Proporta PSP Recharge Grip
www.Proporta.com
Price: $18.95
Our Rating:

If you are one of those people that just cannot get enough of playing your PSP while you are traveling, you have probably found out that the PSP's battery does not last for the longest time (around 3-4 hours at best). There is the option of getting another standard battery, or buying the expanded battery, but both of those solutions are quite costly. That is where Proporta has come up with a great solution that is very cost effective.

The Recharge Grip from Proporta actually is a 2 in 1 type product as it does two things at once. First off, it adds a new grip to the PSP that can make it easy to hold and as Proporta says "your PSP will feel more like a PlayStation 2 DualShock Controller". For those of you with bigger hands (like myself), this could be a very good thing since the little thumb stick can sometimes be a bit hard to get at because of its positioning towards the edge of the PSP.

In use, the grip itself I found made using the PSP much easier. I liked how much easier it was to hold the PSP and use the thumb stick, plus it made the PSP contour to your hands much better than just the two small bump outs that are on the back of the PSP. Of course this experience will vary person to person, but with my larger hands I found it to be a very nice experience.

To be extra portable, the grip slides together in the middle to save room. It securely slides and clicks into place as well so there are no worries of it sliding closed when it is open and on your PSP.

Now on to the second even more interesting features of the recharge grip, the battery. That's right, the recharge grip also contains a battery inside. You may have noticed the small cord that sticks out of the bottom of the grip and that is what plugs into the PSP's power connector. Once plugged in, the PSP acts like it is being charged (the power light goes to amber), and your playtime is much improved. I have not been able to do a full test as I always seem to get bored with playing before the battery goes dead, but on Proporta's site, they say that you can expect up to 10 hours of power out of the recharge grip! For me this seems like a great addition for longer trips (for example on airplanes) where you cannot charge your PSP but would like to be playing with it most of the time.

This seems like a very cool feature, but I am sure you are thinking, o great another charger to carry around as well, but wait, there's not one in the package? Well, they did not make a mistake and not send you one, the recharge grip actually charges from your normal PSP adapter! Up on the side of the recharge grip there is plug-in that you plug the PSP adapter into to charge the grip.

To see the inside of the unit, I voided the warranty and took a closer look at the inside:

It is very simple inside, with a simple sliding plate and what looks to be 4 AA Batteries. They are unmarked so I cannot give you a mAh or capacity, but they are similar to 4AA.

With all the great features, you may wonder why I gave the recharge grip 3/5 for a rating. Well there are a few reasons to this. One of the biggest ones in my book is that the construction seems to be a bit flimsy and when the grip is not on your PSP, it easily flexes and bends quite a bit. Another reason is that there is no status light to tell you if the battery is full charged or not, and if it is running low or not. Finally, there is no protection for the clips that clip the grip onto your PSP, while the clips do hold the grip very securely to your PSP, since they are unprotected, they could possibly cause scratching over time.

Pros:

• Lightweight/Portable (slides together)
• Adds lots of playtime to your PSP
• Makes it much easier to use Thumb Stick for people with big hands

Cons:

• No protection for clips that mount it to your PSP
• No status light for battery
• Somewhat cheap construction

Thanks to Proporta for the Review Sample!