After a big success of the PlayStation Portable from sony which was unveiled on May 11, 2004, It is now all set to release it’s next version of the handheld gaming console called PlayStation Vita (pronounced “vee-tah”, not “vy-tah”). After many rumours and speculations, the company atlast announced the new hand held play station console, which was formerly code named NGP i.e (Next Generation Portable) with some brilliant specifications and features, the Sony PlayStation Vita which was formerly unveiled at Sony’s E3 2011 press conference, aimed high as to provide the most comprehensive portable gaming experience around on the move. The new version of the handheld gaming console comes with two analog sticks, a 5-inch OLED multi-touch screen, supporting Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and optional 3G inclusion. The PS Vita will also supports social networking apps like the PS4, such as Facebook, Skype, Twitter, and foursquare, which will be available for download for free from the Sony’s PlayStation store. The PlayStation Vita is set to release in Japan and parts of Asia on December 17, 2011, along with a promised 26 games at launch and 100 in an unspecified ‘launch window’.
Design and display:
The looks are quite similar to the earlier PSP, however without any doubt the Vita is more impressive and designed elegantly. It includes a 5-inch OLED multi-touch capacitive touchscreen along with 24-bit color with a resolution of 960 × 540 qHD and has pixel density of 220 ppi. The console has a huge size that measures 182 x 84 x 19 mm. Having said that, the PlayStation Vita fits comfortably in your hands and with the round edges it makes it easier to play games on it continuosly on the go.
Controls:
Single analog stick is replaced with two analog sticks here in PS Vita on its front, joined by a D-pad along with the standard PS button. On the top, it has the Left and Right shoulder triggers along with the Start and Select standard buttons.
It has two touch-sensitive pads behind the device where you rest your fingers for support. It is quite similar to the track pad on your laptop and it is designed to function in a similar fashion. These pads work in combination with the controls of the PlayStation Vita which can be used to stroke and poke for additional controls when playing the game. The popularity of this new control all depends on how the game developers make use of it for the PS Vita.
Other additional features include:
Chatting – The PlayStation Vita supports chatting with your friends while you’re watching a video or playing a multi-player game, in a way to keep you connected while still you are playing.
- Unlike PSP, the PSV will not support video output or contain a removable battery, which is also claimed to be a drawback by some tech geeks.
- Hardware wise, the device features a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 MP Core processor (3 of the 4 cores will be usable for applications) and a quad-core SGX543MP4 + GPU. It will have a 512 MB of system RAM and 128 MB of VRAM for a hassle free gaming.
- It was confirmed by Sony that the battery would last for about 3-5 hours of gameplay, 5 hours of video, and up to 9 hours of music listening with the screen off.
- The PS Vita will be having a storage media card slot, where users can plug in NVG cards of storage capacity ranging from 4 GB to 32 GB.
- Note: NGV is a new proprietary flash card format similar to the Nintendo 3DS Game Cards available in the market.
- It also sports a Six-axis system – 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope – enabling the PS Vita for sensing motion. Along with that, it has another 3-axis compass with integrated GPS and connectivity options such as 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.
- PlayStation Vita has both front and rear cameras with supporting features such as face detection, head detection and head tracking that can be used for personalization and customization.
- The device will also support backwards compatible PlayStation Portable downloadable titles, PlayStation minis, PlayStation Suite games, PSOne Classics, videos, and comics from the Sony’s PlayStation Store.
Technical specifications:
CPUARM: Cortex - A9 core (4 core)
GPUS: GX543MP4+
External Dimensions: Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth)
Screen: (Touch Screen) 5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED multi touch screen (capacitive type)
Rear Touch Pad: Multi touch pad (capacitive type)
Cameras: front camera and rear camera
Sound: Built-in stereo speakers and built-in microphone
Sensors: Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), three-axis electronic compass
Location: Built-in GPS, Wi-Fi location service support
Keys / Switches: Power button, directional buttons (up/down/right/left), action buttons (triangle, circle, cross, square), shoulder buttons (right/left), right stick, left stick, START button, SELECT button, volume buttons (+/-)
Wireless Communications: Mobile network connectivity (3G), IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1×1) (Wi-Fi) (infrastructure mode/ad-hoc mode) and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR (A2DP/AVRCP/HSP)
Pricing and Availability:
Regarding price, the PlayStation Vita is expected to come in two versions – PSV Wi-Fi only and PSV Wi-Fi + 3G. The 3G version is priced at $299.99 USD
while the other version could be priced at a $50 lesser price – $249.99 USD. However, there hasn’t been any mentioning of data pricing yet particularly. Sources indicate that the Vita could adopt AT&T’s tablet data series, with $15 for 200MB of usage and $25 for 2GB in the market.
Additionally, the more expensive (3G) version will come pre-loaded with some special applications that take advantage of 3G’s “always-on” capabilities, such as augmented reality software.
Sony PlayStation Vita Price in Singapore Dollar (SGD):
- Expected to be approximately S$ 395.00 (Wi-Fi + 3G)
- Expected to be approximately S$ 330.00 (Wi-Fi Only)
It is set to release in Japan and parts of Asia on December 17, 2011 and in Europe and North America on February 22, 2012.
With the PSV release, Sony has announced the initial availability of 26 game titles in Japan. PlayStation classics such as Katamary Damacy, Virtua Tennis, Hot Shots Golf, and Ridge Racer are expected to come along with new exciting games such as Uncharted: Dark Abyss and a Michael Jackson rhythm game.
Pre-Order Yours Now!
You can pre-order your PlayStation Vita now. The cheapest place we found to purchase the PlayStation Vita is Amazon:
