite a bit of punch and had good handling. The Mercedes SL500 was noticeably absent, that definitely would have given the SC430 a run for its money.

It helps to be a line manipulator during this kind of event, as if you are smart with lines, you wait a lot less and get a lot more ‘seat action’. The longest lines consistently were the Cadillac XLR, Jaguar XK8, and BMW 745i. Many times, there are no lines for a certain car, so whoever jumps out there first can just drive it on the course. The Lexus GS430 and ES330 very often had no wait times.

The test course is a bit short, it starts with a little straightaway with a speedgun telling you speed through the section in mph. Then there is a sharp turn before a short series of slalom series (left right left right turns). Some nice left turns, then you come into an area where a Lexus representative throws foam blocks at you and you try to avoid it. Pretty pointless in my opinion. Then there is a few more sweeping turns, but nothing major. The course is pretty good and does help you get a feel of the handling of every car. I got used to the course after my first run, which was in a GS430. I pushed each and every car to its limits, but didn’t hit a cone at all. I almost always managed to catch up to the person in front of me, so I started to resort to fully stopping after the first real left turn, after the slalom and before the foam blocks. That allowed me to go full throttle without havint to wait for the person in front of me.

I’m disappointed the initial straightaway isn’t a bit longer, but I’m sure Lexus didn’t want people driving 50 or 60 mph in their $60-80k cars on such a course. The course overall is shorter than I would have liked, but you can just drive the cars over and over again if you like. I drove the SC430 three times, as the lines for it were never long. Whenever I had a passenger (friend or family member) while I was driving, I would sufficiently freak them out by driving all out on the course. I’m pretty sure they knew I was in control of the car at all times, but generally, most people don’t drive the course as if they were racing and most take their sweet time, which is their right.

It’s a very fun event, as the comparison driving can help you decide which car is right for you. It’s nice to be able to drive a BMW 745i, Mercedes S430 and Lexus LS430 in succession on the same track. Did I mention iDrive sucks? The Mercedes S430 is really old school and outclassed at this point, as it seriously can’t compete with the 7 or LS430. Gotta wait for the next generation S-series to see what Mercedes-Benz can bring to the table. They also had a Mercedes E500 on hand, and it shows what Mercedes can do. I liked the E500 a lot, too bad they didn’t have the AMG E55 beast on hand. I still think the Bimmer 7 handled the best out of all the luxury sedans. Though I may be a bit BMW-biased (we have a 2002 325i), I still hate the Chris Bangle design of the 7 and the new 5. The LS430 definitely wins for luxury, but even in the sport model I drove, the LS430 felt a bit floaty and wasn’t as gripping to the ground as the German engineered sedans. It’s luxury defined and has the best audio. The GPS screen is pretty nice and isn’t small like some other models. The Lexus LS430 has the great Mark Levinson sound system and is great for an overall ‘cruising’ vehicle. Perfect for long trips, it can heat up your butt with the heat warmers, or cool it down as well with cool air flowing through the seat. The BMW and Mercedes felt more balanced and handling felt tighter as a result. I’m very impressed by the 7’s driving capabilities (it’s a huge sucker!), but I’d never buy it because of iDrive… NEVER! Though if someone were to give me a 7 series, I guess I would take it. The 745i definitely felt more like a driver’s car then the other two, but that’s what all Bimmer fanatics say, eh? The tight handling was awesome for such a large car.

As I went through the course with practically all the cars, I did go through some tire squeal and wheel spin, especially with traction control off. As I came around after finishing the course with an Acura TL 3.2, a Lexus representative asked me, “Can I ask a favor of you? Can you just tone it down a notch?” They are even nice when telling you to chill. That’s the only warning I got throughout the whole day. I definitely drove harder with many other models, but the TL definitely gave me the most tire squealing and wheel spin. I wasn’t too fond of the TL at all, definitely would prefer a Lexus or a BMW to one.

