Editor’s Note: The reviewer purchased the unit at his own expense and provided the review for GamerFitNation. The unit being reviewed is the 3G/Wi-Fi bundle.

PlayStation Vita Hardware Review

Manufacturer: Sony

Price: $249.99 (Wi-Fi) $299.999 (3G)

Release: February 22, 2012

Finally, the PlayStation Vita formerly called, the NGP is finally upon us and we at GamerFitNation have finally gotten a chance to dabble with the hardware. Is this sexy, smooth, and cool looking handheld hardware worth the asking price for early adopters, or is it something that gamers should wait on until they get better handle of the capabilities? Read on to find out in our review!

Hardware Design:

The design of the Vita is similar to the original PSP but has its own little differences. The face buttons are all significantly smaller and feel more comfortable while they are in your hands. The 5-inch screen is vibrant bringing colors to life while gaming and roaming the main menu. The dual analog sticks are smooth and the positioning of them feels extremely free and not as claustrophobic as the PSP’s original single analog stick.

All of the buttons on the Vita feel like a little piece of heaven. Everything is extremely responsive, the input really works well and they feel very crisp, sleek and sexy. The most important and newest feature of the PSVita is the front and rear touch pads. These pads are really something else. The 5-inch screen itself is astounding as it provides vivid and clear gameplay and menu access. The PSVita has one of the clearest screens that you will use for gaming. The screen also works while outdoors in the bright light although, I would recommend having it out of the sun’s rays as a glare can occur hindering your vision of the screen.

The rear touch pad and front touchscreen are very responsive and make typing on the device a dream. In the event that you need to send a long-winded message, you are most certainly going to want to use something with a little more flexibility for typing, as the PSVita can become a pain at times to do so. The cameras on the handheld are certainly better than what I had hoped for as you can take quality pictures. The quality of the pictures is similar to that of the PS3 Eye.

The PlayStation Vita’s battery life is supposed to be between 3 to 5 hours for gaming and this is most certainly true from what I have seen from my use of the device. However, the device will land you significantly more battery power if you are listening to music or watching a video on the device. Music is about roughly 9 hours and video is roughly 5 to 7 hours of use.

Key Product Features:

Multi-touch 5-inch organic light emitting diode (OLED) front display

Multi-touch pad on the rear of the device

Dual analog sticks

Front and rear facing cameras

A new game medium, a small flash memory based card, dedicated for PS Vita software titles

Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass.

Wi-Fi and 3G network connectivity

PlayStation®Network access

Access to “LiveArea™,” which enables users to access the latest game information and view an

“Activity” log that is constantly updated with accomplishments from users who are playing the same game, triggering active real-time communication among users

Access to “near,” which allows users to find out what other users in their vicinity are currently playing and what titles are most popular in the area. Users can meet with friends and new players virtually – regardless of what games they are playing – simply by sharing their game information across PSN

Games:

It is not a secret that the PSP had a highly forgettable launch line-up. If you were to ask someone, what games they had when it was first released you might find one or two people who will be able to tell you. This however has greatly changed as you have great titles like Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Super Stardust Delta, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Escape Plan, and many more. There are many great titles for people can enjoy.

The Vita comes with a game on the system called Welcome Park. It is not a game in the traditional sense, but more of a tutorial to help guide you through the features of the system. You do unlock trophies on the PSVita through this, so it is in your best interest if you are a trophy hunter to play it. They are not that hard to obtain. Now, with the ability to download a ton of games via the PlayStation store there will be something to find and play that you will enjoy. The only thing that might curb some gamers from purchasing the handheld is if you bought the physical copy of some PSP games. These games will not be able to be ported over to the PSVita as there is no program for US residents.

Downloading a PSP game to the new handheld is actually very easy. You can use the USB cable that comes with the Vita to hook it up to your PS3 and then tap the content manager to access content you want to download and copy to your Vita from your PS3 system or vice-versa.

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