You may have seen the great looking PSP skins over at DecalGirl before, and if you haven’t you should take a look. These PSP skins are made of a tough vinyl material, and can be applied to your handheld and then removed with relative ease.

I had been keen to get my hands on one of the PSP skins for a while, and finally put an order in a few weeks ago. I decided to order two skins, the FFS Gundam one and the Invasion one. This week they turned up (shipped from the USA) so I quickly opened up the package and got stuck in installing one of them (FFS Gundam).

The PSP skins come sealed in clear plastic sleeves, and instantly look professional and of a high quality.

The skins come with a front and back, and the instructions state that the PSP should be clean and oil and dust free. I got my lint free cloth and gave my matt black faceplate the once over, making sure there were no fingerprints hiding anywhere.

The instructions suggest that it is easier to fit the rear skin than the front, so I of course decided to fit the front first. You have to remove the cut out vinyl sections for the PSP buttons, leaving you with the bare front faceplate skin, and then you can lift the whole thing of the vinyl skin and place on the PSP.

Placing the skin onto the PSP is quite tricky, as the vinyl wants to wrap itself around your fingers. Fortunately, the DecalGirl skins are easy to peel off, although you do have to be careful not to stretch the skin if you need to reposition it. It took me a few goes to get it lined up correctly, but once I was happy I simply rubbed over the skin with the lint free cloth to squeeze any bubbles out, working from the center towards the edges, firmly pressing the skin down as I went.

Even once the skin is firmly in place, you can lift it and reposition if required. I would say you have to be patient at this stage, and if its not lining up correctly, lift the skin and start again. It took me four attempts to get the faceplate skin lined up correctly. I found it easiest to line up one of the edges to the vertical part of the screen and work across to the buttons. You can then work back towards the other end of the PSP.

Although the rear skin is supposed to be easier, I actually found it quite difficult, mainly because I attempted to fit the vinyl center pieces from the outside in, when I should have done the center first. The problem is that the circular pieces that covers the metal ring on the back of the PSP is very easy to distort, and it then can ripple easily and not lie flat. In the end I decided to not use that piece, and left the metal ring showing instead.

Overall, I’m really pleased with the quality and fit of the DecalGirl skin. It is slightly tricky to fit, after all the PSP does have a multitude of buttons and curves to cater for, but with a little patience the results can be stunning.

The vinyl itself is marketed as being goo free, so when you remove the skin from the PSP it doesn’t leave any sticky mess behind. Having applied and re-applied a skin to the PSP, I can confirm it left no trace it had ever been fitted. Whether this will still be true in six months time I’m not sure, but for the moment it lives up to its promise.

The vinyl isn’t paper thin, so should be durable, but you do need to be careful if you still use the standard PSP material case, as the edges of the vinyl may snag slightly on the case as you slide the PSP into it.

If you want to give your PSP a fresh new look, these DecalGirl skins are ideal – they are cheap, high quality, and are not permenant if you want to revert back to your standard PSP. They don’t void your PSP’s warranty like a replacement faceplate would either.

And if you don’t like any of the PSP skins DecalGirl offers, you can design your own using their template and they will make it for you. The only restriction on this is your imagination, so long as you don’t infinge on anyones copyright (i.e. you can’t create a PSP skin with an image of the Nintendo DS, or with Sony logos on it).

If you live in the UK, DecalGirl will ship to you directly, and it takes around 10 days to arrive. I ordered two skins, and the total cost was around $30USD, including shipping, which works out at about £5GBP per skin, plus £5GBP shipping. That, to me, is a really cheap way to modify the look of your PSP.

If you have enjoyed this review, please Digg It.