There’s me in the GS430 behind a BMW 545i. For sporty lower end market, I’m glad they had the BMW 330i there as a comparison to the Lexus IS300, as many car mags compare the IS300 to the smaller engined 325i. I felt very comfortable on the course with the 330i and felt it handled better than either the IS300 or the Infiniti G35. Though of course, my modded 325i’s handling beats the 330i’s stock hands-down. The IS300 was good, it’s definitely a better bargain when you compare it to the 330i (probably close to $10k), but I just don’t feel it handles as well as the 330i. That’s just my personal opinion, of course. The G35 was decent, but I had higher hopes of it before I drove it and it was sort of a let down. I’d definitely choose a IS300 over a G35, though I haven’t driven the G35 coupe yet. Or the Nissan 350Z.

For the convertibles there, I was pleasantly surprised by the Jaguar XK8 Cabriolet. Though it didn’t have as many luxuries inside as the SC430, it was a good driving experience. I’ve always heard horror stories about the durability of Jag, and probably wouldn’t ever choose to own one. The Cadillac XLR was one of the rides I most wanted to test drive. Too bad it was quite a let down. The XLR looks very slick, but the 320hp in it felt underpowered for such a car. I thought they were going to have the Corvette engine in the XLR? I guess the XLR-V will have that engine, with 400hp. The XLR seems way overpriced for $76k or so, as the SC430 is only around $55k invoice to start. The SC430 really got me. It’s very compact, and felt very quick and zoomy. The 300hp V8 in it powers the car perfectly, and turns were tight. Definitely my favorite Lexus car to date. I liked it so much I gave it a spin three times, although part of that is because the lines for it were so short).

The sporty luxury class featured the Lexus GS430, BMW 545i, and the Mercedes E500. My favorite out of these were the E500 by far. The GS430 definitely needs the upgrade that is coming, as it really didn’t feel too ‘sporty’. It still feels a bit floaty. The 545i is marred by the stupid, annoying iDrive (though I finally did get the radio to work), but felt good to drive. I still don’t like the boxy design of the 5. The E500’s 302hp V8 felt very smooth, and I liked it’s handling. The next gen Mercedes are ones to watch, especially the AMG versions.

Since there were higher end similar models available, I didn’t test drive the Lexus GS300, BMW 530i, or the Mercedes Benz E320 at all. I’m pretty sure that they are similar to their big brothers except for engine size.

There is an offroad track as well, which was interesting. But, really, who’s gonna take their $60k SUVs out into the wildnerness to trash about and offroad? I’m pretty disappointed by the Cadillac Escalade, as you’d think it’d be better because all the stars and wannabe stars have them. It’s very sparse, and doesn’t compare in terms of luxury to the Lexus LX470 or BMW X5 4.4i or the Range Rover HSE. After driving the X5 and Range, the Caddy doesn’t even feel like it’s in the same class. That’s how big of a difference it felt to me. The LX470 surprised me on the offroad course, as it was very, very capable climbing the large hill as well as the small bumps and the side to side bump. I have no idea what to call such a course, as I’d never done offroading at all before. My favorites were definitely the X5 for pure driving, as it did feel more like a car when you are driving it, rather than a big SUV. The Range Rover really impressed me as well, it has a good BMW-designed engine inside (with 282hp), and felt very luxurious as well. I felt it did best on the offroad course. The Lexus wins again in my opinion for overall luxury, as it has the options for the best sound (Mark Levinson system), and just makes you feel very dignified when driving it. The LX470 does make you feel like you are floating on air, as it’s very quiet inside.

Anyways, the offroading bored me after two runs through the course. I didn’t dare drive too fast through any of the sections, as it really does feel like you can ‘break’ the SUV by pushing it too hard. I guess the SUVs are built pretty well, as I’m sure each SUV has already been taken through the course hundreds and hundreds of times. I started driving with just one hand, and the last run I just took pictures while driving. The best part of the offroading course is the side to side hills (see above picture) where you really feel like your car can tilt.

For the mini SUVs (Lexus RX330, Acura MDX, Volvo XC90, and BMW X3) there is a smaller offroading course, with bumps and smaller hills. They were a bore to drive, all of them. I wasn’t impressed with any of those SUVs at all, though if they were on the regular road course, it would have been a lot more fun. I would have liked to take the Range and X5 to other course, or at least have a chance to get more of a feel of the car, as like I said above, who really is going to be going offroading with one of these? .01% of the buyers?

