When it first came out, Sony's original PlayStation managed to beat off all established competition and became a byword for video gaming itself. Now the Japanese giant is clearly trying to pull the same trick again, albeit on a slightly smaller scale, with the PlayStation Portable, or PSP for short.

One thing's for sure, Sony's design team has certainly been doing its job properly. If your kid doesn't want one, then you'd better check start checking for a pulse. And when you see it, the chances are you'll probably want one too.

Slim, shiny and black, the PSP is a little bigger than your average Game Boy, but that's due in part to the 4.3in widescreen LCD screen. Control-wise, the designers have had a good stab at recreating the PlayStation's Dual Shock joypad in portable form, even down to a minute analogue stick for refined handling of in-game characters and vehicles.

Rather than going the traditional game-cartridge route favoured by most portable gaming devices, Sony has opted for a whole new disc format. Universal Media Discs (UMDs) can fit about 1.8Gb worth of data on them, which is plenty of room for games, music and even whole movies.

Indeed, the PSP launch catalogue contains several Hollywood blockbusters as well as actual games. And it's this multimedia aspect that might just help the device cross over to mass-market appeal.

The thing is that the PSP isn't just a games console; it's more like a portable digital media player. With a slot for a Memory Stick memory card (a 32Mb card is provided) the PSP can also be used to store and play photos, music and video. The unit features a USB 2 port to connect to a PC, although you'll need to buy the cable separately.

Transferring pictures and tunes (either MP3s or Sony's ATRAC format) is a breeze, but getting movies onto a PSP is complex and isn't adequately explained in the instruction booklet.

The PSP is also Wi-Fi compatible, so it can wirelessly compete with other PSP owners, connect to the internet for multiplayer gaming, downloading files or browsing the web.

The screen, although large and colourful, is easy to smudge. Worse is the threat of dead pixels, where some of the tiny dots that make up the screen cease to function and show up as annoying little marks. This has plagued many US and Japanese gamers.

A few other quibbles aside (tinny-sounding built-in speakers) the PSP is an extremely smart piece of kit. Whether it can convince non-gamers to part with £180, however, only time will tell.