PlayStation Vita

(A free 8GB memory card and a game for £15 is available with this console--check out our PS Vita bundle to find out more)

 

 

Create your own review

£200 device with games priced at £40 - sounds crazy in today's world where, like it or not, gaming
is moving toward a more casual market. And in this economy too, Sony have taken quite the gamble. I
decided to take the risk with the Playstation Vita (Wi-Fi only model though, what with the economy and
all) and am happy to say i believe i made the right decision. I hope my review can help you make
the right one as well...

= HARDWARE =
Firstly the battery life surprised me, consdering the rumors of horrific life, and the doubts i had after
reading the Vita's spec sheet, the battery life is good consdering the amount of pressure the system is
under, especially when gaming. With brightness at 50% and with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled, the Vita
lasted for around 4 hours when gaming and messing around with it. A full on gaming marathon of the most
demanding game currently available (Uncharted Golden Abyss) lasted for a respectable 3 hours and 30
minutes - enough to cover most journeys without the need for a recharge. Pumping up the screen brightness,
and disabling Bluetooth and Wi-Fi will no doubt have a big impact on the battery life. Recharging the battery
from 0% to 100% takes 2 hours and 30 minutes, this is mainly to do with the size of the battery itself.

The PS Vita is armed with a quad-core processor and GPU - both of which are needed to drive it's gorgeous
5" Super AMOLED touchscreen which has a resolution of 960 x 544. It's a great display, with accurate color
reproduction, good viewing angles, vibrant colours and deep blacks which sometimes blur the line between
screen and bezel. It's not as sharp as some of the mobile phone displays out there but it has a respectable
220ppi, the iPhone Retina display is 326ppi and the Galaxy Nexus' 316ppi. It's not a big deal however and
cannot take away from how gorgeous the screen looks when playing games, its truly amazing.

Along with the familiar Playstation buttons and analog stick is a newcomer - the second analog stick.
The Vita is the closest thing to a home console like experience while on the move, something which no other
handheld device has accomplished. There are no more genre restrictions, shooters and adventure games will
work just as well on the Vita now that there are two analog sticks available for controlling. Like the
analog sticks the buttons are good quality too and have a nice and responsive clicky feel to them. The
shoulder buttons are smooth and the D-Pad is nice and accurate. Coupled with how comfortable the Vita is
to hold, how solid and high quality it feels due to its weight, playing games on this thing is a treat.

The rear touch pad is new and works well enough, its the same size as the screen and allows for controlling
whilst keeping your main fingers free. The two built in cameras in the front and back are of average
quality, both capturing images at VGA 640x480 resolution as well as recording video. The stereo speakers and
microphone are surprisingly good quality. The Vita also has built in 3 axis gyorscope, accelerometer, electronic
compass, GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and maybe even 3G. It's a beast of a machine and although it's gonna be a tight
fit in your jean pocket, it's still a fairly light and portable handheld device. Put simply, the PS Vita gets
it all right on the hardware front packing some impressive tech into a small-ish and affordable device.

= SOFTWARE =
The Vita has a touchscreen operating system similar to iOS and Android, the PS3's XMB interface is no more.
The home screen is made up of bubble icons and navigation is fairly simple. The whole OS is designed for
touchscreen use, the physical buttons take a backseat which is fine but you also miss out on things like
skipping through music with the shoulder buttons and scrolling through a website with the analog stick.
The OS has a touchscreen keyboard which is pretty standard, but due to how wide the Vita's screen is you
will need to stretch your fingers a bit to get to the middle letters, it's not ideal for typing super quick.

Like everything nowadays the Vita has apps with more available to download from the PSN Store. The main ones
which come preinstalled are Party, Group Messaging, and Friends. Party gives you cross-game voice and text
chat functionality for the first time on PlayStation Network for up to 8 players. It also links you to their
game. Group Messaging is a 4 person chat app which allows you to send photos. Friends is a simple friends list
for viewing profiles, trophy information and your PSN friends' own friends lists. The Music and Video player
apps are simple but only support basic formats like MP3, MP4 and WAV while the video player only accepts MP4
files. Social apps for things like Facebook, Foursquare, Skype and Twitter will also be available soon if not
already. Finally, the Vita also has a good web browser which looks good on its big screen. It has standard
smartphone features like pinch-to-zoom but is lacking things like Flash and HTML5 for video. It's a decent
browser and almost as snappy as ones found on smartphones. The "Near" feature is a way to find and interact with
other gamers on the go, i haven't used it at all yet because hardly anybody has the PS Vita yet.