The event is VERY well run, and did represent the image Lexus wants to project. I’d be happy to ever attend any Lexus event at anytime. I’m glad that they never had a Lexus rep babysit you and sit with you while driving any of the vehicles. A friend told me that at a car show where they let you test drive cars, there was a rep that bossed you around when you drove the Chevrolet Corvette z06. Unfortunately, there were no real sports cars on display to test drive, nor were there any models with stick-shift. There were plenty with the pseudo manual-matic (like BMW 330i), but it’s definitely still not the same as a manual. The funny thing is, they let you turn off the Traction Control. Well, that or they don’t know or care. At the auto show my pal went to, they put tape over the Traction Control buttons so people couldn’t turn it off. Since many, many people aren’t too familiar with the cars to begin with, I’m sure many a person went through the course with Traction Control off. I didn’t mind, as it was definitely more fun to push a 330i through the course with TC off. (Just hold the DSC button down for 8-10 seconds). It’s a bit surprising that some of the Lexus people working weren’t too familiar with the cars (for example, they weren’t sure when a 545i or the 745i pulled up). Not really much of a gripe, as they handled the lines very well. Thankfully Lexus doesn’t make minivans, or I’d still be there waiting for people to finish the course. Heh heh.

I also wished they would have the speed reading a bit further back, perhaps before the first sharp left turn. The way it’s setup, it’s about in the middle of the first straightaway. I spoke with the person that manned the car queue, and he said that the fastest he’s seen on the reading was 33mph. And it was in a SC430. Though he said it was the driver, there’s really not much you can do with a automatic to make it go faster than the next guy. He said the SC430 was consistently getting figures close to that as well. I didn’t really pay attention to the reading much, but I know I got 30 or 31 more than a few times.

I’d suggest getting there early or late, as the lines seemed to be longest between noon and 2pm. I stayed from 11am to about 3:30pm. It was very entertaining, and definitely one of the best free events I have been to. Everything is first-rate, from the cars, to the presentation, to the displays, to even the bathroom. Yes, I’m weird, but I took pix of the bathroom trailer. I’ve never seen such a luxurious bathroom on wheels. I’d be interested to see how much Lexus spent for these two days on this event. Perhaps $500k or so (not including the price of the cars)? There’s a LOT of staff and food and free gifts can’t be all that cheap. There was probably a few hundred people there during the time I was there. My parents had such a fun time, they wanted their friends to come and enjoy the experience. Lexus was very nice about it, and allowed anyone that didn’t RSVP to just sign up if they came in. But, since you just read this review, go RSVP for free at the Lexus site. I can see future events being very busy if everyone finds out about this. I believe this was the fourth year of the Taste of Luxury event, but the first in Seattle. There’s some time for all you Seattleites to go for Sunday, which should be a great day, weather-wise, a nice 80 to 85 and sunny for Seafair and the hydroplanes.

I definitely look forward to the Lexus Taste of Luxury in 2005! I highly suggest going to such an event if one comes to an area near you, as long as you like cars, you should have a good time. Even my Mom, who isn’t much of a car fan at all, had a great time. Oh, did I mention I met the Michelin Man? He or she didn’t talk though, so it mighta been a woman inside! That alone is worth going for! After you leave, they give you a free gift if you fill out a questionnaire regarding your experience there. Very nicely packaged in a Lexus vinyl-ish bag, you get a nice Lexus brochure along with a leather or pleather) case where you can store some photos. It comes with a $25 MSRP book Road Trip USA by Jamie Jensen. Very nice freebie, although my friend lamented it would have been nice if Lexus gave out an organizer with a Lexus logo on it. That way, people would actually use it, and when using it, it would further expose and enhance the Lexus brand. while this is a nice free souvenir, it’s just going to end up on one of my bookshelves somewhere.

Here’s the below upcoming Lexus Taste of Luxury events for the rest of 2004.

Seattle, WA: August 7-8, 2004
Detroit, MI: August 14-15, 2004
Chicago, IL: August 28-29, 2004
Columbus, OH: September 4-5, 2004
Englishtown, NJ: September 11-12, 2004
Atlanta, GA: October 9-10, 2004
Washington, D.C.: October 16-17, 2004
Fort Lauderdale, FL: October 30-31, 2004
Houston, TX: November 6-7, 2004
Dallas, TX: November 20-21, 2004

www.LexusTasteOfLuxury.com

Review here