Sony PlayStation Vita – Is it a Gamechanger?

Scribbled by Lethal Illness @ 11:01 PM on February 22nd, 2012.

Pieces of this review were written throughout the day from this morning into the evening. This review states the experiences at the time of writing as the PS Vita is a new release things like the PS Store could have changed within minutes of writing a section.

When I was a kid, Sony had just launched the PSP- the predecessor to the just launched PS Vita. Although I wanted one badly, I wasn’t fortunate enough to get one as a kid. By the time I was old enough to get it on my own it became apparent that all the promises and plans Sony had for it were broken and gone.

At the time, the technology was ground-breaking for a handheld console. Unfortunately, the PSP’s shortcomings like one analog stick, the UMD format, and developer abandonment from piracy lead to it never taking off like Sony and early adopters had hoped. Fast forward several years later and Sony has given us the PS Vita. The PS Vita is the second generation Sony handheld that overcame the PSP’s shortcomings and promises to take handheld consoles to the next level. Will Sony live up to it’s promises this time? Is the PS Vita really a gamechanger? Let’s find out.

The PS Vita and 8 GB Memory Card in Packaging.

First Impressions & Appearence

The PS Vita comes in a nice [typical Sony-like] packaging that is easy to open, but who really cares about that – right? Inside the box you’ll find a little welcome card, augmented reality cards, a safety guide, quick start guides, a universal power cord, a PS Vita to USB cord, a pack that connects both cords, and a wrapped up PS Vita. After opening the styrofoam wrapping the PS Vita is gorgeous, shinny, and something that fits the time of technology were in. It basically looks like a PSP on steroids with it’s larger frame, bigger screen, and dual analog sticks.

PS Vita Box Contents.

The 5” OLED screen is a huge monster that nearly swallows my iPhone 4S whole. The circle, x, square, and triangle buttons are kind of smaller then I expected, but still not a problem for me. The analog sticks though are a little too small for my preference, but still decent and useable. The unique back touchscreen is actually pretty attractive too with it’s triangle, circle, x, square pattern sandwiched by the back grips [which my fingers unfortunately pass over naturally]. My hands are larger than others might be, but the device does fit comfortably in my hand. The only problem I see with holding it is that my palms are missing something as I’m used to holding an Xbox controller when gaming. Thankfully there are accessories coming out that can solve this in the future.

The PS Vita is made out of metal and plastic and I’m okay with that. The PS Vita is extremely light, but it doesn’t feel too fragile. The only disappointment with the make of the device is at the top compartments. The hatches for the card slot and accessory port are plastic and remind me of old cellphone hatches that break off way too easy. I fear opening them too roughly will snap them off.

PS Vita Card Slot and Accessory Port.

Hardware

I’ve preordered and canceled my order a few times before settling on a version. When Sony first announced that the 3G version was getting a launch bundle that consisted of an 8GB memory card, a free PSN game, and 250MB data pass – it seemed like a no-brainer to order this bundle even if I wasn’t going to use the 3G. Though, it became apparent this was less of a deal when I found out in order to get the game or the data pass you needed to pay for a month of 3G service first. The lowest monthly cost for the 3G plan is $15, not a bank breaker but not exactly worth a $10 game. I figured I’d be better off buying the wifi only version, an 8GB card, and any game(s) of my choosing to get the same price or less. So I placed another order at Amazon for the Vita and memory card a few days ago. What’s even better is that today, after I got my PS Vita this morning, Amazon sent me an email. This email basically summed up that since anyone who now orders a PS Vita for a limited time will get a 4GB card free and I already ordered an 8GB card, that they have credited me for $20 (the price of a 4GB card) to spend on anything involving the PS Vita. This is one of the reasons I love buying all my games from Amazon, I would assume this fell under their pre-order price guarantee.

Aside from 3G [along with it's sim and chip] and wifi only capabilities, the two models are exactly the same. They both rock the gorgeous 5” OLED capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 960×544 pixels (qHD) at 220 PPI, the dual analog sticks, and 0.3 megapixels front/back cameras on the outside. On the inside, the PS Vita is running on a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor, SGX543MP4+ GPU, 512MB RAM, and 128MB VRAM. This is a beastly combination of hardware to have in any mobile device let alone a gaming console.

The Sony PlayStation Vita.

The screen itself is bright and vivid. No picture I could take or find on the internet can truly show it’s quality. In comparrision to the retina display on the iPhone 4S it is a close match, but not quite there. Though the larger screen is an equal trade off that I enjoy, but the IPS technology of the retina display is the one major advantage that sets it apart.The PS Vita screen suffers from changing colors in the light or at different angles. Unfortunately, I’ve experienced this first hand as I went for a car ride with the PS Vita, which was almost unplayable because of the sunlight beaming on the screen saturating the colors and having a huge glare.

