Boxwave PSP GameShield Play Through Design
www.Boxwave.com
Price: $12.95

Wrapping up our reviews of the Boxwave GameShields is our review of the Play Through Design GameShield. The GameShield lineup is made up of cheaper cases made to provide good protection for the front of the PSP (including the buttons and screen).

Coming in a simple blister pack, there really are no retail packaging marks on the packaging that the GameShield comes in. This is ok though as Boxwave products are sold through their website only and are not meant to be on a store's shelf. Most of their products either come in a simple white box or a all white blister pack (like this GameShield), so a simple blister pack for the GameShield is really no issue and is something to be expected.

Mounting the GameShield on your PSP is very simple. It attaches by using two thumbscrews that attach to the holes on either side of the USB port on the top of the PSP. There are no tools required to install the GameShield, and the thumbscrews are attached to the case so you will not lose them when you do not have the GameShield attached.

The Play Through Design GameShield is very similar to the Enhanced GameShield, but it does not feature the Enhanced buttons. Instead it just has cutouts for the D-Pad, Thumb pad, and Standard (triangle, circle, square, X) buttons. The cutouts all seemed to be very well lined up, plus the edges of the cutouts are angled in so that you get a smooth transition between the surface of the shield and the buttons. For range of mobility, the thumb pad did not seem to be blocked very much at all and there was no clear problem when playing games with the thumb pad.

To protect the screen, the GameShield simply covers the screen with the same clear plastic the whole shield is made of. This provides good protection in my mind since it is a hard plastic and it is also very clear so it will not make the screen look bad. There is a lot of glare though as the shield glares even more than the stock PSP screen.

Being a shield, the protection for the rest of the PSP is not as great as other cases out there, but being a shield it protects the most important part of the PSP (the screen) and makes it so you can throw your PSP in your pocket and have an extremely low profile protection system on your PSP.

Overall the GameShield Play Through is a very good low profile case that provides good protection for the screen without adding bulk or making it harder to use your PSP. In my mind it is the next step up from a standard screen protector!

Pros:

• Low Bulk
• Good Protection for the Screen
• Simple to put on and remove
• Low Price

Cons:

• No protection for the rest of the PSP

Thanks to Boxwave for the Review Sample!