= GAMES =
The stuff which will make or break this thing are it's games, and i'm glad to say that the launch lineup isn't
bad, and whats scheduled looks even better. There are around 25 games available from launch day and i've found
that my favouites were Gravity Rush, WipEout 2048, Virtua Tennis 4 and of course Uncharted: Golden Abyss. The
Vita won't suffer the same fate as previous PSP's, there is and will be plenty of quality games available for it.

Because there is no built in memory on the Vita you'll need to buy seperate PS Vita Memory Cards which come in
4GB, 8GB and 16GB flavours and are needed for storing saves, updates, patches etc as well as your own media. If
your going to be buying and downloading your Vita games straight from the PSN Store then you'll need the space the
memory cards offer to actually store those games too. But Vita games will also be sold through retail with boxed
copies, these come on the new Vita memory card format and can be also used to save your games onto.

The Vita is also backwards-compatible with most PSP games you purchased from the PSN Store. PSP games are upscaled
to four times their resolution on the Vita's screen but they look OK. Sony is working on some UMD passport program
which will allow you to register your old PSP UMD games and downoad them for the Vita at a reduced price.... hooray.

= CONS =
1) The Vita is tied to one PSN ID, you can't share the Vita or browse other region's PSN stores or manage your other
PSN accounts. Once you sign into your PSN account thats it, to change accounts you'll need to reformat the memory.
So although the Vita is region free, DLC and downloaded games will only work when the account they were purchased
on is active. Because there can only be one active PSN ID at a time, you'll need to reformat your card to switch.

2) Expensive proprietary memory which Sony created (again) just for the Vita. If your going to be downloading all
your games then storage will be an issue, i think Uncharted Golden Abyss uses around 3GB of memory which is huge
consdering the maximum memory card available is only 16GB and its pricey as well. The cards are also tiny, easy to lose
and when you need to switch them out its very fiddly. It's too late to change now but they need to price them better.

3) Media management is poor. You can't just drag and drop files from your PC or PS3 to the PS Vita, you have to use the
content management app which is a chore.

4) One of the Vita's cool features is being able to play PS3 and PSN games remotely, but remote play is not working yet
at all. So right now you cant stream Killzone 3 to your Vita - another problem which should be fixed with a firmware update.

5) Expensive Games. The RRP of the heavy hitters like Uncharted Golden Abyss is £45 - thats more than what PS3 games launch
for. Even the smaller Vita titles are asking around £35. Obviously good retailers like Amazon will sell them for around £40
or £30 but still, for a portable game that is asking too much. Vita titles need to launch for £20-£25 maximum in my opinion.

= VERDICT =
Most of the cons above can be remedied with firmware updates and price drops which is great. Apart from that the Vita shines bright.
It's easily the best handheld gaming device available today with powerful tech behind it, great controls and a gorgeous touchscreen.
Most importantly it's competitively priced at launch for what it can offer. Sony has gone all out and created a new mobile gaming
platform which it intends to back 100% - you can just tell by looking at the games available now and also scheduled for release.

The PlayStation Vita is the best handheld ever made and offers an experience which the DS, 3DS, iPhone nor iPad can match. Once the
firmware updates start rolling in to iron out the minor things the Vita will keep on improving. Hopefully prices will get better for
the device itself as well as the games and memory so the Vita has a chance at being widely adopted. Great device - well done Sony.

9/10

I won't bore you with a long review as I haven't played on it for long but this I can say. What I have seen so far since I got it yesterday has blown me away. I have never been tempted by previous PSPs or Nintendo handhelds but as soon as I played this in store a week ago I knew straight away it was what I was looking for.
It was a dream to set up. I literally just whipped it out of the box, put on the official sony screen protector (which I am not very keen on by the way as it seems to distort the image and gets very grubby very quickly, but that's not a Vita flaw) and was able to download the free augmented reality games and Escape Plan and Motorstorm in no time.
Sure the OS is not on a par with IOS on the iphone or ipad but for a gaming machine it's acceptable and I am sure once it get's past a few teething problems the system will be much better.
Only full in store purchased game played so far is wipeout as everything else was sold out by the time I got my Vita. I have never particularly liked Wipeout but this was a real surprise. I really enjoyed it. The graphics and sound effects were top notch.
Will be trying more games tonight as the shops have stocked up again.
Very happy customer so far. If you are on the fence about buying a Vita, I hope my review pulls you to the same side that I am on.......

