Can your PSP use a spare 4Gb Memory Stick Pro Duo?

Author's Rating:

Pros: Interchangeable and compatible with a wide variety of Sony products, low cost

Cons: May fill up with photos, MP3's and videos quickly

The Bottom Line: 

The SanDisk, SDMSPD4096A, 4Gb memory stick is an average speed card with just enough memory capacity to hold your photos, MP3's and videos.

Author's Review
My Sony PSP needed more memory capacity. The 512Mb memory stick that came with it was filled with MP3's, game saves and downloaded content from the internet. After looking for the best deal on the internet, I settled for paying $23 for this 4Gb SanDisk Memory Stick Pro Duo, SDMSPD4096A from the web retailer Amazon. Once it arrived, I used it to back up my favorite photos and game saves. Then I placed it back in a drawer and labeled the box as PSP BACKUP. I highly recommend all PSP owners or digital camera owners get a spare memory card to act as a backup disk. The cards are cheap and very reliable when placed in storage. I encourage you to read on and find out how these memory cards perform and what their technologies really mean.

The 4Gb SanDisk Memory Stick Pro Duo, SDMSPD4096A, can be used in more devices than just the Sony PSP. The Sony HDR-SR10 40GB Hybrid HDD, ICD-MX20 Digital Voice Recorder, Sony VAIO VGN-SZ480 computer, Sony Cybershot N2, Sony DSC-H5, AVCHD and most other Sony memory stick compatible devices can use the 4Gb memory stick.

Construction
The card is made of a tough blue plastic material and measures 20mm x 31mm x 1.6mm. The problem is that the plastic does not bend easily so if you drop it on a tile floor chances are high that it will shatter. For comparison, I also have 512Mb Sony memory stick, this stick is light blue in color and made of a more elastic type of plastic making it more resistant to drops.

Technologies
PRO
The "PRO" designation in this product's name simply means it's more than 512MB.

MagicGate
The card is also MagicGate compatible meaning it can be used in certain Sony products that require copy protection schemes. You should be aware that most devices that use Sony memory sticks do not support the MagicGate technology.

Vista ReadyBoost
The 4Gb SanDisk Memory Stick Pro Duo, SDMSPD4096A, is compatible with Windows Vista's ReadyBoost feature. ReadyBoost uses a high-speed flash memory card to cache certain system files in lieu of using the hard disk, thus boosting system performance. Using ReadyBoost-capable flash memory (NAND memory devices) for caching allows Windows Vista to service random disk reads with performance that is typically 80-100 times faster than random reads from traditional hard drives.

The Sony PSP
Just a few years after the release of the PSP, the portable gaming platform has in my opinion eclipsed the Nintendo DS in popularity. The reason is simple, the active homebrew community and easy file management that the onboard memory stick provides. Currently, Nintendo DS owners must purchase costly aftermarket hardware to add open sourced software. PSP owners can simply visit a menagerie of websites and download directly to their memory stick. After some frequent use however, the memory stick on the PSP inevitably fills up with content.  If you have the cash, just buy another card but if you are wise buy a large card first.

The driving force behind the competitive memory stick market has to be PSP owners.  They want to get the most capacity from their memory cards so that they can have as many as eight full UMD games on a single card!  While this is clearly not possible with a 4096Mb Memory Stick and the typical PSP game that consumes over 500Mb of space, it still is a dream that makes gaming even easier.

Features
4 GB storage capacity with 4096MB available
Designed to write speeds of 6 Mbps on high speed enabled devices The SDMSPD4096A has a speed rating of 60X. I found that my PSP took a little while longer than normal to copy files to the card.
Backwards compatible with most devices that use Memory Stick PRO Duo media

Websites
Wiki MagicGate discussion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagicGate

Summary
High capacity memory sticks have come down in price dramatically over the past few years. Now is the time to consider using these devices as mini file vaults to store all your digital memories forever.