How old were you at the time? 'Cause I was in my teens and they looked like PS2 graphics to me back then (which was last gen at the time). The low 272p resolution of the screen surely didn't help, either. It was barely an improvement over the DS's 240p screens, bad enough that it was difficult to see objects in the distance in most 3D titles.

That was part of the reason why I used my PSP mainly as a portable emulation machine. Most of what I played on it were SNES and PS1 games, which looked fine on the screen because they were designed for low resolution 480i CRTs from the beginning. (I played handful of N64 games too but the emulation wasn't as good then. I sold my PSP before most N64 games were playable.)

I'm glad that most mobile screens are 1080p minimum these days, cause god those were some dark times. I remember that my persistence of vision would leave a pixel grid in my field of view if I stared at a screen for too long back in those days lol