By Sherwin Loh, Media Reporter

ONE week after the launch of Sony's first-ever handheld game device in Japan on Dec 12 last year, Singaporean salesman Magnum Lee managed to get his hands on a unit.

He shelled out $999 - almost twice the market price of $530 in Japan - for the PlayStation Portable, or PSP, which he bought online. Mr Lee, 30, was one of the lucky ones. On the second day of the launch, the first batch of 200,000 units was sold out in Japan. To date, over 800,000 units have been sold.

In fact, so big is the buzz surrounding the PlayStation Portable that reports predict it to be the strongest threat to Japanese game maker Nintendo's hold on the portable gaming market.

Nintendo's Game Boy series has dominated the portable market since the early 1990s. On Nov 21 last year, it upped the ante by unveiling the innovative Nintendo DS (Dual Screen), which retails for $279 here. Games, which are sold separately, cost $65 each. Using a touch pad for game control, it is also the first portable system to have two screens.

While DS has since sold over a million units worldwide, reports from Japan indicate that the PSP is catching up.

The key difference between the two is that besides its gaming function, the PSP plays video and music as well, accounting for its higher price.

In fact, because of its music function, the PSP is also being compared to the Apple iPod, which retails for $548 and can store thousands of songs.

In Singapore, hardcore gamers are using their contacts in Japan to buy the PSP from Japanese retailers and ship them in. Games for the PSP, which are sold separately, go for around $90 and can be bought online and at game shops here. The price Mr Lee paid included a game of his choice.

Student Shafril Mahindra, 19, also paid $999 for his PSP, which he got through a friend in Japan two weeks after the launch. His set came with four games.

He bought it not only for its games but also to play music. 'My bus journey takes around 15 minutes every day, so I don't need a music device that stores hours of music. I also use it to watch videos on the bus,' he says.

A check with three dealers reveals that the price for the PSP has since levelled to $599, including one free game.

Mr Eric Hoo, 28, who runs Anime At Hobby in Excelsior Shopping Centre, managed to bring in 15 units from Japan last month through a friend. They were snapped up within a week.

'I even sold my PSP to a friend because he kept bugging me for it,' he says.

Sony is expected to launch the PSP in the United States next month for US$249 (S$450). While Sony Singapore has not revealed a launch date here, observers say they expect the PSP to be available here in May for about $450 to $500.

But why aren't gamers willing to wait and pay a lower price? 'It's about getting gadgets first-hand, especially when it comes to the PlayStation,' says freelance artist Leonard Tan, 28, who bought his PSP last month for $700.

Hardcore gamers also fear that future batches of the PSP will not be made and assembled in Japan but in China.

Sony, Japan's leading electronics manufacturer, made its name in the game industry in 1994 with the launch of the original PlayStation game console, widely known as the PSOne.

The PSOne, which connects to a TV set, has since sold 100 million units worldwide, beating out industry veterans like Nintendo and Sega.

Sony's second console, the PlayStation 2 or PS2, was launched in 2000 and has reportedly sold 74 million units worldwide.

The PSP was announced in 2003 and the prototype was unveiled in May last year.

Life! managed to get its hands on one of the highly sought-after PSP units from Japan to see what the hype is about.

For a start, the PSP handles MP3 files and movies very well.

But while the Apple iPod has an internal memory, the PSP uses memory sticks which are sold separately. This means users will have to spend more on memory sticks. A 512MB stick, which can hold around 150 songs, retails for around $180.

The iPod, however, comes packaged with only four rudimentary games, while Sony is still churning out game titles for the PSP, with about 20 games available now.

Media files can be transferred to the PSP using a computer and a USB cable. The PSP also comes with built-in acoustic presets to cater to different music genres.

It also uses a new storage device - UMD or Universal Media Disc - for its games. It is able to store 1.8 gigabytes of data or about 2 1/2 times that of a regular CD, and Sony is trying to get movie studios to release movies on UMD format. The US launch of the PSP will reportedly come with the Spider-Man 2 movie on UMD.

While the PSP is relatively big - about two thirds the size of a DVD casing - it fits nicely into both hands, which are required to play the games.

Held horizontally, the majority of the unit is covered by the 4.3-inch LCD screen, which makes it one of the largest displays in the handheld market.

Located on the left and right of the screen are the game controls, which double up as the controls for the music and video playback. The unit also comes with English instructions, so no Japanese classes are needed to figure out the controls.

Games, however, are in Japanese. But Mr Lee points out that game controls are much like for the PSOne and PS2, making gameplay intuitive for longtime gamers. 'It's a very beautiful device and what longtime gamers have expected from Sony.'