For the most part the buttons are self explanatory and used for games as the software doesn’t use the buttons in the menus. However, the one crucial button you’ll constantly interact with is the PS Button. In terms of OS it is kind of like the iOS device’s home button. It also can be compared to Xbox’s guide button with the options from holding it.

Another Sony device means another proprietary format or actually two. First is the game format, which has switched to a cartridge that I don’t mind since the UMD format was a horrible idea to begin with. The memory card however is another story. As you can see below the PS Vita memory cards and microSD cards are near close in size and shape. The PS Vita memory card is just slightly fatter and larger. I think there is no reason Sony could have included internal storage with a microSD option as it is cheap enough for them to afford. Instead, they just changed the shape to drive up the price of the cards for consumers.

PS Vita 8GB Memory Card vs. 8GB microSD Card.

Software

The PS Vita runs an OS that made it’s debut today along side the PS Vita, the Vita OS. The Vita OS is similar to Android, except without all the things I can’t stand about it. The home screen does away with the traditional square icons that are typically seen in iOS and Android and bring in a new concept of circular bubbles. I’m not sure if I’m completely satisfied with the look, but they aren’t too bad. The home screen is made of an infinite amount of panels [similar to Android's] that hold your circular bubbles. Each panel holds up to 10 apps, which can be adjusted or deleted by long pressing on a particular app (similar to iOS). On the bar of the home screen you will also see which apps are currently active [amongst the time and connectivity]. LiveArea screens display your active apps in a card-like series. Upon clicking an app, whether in the home screen or LiveArea screen, you’ll have an option to start it via a button in the middle of the screen or close it by dragging the tab down from the top right corner. This is a unique way to start and close apps, it’s a very different experience compared to other mobile operating systems.

The PS Vita introducing the Vita OS Home Screen.

As far as apps go, the PS Vita comes with a few essential apps.The PS Store only has 3 apps currently in there for download (not including warranty apps?). Games you install will also have an app icon on your homescreen. By default, the Vita OS on the PS Vita wifi model contains Welcome Park, Party, PS Store, Near, Friends, Group Messaging, Trophies, Photos, Browser, Music, Video, Remote Play, Content Manager, Maps, and Settings. Rather than go into all of these apps in great detail, I’ll just explain some of them and get into the ones that actually matter.

Unfortunately, being new to the PSN (PlayStation Network) I cannot properly test Group Messaging, Party, or Friends as I, well, don’t have any PSN friends. I also don’t have a PS3 or compatible games, so Remote Play is out for me as well. I currently have no interest as using the PS Vita for music and videos as I have an iPhone that does the job perfectly fine, though the apps look great. Trophies is basically a showcase of the achievements you’ve unlocked (similar to GameCenter on iOS). Welcome Park was a neat little app with games that introduce the PS Vita’s key features. Photos basically takes pictures and videos which isn’t stellar with a 0.3 megapixel camera. Maps is basically a broken down version of Google Maps which proves useless on the PS Vita, to me at least. Settings is one of the most self explanatory apps on the PS Vita, though to my surprise the option to change the lockscreen and wallpapers isn’t here. If you’re looking to do that you can do it by long pressing the home screen or options in Photos.

PS Vita Welcome Park Activity.

Now let’s get into the stuff that really matters. First let’s talk about the PS Store, which is where PS Vita owners will be downloading apps, game demos, videos (renting or purchasing), and even downloading games. The store itself is pretty attractive looking compared to the App Store and Market apps on iOS and Android respectively. Under games there are a few categories like PS Vita Games, Cross-Play Games, PSP Games, Minis, Demos, Apps, Media, and by Genre. All the categories are self explanatory and the categories with too many games are sorted in alphabetical subcategories. Pretty simple and logical looking. Unfortunately, not all the PS Vita games have demos currently and that is a shame for a new device that should be trying to capitalize on every launch title. This might not be entirely Sony’s fault and more of the game developer’s as many Sony titles do have demos. The only weird part that bothers me is the fact that when I view a game or app it has no screenshots like iOS and Android’s stores show. It isn’t exactly a huge problem, but an inconvenience for me to have to pull out another device to look up a game.

