Once up and running (with the battery inserted; for whatever reason, the battery is not actually in the system when you first take it out of the box), the console unveils a rather sleek and elegant interface. Moving left to right lets you select from the available functions including music, video, games, and system settings. Once there, going up and down lets you select what you like to do with that specific feature. It's simple to use and more game machine designers should take note. Playing a game is a matter of sliding a switch on the top to pop open the back and putting the disc in. The UMD icon appears on the menu and you're set. Select it and you're set.

One thing that certainly deserves mention is the video quality of UMD movies. Though it's doubtful they'll ever become as big as Sony believes they will, their video quality makes you wonder if they won't take off after all. The included "Spiderman 2" UMD boasts stunning clarity and resolution, though it has been cropped from its original aspect ratio to fit (senseless, really, since this is a widescreen display). Audio quality isn't quite DVD quality, but still strong especially with a solid pair of headphones. Movement left to right is captured flawlessly and the same goes for the games.

One sticky point is battery life. At the most, you'll get five hours of gameplay. That seems bad, but this isn't the day of the Game Gear or Atari Lynx. This is a rechargeable battery so there's no need for desperate midnight runs to the store during a power outage. Plenty of accessories make sure everything stays charged as well, even in the car with the usual cigarette lighter adapter (though it's not included).

Sony has a fantastic, powerful, and simple to use piece of hardware here. If you're looking to learn about downloading movies and music to your system, that's an entirely different review. The system can do those functions and that's all that is important. This is a system made to play video games first and foremost, and it seems more equipped to do that than any of the competition. It's going to come down to the software battle and whether or not people are willing to spend more on this than the competition for it.