The Vita will be a rival to Nintendo's 3DS, boasting a quad-core processor and 5-inch (12.7cm) OLED touch screen - it's bright and sharp and a joy to watch, despite it being a touch down the resolution and pixel density ladder from an iPhone 4S' 640×960 screen which offers 326ppi over the Vita's 220ppi.

Initial impressions are that this is what the PSP wanted to be in the first place: a real portable PlayStation. Not a phone, not a tablet, but a fully formed, uncompressed gaming console you can carry around. Now you can sit on a train playing a new Uncharted adventure and it looks almost as good as the PS3 at home, and in many ways it feels the same. The real revolution comes through the control options. First up there are dual analogue sticks that let you play exactly the same games, and in exactly the same way, as you would on your PS3 or Xbox 360, a traditional D-pad and face buttons, two shoulder buttons, PS (home), select and start buttons, independent volume controls and a power/sleep button, the OLED touch-screen, a rear touch panel of the same dimensions, a built-in microphone, a headphone port, front and rear cameras, and dedicated AV, power, memory card and game card slots. You can add a sim card slot to that if you buy the 3G model.

Sony has caught up with its competitors in touch control quickly, too, with a fine capacitive screen that registers inputs, allowing you to zip between screens, scroll around comfortably and respond to button and gesture prompts in Uncharted in a split second. Rear touch is similarly responsive, although a little harder to get your head around. The one criticism is that the screen smudges easily compared to modern smartphones.

There's some old-school thinking in the Vita design. It's in the proprietary USB cable and lack of universal USB charging, it's in the absence of onboard memory (big mistake!), and it's in proprietary, mandatory memory cards that are sold separately - at a price to make you hesitate. This is nagging me already. Leaving those concerns aside, PS Vita's great selling point should be that it offers high-definition gaming experiences on the go with the same improving social features - like friend and messaging alerts, Trophies and "Near", which looks like a fun way of benefiting from the installed base growing around you day to day, rather like 3DS' StreetPass - and the same diverse array of content.

As well as capable stereo speakers there's a headphone jack and microphone for use both in game and with applications like Party, a cross game chat system that lets you communicate with others on your PSN friends list. The front and rear cameras are both 640x480, 0.3MP VGA level devices so while classy photography isn't really an option they're serviceable enough for communication and use in games.

The PS Vita comes with standard Bluetooth and WiFi connections while the 3G model also includes..... er, 3G, which in the UK is provided by Vodafone.

GAMING

Some 25 to 35 games are going to be available either from launch date (today) or within a week or two. The key thing is that the best games look every bit as good as their larger console counterparts. Uncharted: Golden Abyss really does look as good as any launch PS3 game and better, even, than a handful of more recent console games. Visually it blows the iPad/Phone and Nintendo 3DS out of the water.

Because these are more akin to full size console games there are also equivalent full size loading times. You can get back into any game you've left running in the background almost instantly, but firing up something like Uncharted from scratch can take a couple of minutes.

Wipeout 2048's futuristic racing looks beautiful with sharp, detailed environments blasting past as you compete. Little Deviants is a series of party games - variants on Whac-a-mole games, ball rolling challenges, motions controlled shooters and more - that has you stabbing at the screen and waving the entire machine around you. Frobisher Says is a Bishi Bashi Special style assortment of madness as you race through challenges that last seconds - counting the number of cats that appear on screen for a fraction of a second, for example. Unit 13 is a fairly traditional third person military shooter, and as such has little use for the extra control methods. Instead it makes logical use of them by letting you tap on screen to select options and change weapons.

The PS Vita also carries a full-blown PSP emulator so you'll be able to use almost any PSP titles without a problem.

FUNCTIONALITY

The PS Vita is a simple device to use. You swipe up and down through pages of apps and games that appear as little floating Smartie like buttons. Anything you have open, Apps, games and media, stack up on a series of pages you can scroll through left to right, or shut down by 'tearing' the page off.

