Just quickly: buy, but grudgingly for now.
As a supposed portable handheld gaming device it does have some deal-breakers such as the short battery life; and while it’s nice Sony now dabbles in social features, it doesn’t quite yet compare to how 3DS makes it such a far less fidgety affair. Given the choice I would have waited until there are more games to properly show off all the new features or even . No doubt though, the Vita is future-proof with its quadcore CPU and GPU combo. But everything to do with the Vita is proprietary and Sony-expensive so you know you’ll be paying the price well into the future (mind those developers who try to discourage secondhand game trading). If you’re a PSP-owner you’d still need to think carefully about your huge library of UMDs that will NOT be playable, physically or digitally on the PSV.
If you can forgive all the bad qualities, everything else- the HD graphics, the premium hardware, the great OS- about the Vita is very pleasing indeed.
Wait but wifi or 3G? wifi
while you may think 3G is nice, it has its limits. Literally, mobile carriers have and those who havent are likely to impose download limits. Games are easily 1gb in size with Golden Abyss up to 3.2gb so digital downloads may be a no-go.
For multiplayer, 3G is also going to have a high latency so it’s not going to be smooth, if at all supported. Unless you’re on a good network.. but those are rare. e.g. the only 3g-supported mode on Ridge Racer is a ghost mode- this says a lot. Other games supporting 3G are likely to only be turn-based for now.
So you’re left with non-essential stuff such as Near, Chat, Maps etc.
On the upside, price for the 3G version isnt that much higher than the Wifi so you may consider buying the 3G version anyway (if possible) but keeping it for future use i.e. without contract for now.
PSVita Wifi on amazon
PSVita 3G on amazon
 PSVita 4GB memory card |
USD20 |
 PSVita 8GB memory card |
USD40 |
 PSVita 16GB memory card |
USD52 |
 PSVita 32GB memory card |
USD99 |
Read on for more.
Goods
impressive hardware design by Sony once again, feels extremely solid and more rugged than the original launch of the PSP (1000)
game graphics have great potential based on what can be seen in the launch titles
UI (aka “Homescreen” in place of the XMB)- intuitive, smooth, fast; fun
now more social compared to the psp- with features like Near, Chat, Maps, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr
the OS is a multitasks with fluidity and also gives the illusion of being a multitasking monster (by closing bigger apps but leaving their shell visible)
widgets! (aka LiveArea) almost every app is a widget in itself- they do not require a full launch to be able to view up-to-date info regarding the app (full launch is a 2-tap affair, tap once for widget, tap “start” for full launch) e.g. the Store widget would display recently released items after being updated
backward-compatibility. this is a double-edged sword as some may not enjoy the extra tap to launch an app. but IMO it’s a great idea- even apps that have nothing live to display i.e. Settings, will have a little icon to launch a related help file.
fair launch titles, likely to have a strong games catalogue in time
native screenshot utility is a nice bonus
DUAL ANALOG STICKS another godsend
beautiful large OLED screen- great contrast ratio (infinite, i.e. BLACK blacks) and great colours; brightness is acceptable in direct sunlight.
Bads
feels like a spec-bump
lacking innovation somewhat
games so far have mostly failed to use built-in hardware features as more than an after thought- gyro, accelerometer, touch
touch rear panel looks dangerously like one of those features that gets left behind- a bit like the HDD slot in the PS2
new social features are great but only goes so far- lack of encouragement to socialise, lack of an alternative to the amazing “StreetPass” on the 3DS,
“Near” is nice in mapping out nearby users on a radar; but the UI here is clunky and very slow, requires an active internet connection to work
game load times are medium to long, seemingly not improved by residing on the proprietary memory card nor the Vita cards (cartridges)
no psp library passport program- once upon a time Sony said they’d help gamers convert their PSP libraries into digital downloads, at a cost. this is no longer happening
Remote Play- does not work- more specifically, it’s there but either the PS3 firmware has not enabled games to take advantage of it or the PSV firmware or both; you could play with the PS3 XMB via Remote Play….. if that’s fun for you
native screenshot utility only seemingly works on games that support them
mega-expensive proprietary memory cards- USD100+ for a 32gb card. sad thing is you WILL be needing them as you’re bound to have some digital downloads. for reference, a big game like Uncharted Golden Abyss is 3.2gbs. kiss goodbye to your 4gb card+ the banknotes you need to buy the bigger cards
MediaGo (software suite like iTunes but for the PSP) does not work with the Vita. There IS a very simple sync program available (that does syncs, backups and restores) but does not allow you to browse the PSN store like MediaGo does
dual analog sticks could be more comfortable if it had more height
swapping PSN accounts is not easy and requires you to sync your trophies, backup, wipe device
wifi at the moment does not have a smart persistent mode; in other words, games being downloaded are often interrupted by the energy saver, with no option to set the screen to stay on indefinitely
Miserable battery life especially with wifi and or 3G active
[update]
doesn’t (yet?) support PSOne Classics
Just quickly: buy, but grudgingly for now.
As a supposed portable handheld gaming device it does have some deal-breakers such as the short battery life; and while it’s nice Sony now dabbles in social features, it doesn’t quite yet compare to how 3DS makes it such a far less fidgety affair. Given the choice I would have waited until there are more games to properly show off all the new features or even . No doubt though, the Vita is future-proof with its quadcore CPU and GPU combo. But everything to do with the Vita is proprietary and Sony-expensive so you know you’ll be paying the price well into the future (mind those developers who try to discourage secondhand game trading). If you’re a PSP-owner you’d still need to think carefully about your huge library of UMDs that will NOT be playable, physically or digitally on the PSV.
If you can forgive all the bad qualities, everything else- the HD graphics, the premium hardware, the great OS- about the Vita is very pleasing indeed.
Wait but wifi or 3G? wifi
while you may think 3G is nice, it has its limits. Literally, mobile carriers have and those who havent are likely to impose download limits. Games are easily 1gb in size with Golden Abyss up to 3.2gb so digital downloads may be a no-go.
For multiplayer, 3G is also going to have a high latency so it’s not going to be smooth, if at all supported. Unless you’re on a good network.. but those are rare. e.g. the only 3g-supported mode on Ridge Racer is a ghost mode- this says a lot. Other games supporting 3G are likely to only be turn-based for now.
So you’re left with non-essential stuff such as Near, Chat, Maps etc.
On the upside, price for the 3G version isnt that much higher than the Wifi so you may consider buying the 3G version anyway (if possible) but keeping it for future use i.e. without contract for now.
PSVita Wifi on amazon
PSVita 3G on amazon
 PSVita 4GB memory card |
USD20 |
 PSVita 8GB memory card |
USD40 |
 PSVita 16GB memory card |
USD52 |
 PSVita 32GB memory card |
USD99 |
