What to look at when buying PSP?

I decided to buy myself a PSP, mainly because of Loco Roco and Patapon :P Other than that, movie watching/internet browsing at work, homebrew and emulator playing... guess Im gonna abuse it to the maxx D:


Anyway, Ive been browsing these forums for a while, and I'm getting more confused every minute..

I almost bought a PSP on ebay, but then I realised that there are different versions of firmware, and that there are problems with some of them.. Then there is the difference between slim and phat. Some say that slim is worse, due to the difference in emulating or something , Im not sure :<

Therefore, my question is

What should I look at when buying a PSP?
Slim or Phat? What are the differences?
Firmware? Which ones shoul I avoid?
Anything else?

What I know of so far is I would go for:

-The looks of the psp you are going to buy (condition wise). If you are planning to buy one on Ebay or online that is custom firmware/used, you are going to have to accept the fact that it may have minor scratches on there. Most of the sellers that mention the scratches and say how bad it is are the ones to get the used ones from.

-I think Phat has a better reputation with firmware/compatiblity in apps/game wise than the slim.

-Do alot of research on firmware 1.0 all the way to 3.90 m33-3....Buy a 3.90 m33-3 because then you can skip the dangerous areas like having to downgrade to 2.0 then 1.5 and then go step by step to reach 3.90 m33 custom firmware. You still want to learn about these different kind of firmwares and the meaning behind semi/full "bricking"...otherwise you are stuck and when you downgrade or try recovering, you'll even have more questions to ask than what you previously had.
AVOID FIRMWARE THAT IS OFFICIAL SONY, ALWAYS GO FOR CUSTOM FIRMWARE NO MATTER IF THE OFFICIAL IS HIGHER IN NUM WISE (example: 3.95 official compared to 3.90 m33-3...3.90 m33-3 is the way to go! :P)

*NOTE: CF, CTFW, CFW are different abreviations that people use in descriptions for Custom Firmware :P

-Anything else, I really cant explain...custom firmware allows you to do so much more, it is rediculous. :P You'll start feeling sorry for the people who have official firmware :P.

*Keep in mind though that when new firmware comes out from Dark Alex, make sure you give it time for others to say if it has alot of bugs in it or whatever. Plus, if you keep upgrading custom firmware to the next custom level, make sure you are careful and dont mess up in directions that could result in a brick. :P



*If you buy a custom psp, buy a pandora battery and a magic memory stick too for safety reasons.

Hey, thanks for reply

Why do you think that Phat is better than Slim when it comes to homebrew and stuff? All I've heard so far are some weird rumours :<

I dont mind the scratches and stuff, as long as it works and is capable of having custom firmware..

I found this on net.

http://www.psp-vault.com/images/guid...chart_v371.png

Does it mean that I should avoid for example firmware 3.60 and 3.70/3.71 on slim ?