Comparing the Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and Apple iPhone/Touch

Posted by Jody Mitoma on March 22, 2008 at 12:16 pm

Comparing Mobile Gaming Systems

Continuing with the story below, Roughly Drafted Magazine also provided full detailed specs of the Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and Apple iPhone, which I thought was worthy of sharing with you all this afternoon.

Check out the stats below:

Nintendo DS: Late 2004
67 MHz ARM 946E-S (N-Gage processor) + 33 MHz ARM7TDMI (same processor as the original iPods)
4MB RAM
256KB Flash + cartridge storage
Dual, 256×192 3“ displays; one is stylus touch sensitive
No accelerometers
No camera
No mobile radio
WiFi 802.11b/g
No Bluetooth

Sony PSP: Late 2004
333 MHz MIPS R4000 CPU + GPU with 2 MB onboard VRAM running at 166 MHz
32 MB main RAM (new models expanded to 64MB), and 4 MB embedded DRAM. MemoryStick storage, UMD media
480×272 (368×207 usable for video); no touch screen features
No accelerometers
No camera
No mobile radio
WiFi 802.11b
No Bluetooth

Apple iPhone: Mid 2007
Samsung ARM SoC 620 MHz 1176 running at 412 Mhz + PowerVR MBX 3D GPU
128MB RAM
8 or 16GB Flash storage
320×480 3.5” display with finger multitouch input
Accelerometers for direct physical control
2 Megapixel camera
Quad band GSM + EDGE
WiFi 802.11 b/g
BlueTooth 2.0 EDR

Looks to me the iPhone and Touch are better in every way.

(Source: Roughtly Drafted Magazine)

2 Responses to “Comparing the Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and Apple iPhone/Touch”

toomuchcaffeine said:

March 22nd, 2008 at 12:21 pm

I can’t wait until June. Its becoming more and more obvious that the iPhone and iPod Touch are going to be full featured gaming platforms that may even compete against the likes of the DS and PSP, especially since it is obviously much more powerful. (Just look at how much more RAM it has!)
Eric March said:

March 22nd, 2008 at 1:34 pm

Interesting article. Unlike their iPhone Multitasking article, this one actually has a lot of very good and salient points. Apple’s marketing strategy presents a significant divergence from the way things have been done in the video game market so far, and all things considered, I think they have a very real shot at having a device that is a jack and master of all trades. It is an excellent phone, a top-notch media player, it will be a great PDA, and so far all signs are pointing to the fact that it will be an eminently capable mobile gaming device to rival anything that exists so far. I think apple has it right: They are providing a robust development environment, an unprecedented cost-for-entry ($100 vs. thousands other console companies charge for the SDK), extremely high profit margins (70% to developers on Apple’s platform versus as much as 70% to the OEM), a simple, effective, and wide-reaching distribution system (one source, over the air, available to all iPhone and Touch users at all times), a very liberal development policy (despite the restrictions, it is far more so than other console companies) and it provides a pretty low risk venture to developers, who can realize profits even with short sales thanks to the high margins.

Combine this with the forthcoming release of the open Android platform, and 2008 is going to be a very, very interesting year indeed.