Near is a new kind of app that integrates social networking and gaming into a Foursquare-like idea. Basically, Near uses your location to zero in around your area and see what other PS Vita owners are currently playing (if the player allows it). Near will also let me click a players avatar to show me their name and activity history. If a game is popular in my area right now it will tell me there is a popularity surge. The idea is pretty cool, but I’m not too much of a social person with people I don’t personally know. It’s not like I’m going to use the PS Vita to try and make some new friends in my area, but when multiplayer matchmaking online on the PS Vita picks up this could be a big feature. As for right now it is kind of like a novelty like Siri on the iPhone 4S.

The PS Vita Near - Locating Nearby Players

I’m not shocked Sony put a browser on here as the PSP had one in later firmware patches. Though, I think it is safe to say it wasn’t necessary now that smartphones and tablets exist. Nonetheless, the browser is decent. The browser supports HTML 5, Javascript 1.7, and cookies. CSS3 and Flash is not supported, which I can live with, but CSS3 I think should definitely be included. The browser itself is a little on the slower side for me. It’s something I can live with being that I don’t plan on really using the browser much, but it is still important that it works fine. In fact, HidinginSanity more accurate in comparison to a computer browser than any other mobile browser I’ve seen.

PS Vita Browser - Displaying HidinginSanity

Content Manager is the app that allows you to connect a PS3 or in my case a computer to the PS Vita for backups and content transfer. Unfortunately, in order just to connect the PS Vita to a computer you have to install the Content Manager Assistant. The Content Manager Assistant (CMA) is available for both Windows and Mac OS X, and does work perfectly fine on Snow Leopard (haven’t tried it on my iMac with Lion yet, but will update when I do). Basically after installing, the CMA will ask for default folders for Photos, Videos, Music, and Backups to transfer between devices. I tested Content Manager by transferring the above screenshot of HidinginSanity on the Vita Browser above. It works perfectly fine, but I am kind of upset I can’t manage the transfers via the computer instead of only via the PS Vita app itself. The other disappointment is that while plugged into the computer, the PS Vita does not charge, which is another bummer. The plus side is that since the PS Vita doesn’t naturally connect, you don’t have to eject it on a Mac- which is good for forgetful Mac users.

I only had interest in one of the three currently available third party apps; Netflix. The app itself was only a 12MB download, which is next to nothing. The first time I tried to launch the app after installing it took about 10-20 minutes. I was kind of pissed off and closed the app and turned it back on and it worked right away. I started up Kick Ass on it, which was kind of cool. It’s near equal to the iPhone 4S, except I actually enjoy the audio better as it’s much louder.

PS Vita Netflix App - Playing Kick Ass

Overall, the Vita OS is pretty cool and works well for a new OS. Sony said this OS could expand beyond the Vita in the future which is cool, but wouldn’t affect me as I am beyond content with my iOS devices. The OS could use a little work to smoothen up the experience but it’s nice. However, I have two complaints about the Vita OS. One is that the only way to interact with the Vita OS itself is by touchscreen. It’s not the worst thing being that it’s easy, but I like options and sometimes I don’t feel like moving my fingers to the screen and want to use buttons. The other is the music the PS Vita uses. It’s not really terrible music, but it’s not the greatest loop to listen to over and over. I could mute my device like when I rarely play iOS games, but that gets annoying fast. I can also turn off the home screen music via the Settings app. Though apps like Near, PS Store, and many others still will play their own music that I cannot turn off. An option like this would make it much, much better.

Gaming

The PS Vita is a gaming device and this means I should judge it on it’s gaming abilities. Too many reviews are claiming the PS Vita is irrelevant because of smartphones. I don’t see how this is possible because the PS Vita isn’t trying to be a smartphone. There is no email, texting, phone, contacts, or other phone-like apps on the PS Vita. I prefer it this way because I have enough phone-like devices to consume media and interact with the world. I like the PS Vita sticking to it’s primary roots, gaming. The argument that iOS and Android games are much cheaper is irrelevant because if you took the top smartphone games like Infinity Blade they only compare to the worst of console gaming. The complexity, length, and quality of PS Vita and console games far exceed iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone 7 games.

I didn’t buy a game yet for my PS Vita. Instead I relied on the demos to choose my game for me. What I mean is I spent all day downloading and testing demos to see how the PS Vita holds up. This gave me several advantages over just buying a game and reviewing the device. The major advantage is that I could judge the device on all the available [demo] launch titles rather than just the one I could of gotten.

I’m still torn as to which game I should purchase but my favorites are definitely Wipeout 2048 (played several times at GameStop as it’s currently not in the PS Store as a demo), Lumines, Rayman Origins, and Unit 13 (which isn’t out yet but the demo is available). Wipeout 2048 was fun but racing over and over I could see get boring. Lumines is addiciting but I cannot see myself paying $40 for a twist on Tetris. Rayman Origins brought back that nostalgic feeling of when I was a little kid playing PS One. Unit 13 was kind of hard to get used to but overall was fun once I got the hang of it.