It's an intuitive and tactile system with buttons wobbling and the screen stretching and warping gently as you interact with it. It's easy to see why Sony chose to do away with the PlayStation XMB they'd previously rolled out across various TVs, cameras and other areas of their electronics division. This is much better.

In terms of apps on the console there are currently things like Near, a location-based service much like Nintendo's Street Pass system. It collects information from the area, people and games around you. Party is a chat system and there's also a Group Messaging app. There's also a remote play feature, which allows you to use the Vita to take control of your PS3. In theory this means you can play PS3 games on the PS Vita over a network.

Cross-game voice chat has never been possible on the PlayStation 3 because of memory restrictions - the PS3's RAM is gobbled up by the games it runs. Surprisingly, PS Vita actually has more RAM than the PS3, with 512MB of RAM and 128MB of V-RAM, compared to the PS3's 256MB of system RAM and 256MB of video RAM. This enables features such as cross-game voice chat to run in the background while games are being played.

Downsides? It can be awkward using the on-screen keyboard, such that your thumbs might have to stretch to reach middle keys. The battery life isn't bad but it isn't great either - 4 to 5 hours or thereabouts. The lack of internal memory is disappointing - you'll have to fork out for Sony's proprietary Vita memory cards, essentially a tweaked SD card.

The Vita improves on the PSP in almost every way, as a portable console this is about as good as it gets (for now!). This really is a portable PlayStation with superb graphic capabilities and a screen made for a luxury mobile experience while the controls combine the best of traditional and more creative inputs, enhancing but never detracting from the gameplay. The price, too, is fair. Other high-end mobile devices cost more, and while the launch price of this 'pocket PS3' isn't exactly pocket money, it's still a heavily subsidised console. Personally I am delighted with it.

2115|R1ESAH8U3UM99B;2115|R2AQUX55NYICMW;2115|R2EO59VEGP80SO;

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 21 customer reviews...

 

5.0 out of 5 stars Best handheld ever!
The ps vita is very nice to hold, the weight feels nice in your hands. I would recommend to anyone!

Published 3 hours ago by Daniel Russell

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic hand held.
I really am surprised at how well I am liking this. I initially bought it due to getting a bursary from my University on a whim thinking I wouldn't like it much, but it shocked... Read more

Published 8 hours ago by Shoozle

5.0 out of 5 stars VIVA LA VITA
Like every other review amazing system really light to hold in both hands was expecting a bit more weight. Read more

Published 13 hours ago by Mr. J. K. Ollier

5.0 out of 5 stars I am impressed!
Personally I've never been a huge handheld gamer, I've always preferred a big screen and big sounds blasting out from a nice HDTV and surround sound setup. Read more

Published 14 hours ago by Mr. S. Heptinstall

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW
ABSOLUTELY SUPER DUPER FABBY DABBY DOSY EXTRA SPECIAL AMAZING TECHNOLOGICAL STRENGTHENED GRAPHICS WEIRD REVIEW-FUL NOT A WORD ABSOLUTELY MIND BLOWING!!!!!!

Published 14 hours ago by Amber

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun comes at a price
The vita is gorgeous. It is far nicer than the 3ds. But the problem is that without a reasonably priced and constant stream of software it will fall prey to the casual games... Read more

Published 17 hours ago by The Goat

5.0 out of 5 stars gorgeous
Sony promised a play station 3 in your pocket, does the PSP deliver? Oh yea! big time.

First impressions are how gorgeous the Vita is, its light feels perfect in your... Read more

Published 19 hours ago by Rob Smith

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Fun
Bought it this morning on a bit of a whim and must say I'm very impressed. Maybe not the most portable handheld console, but easily has the best quality, if you found yourself... Read more

Published 20 hours ago by D. R. J. Parkins

5.0 out of 5 stars The best true handheld gaming experience!
Excellent. That is all I can say to describe the Vita really, though some may enjoy a game of angry birds to pass a bit of time, what people who complain about the cost don't... Read more

Published 20 hours ago by MWS

5.0 out of 5 stars The best portable system so far!
I do hope this wont be another PSP, but at the moment it looks like the only thing that could lead the Vita down that same road is piracy, and it seems as if sony has gone to... Read more

Published 21 hours ago by Alex Duthie

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 21 customer reviews...

Search Listmania!