Sony’s recently-released third revision of the PSP touts a better, brighter screen, but at what cost? While the new screen eliminates the ghosting (smearing) effect with lower latency, an arguably worse problem seems to have popped up - interlacing (jagged appearance). The issue is systemic as it has been reported in all PSP-3000 units, and the interlacing effect is so prominent it can even be seen while navigating the PSP’s XMB operating system, not to mention any game with any sort of… motion. Joystiq reports that the problem is slightly less noticeably when the “Wide Color Space” option is turned off, but turning off the only reason to get the new PSP isn’t exactly the best fix.

When asked about future patches to fix the issue, Sony replied that the interlacing is a “feature” of the new LCD, and there are currently no plans to get rid of it in a firmware update as it is hardware-derived.

I’ve been looking to get a PSP Brite to replace my 1st generation fatty, but as one that opted for the PSP instead of the DS for its graphical superiority, this is the worst kind of news I can get. Did Sony seriously not think this was an issue during their testing phase? Or did they just not notice it? At any rate, calling a fault a “feature” is not convincing anybody, and I’ll be switching my attention back to the PSP-2000…