Penthouse Review

Penthouse has been around for longer than I've been living. I remember my friends and I finding a stash of old magazines back in the day, but that's another story. The publication was founded by Bob Guccione in 1965, and even though it seems like a staple of American culture, it was initially founded in Great Britain. This isn't too surprising since pussy and pubic hair were frowned upon in America at that time. Guccione may not be around anymore, and the content has become a lot more hardcore than it once was, but the Penthouse legacy lives on through this official website.

The initial free trial preview that you must sign up to before you can get a premium membership doesn't really you give you access to any content, but lets you see right away just how much content you'll get when you upgrade. As expected, there's a huge emphasis on pornstars and Penthouse Pets, in both steamy photo galleries and scorching video scenes, mostly taken from the stash of Penthouse DVDs.

This endless collection is a lot better organized that most sites and it's easy to find exactly what you're looking for, even if the overall layout already feels bit retro. There is a search engine, you can sort everything by date, popularity or rating, and the archives are even split into specific categories.

The 910 videos (including 339 full-length features with around 90 minutes each and 260 scenes in high definition) are organized in categories like Amateur, Anal and Asian, all the way down to Threesomes, Toys and Voyeurs, through Blowjobs and Handjobs, Blondes and Brunettes, Fetish, Housewives, Interracial, Masturbation, Reality and Stripteases. In short, there's a bit - or a lot - of everything. HD scenes can be viewed in two Flash stream qualities, at 480p or 720p, and are available for download in WMV (3200kbps 768x432), MPEG (1800kbps) and MPEG4 (1200kbps), as well as in iPod/PSP-compatible formats (800 kbps 320x180). A lot of the videos, however, especially the oldest ones, don't offer the best streaming option.

It's no surprise that the bulk of the content comes in the form of photos, with over 3200 galleries. These sets are split into Solo Pets (featuring Penthouse Pets in the pictorial style Penthouse has become famous for over the years), Solo Models (featuring other pornstars and starlets), as well as hardcore sets in the Girl on Girl, Couples and Group Sex categories. On average, there are around 40 images in a set, viewable one by one or using a fully customizable slideshow. The photos come in five different sizes (the largest of which is an impressive 4000x2667) and with Zip files to make it easier for you to save them to your private collection.

Final Verdict

The archive of Penthouse Pets stretches back to 1973, and that in itself makes this a very unique ride, and extras like "Ask Dr. Z" advice column or full access to 3 additional Penthouse sites are just the icing on the cake. Between videos and photos, there's always a new update every day, and often more than one. Any fan of the magazine will love to get in on this. I highly recommend it.