PS Vita Lumines Game Play.

Most of the games were enjoyable but some weren’t really my style like Uncharted and Little Deviants. FIFA was cool, but the demo is only a goal shot challenge which is boring. I wish the demo had gave me the opportunity to play a time limited game or something. The game selection is decent, but I’m primarily into FPS shooters, which the PS Vita won’t see until May. However, as I said above there are some games that I am still interested in now so not all is lost. I wouldn’t mind seeing a Madden, Saints Row, or even GTA on here either. I’m looking most forward to Call of Duty releasing their next title for the PS Vita, even if it is a sequel to the mediocre Black Ops. Imagine the full Call of Duty online experience via a portable device anywhere in the world, that’s amazing.

Aside from game selection, I have to touch on the actual performance of the PS Vita. Not one of the game demos I played had any lag or below quality graphics. All gameplay was smooth and the console was able to handle what the games threw at it. Even when shooting multiple people in Unit 13 or when in Uncharted I was being consumed by flames. The PS Vita really takes advantage of the quad-core processor and fast graphics card. I wouldn’t say the PS Vita is quite PS3 quality, but fairly close to it. The graphics are unbelievable for a portable console and the complexity in the games isn’t dumbed down for handhelds anymore. When it comes to portable gaming, the PS Vita is indeed the gamechanger it claims to be.

PS Vita Rayman Origins Game Play.

Cameras

In all honesty, the cameras are absolutely worthless for picture taking and videos. Though, I can care less because I have an iPhone 4S (which supersedes any point and shoot I’ve ever owned) and a Cannon T1i (DSLR) for pictures I use in my articles and professional needs. The PS Vita cameras are so bad to the point I don’t need to show you, just think of the first generation of flip phones with cameras and you’ll have the quality of the PS Vita’s cameras.

Despite the crap quality of the cameras, this is where it’ll get interesting. No other gaming console has taken advantage of cameras for augmented reality gaming. Though, as far as I could find I couldn’t really test anything yet the video demos and concepts online are crazy. Reality Fighters which comes out within the next few months will be allow us to have people or whatever fight Mortal Combat style over the environment infront of the PS Vita’s back camera. This alone makes the camera worth sticking in the PS Vita, even if it isn’t that good of a camera.

Battery

I’ve heard the PS Vita has had terrible battery life. I have not seen it first hand *knocks on wood*. Around 1:00 PM I unplugged my PS Vita from the charger and explored, downloaded demos, and played demos straight until 6:00PM. Basically, I would download a demo or two at a time and do something productive during that time. When the download was done I would come back to play the demo and download a new one, then and go back to doing something productive until the next one finished. Like I said I was doing this until 6:00 PM which hits the 5 hour mark Sony claims maximum. After this I turned my PS Vita off to rest for an hour while I finished up my work for the day. Afterwards, I turned it back on to cross confirm things for this article and such when it gave me a low battery warning around 7:30 PM. Since then it has been on. Around 10:00 PM my aunt played the Rayman Origins demo for about 20 minutes. Update: I checked around 1:00 AM and the battery appears to finally have died, 12 hours later. I think it’s definitely apparent that the PS Vita’s battery is much better then rated, at least in my case.

I hope the current first run sets the pace for the battery life of my PS Vita. However, even if the PS Vita only averaged around 3-5 hours I would still be satisfied considering the quality of the screen and knowing the console is powering a quad-core processor. 3-5 hours is beyond my imagination for a device that uses this much power.

Conclusion

I haven’t owned a Playstation device since the PS One. Obviously, the PS Vita is going to be leaps and bounds above my previous PlayStation affair. Though, I’ve played the PSP and PS3 before with friends and such. Honestly, I’ve always been more of an Xbox person thanks to their selection of exclusive FPS shooters like Halo and Gears of War. I’m not going to abandon Xbox anytime soon because I truly love Xbox Live and their selection in games. However, I will add the PS Vita into my occasional gaming sessions and enjoy the best of both worlds. In terms of FPS games I have a lot to look forward to like Resistance: Burning Skies, Dust 514, and Call of Duty this fall.

Games selection aside, I think the PS Vita is a great device that is well worth it’s asking price of $250. So far I’m happy with the purchase and am still contemplating my first game. I think if Sony keeps their promises to put all their effort into the PS Vita and get some quality original games for the PS Vita, it could be a huge gamechanger.

Add me on PSN if you want to play; DESOULBEL_COM.