The gaming community has made its choice; mobile gaming is now a significant slice of the multi-billion dollar industry. While “hardcore” gamers snicker at the proposal of serious gaming on iPads and mobile phones, the game publishers are making a serious new stream of income.
The Sony Playstation Vita (Latin for “Life”) is a new handheld console that blends the classic gameplay of traditional consoles with new technologies offered by tablets and mobile phones. The handhelds more features than any single console today, so it can play traditionally-controlled games, as well as games that benefit from touch and movement.
Specifications
The Playstation Vita is currently the most powerful handheld gaming device ever created. The handheld uses two quad-core processors, the main processor being an ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore. Three of the four cores are usable for applications. The second is a quad-core GPU SGX543MP4+ designed by PowerVR, which is a 4-core version of the GPUs used in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. The GPU is based on 65nm technology and has a fillrate of 35 MTriangles/s per core with a 1000 MPixel/s fill rate per core and is DirectX 9 and OpenGL 2.1 capable. The GPU also has a clock speed of 200Mhz per core (800Mhz in total).
The system has 512MB of system memory, which is twice that of the Playstation 3. This additional memory is what allows cross-game chat and the ability to load several programs at once. The video chip has access to 128MB of video RAM.
Next we take a look at the outside…
The Playstation Vita is one of the largest mobile devices you can have in your hands, and nearly every square centimeter has some sort of function. It is slightly larger and thicker than the original PSP, but amazingly weighs slightly less.
The front panel is where most of the goodies are. On the left side is a D-pad which has satisfying button presses which click when pressing them. Below that is the first of two analog sticks, which rock and tilt like those of their “big brother” consoles, but have a bit less travel, but more on that later. Below the analog stick is the “PS Home” button, which lets you pause games and return to the system’s menu (much like the Xbox button on the 360).
The center of the front panel houses an extremely large 5” OLED touchscreen that sports a 960 x 544 pixel resolution, which is technically considered high-definition, and displays 522,240 pixels. The OLED screen is not only extremely bright and colorful, but is very power efficient and displays truer blacks than backlit LCD displays. The screen also supports multi-touch like many tablets and cell phones, so no annoying stylus is required to operate it.
The right side of the front panel crowds the most of the console’s gadgets together. On the top is a forward-facing 0.3 megapixel (640×480 resolution) camera, four face buttons (Playstation’s famous triangle, square, circle, and X buttons). Below that is the right analog stick, and below that is a Select and Start button. The right analog stick can be set to mimic the face buttons, so first-person shooters in PSP games are a lot easier to control.
The bottom of the console has two loops that one could use to attach a wrist strap. A proprietary USB port appears in the center, and a standard 1/8” headphone jack is placed to the right of this. A small door is embedded that lets you insert a Playstation Vita memory card, yet another proprietary Sony invention. These memory cards come in denominations from 4GB to 32GB, and range in price from $15 to $120. The provided USB cable is not keyed, so it is very easy to insert the cable incorrectly, which means you could accidentally damage the port and the system will not charge.
The back of the console has a second 0.3-megapixel camera, a very large back touchpad, and two rubberized grips on the left and right.
The top of the handheld has two shoulder buttons (left and right), a power button and a volume up and down button. Additionally there is a slot for Vita game cards, and an expansion port (yet no devices have been announced for this port).
Unlike the PSP, the Vita does not have a removable battery, which is one of the system’s only major downfalls.
Next we look at the new LiveArea menu system…
The main interface differs quite a bit from the traditional X-bar that the PS3 and PSP use, and relies heavily on its new touch capabilities. Unfortunately the menu is controlled exclusively using the touchscreen, which means you can’t use the analog stick or any other buttons to move or open any programs. This is nice and all, but sometimes I don’t want to get my screen dirty right before I’m about to play a game.
The top portion of the interface displays small icons about the current system status. On the left are icons that show the current enable communications (WIfi, Bluetooth, etc). In the center are the currently opened applications, and the Home icon always appears. To the right of that is the system time and battery level, and to the right of that is a bubble that shows any notifications (trophies earned, downloaded programs, etc).
Taking a nod from Smartphone interfaces, the system organizes icons into “pages” that are indicated on the left side of the screen. Up to 10 icons can be on any single page, and users can “flick” their fingers up and down to navigate between pages, and can flick left and right to scroll through opened programs. You can have up to 6 programs open at one time (but only one game at a time), which allows you to easily pause the game, enter system confirmation and adjust screen brightness, and then return to your game. This also helps reduce load times, as you can just keep the programs open and switch between them, as you would in a multitasking operating system.
You can hold down one of the icons for a few seconds to get into “edit” mode, which lets you create and delete pages, organize or delete icons, and get meta information about the programs like the file size, version and publisher. There is also an icon in the bottom-right that lets you change the theme for each of the pages, so you can easily have a different color associated with each page. You can exit the Edit mode by touching a Return arrow on the bottom left corner of the screen.
Many programs have a folded edge on the top right of the page, which you can pull and drag much like flipping a paper page. Performing this action closes the application, much like pulling a post-it note from a wall. Instead of closing the page, you can just leave it open and keep it in memory.
Nearly all programs have a “launch” page. Instead of launching a game directly, a Live Area page displays. This page provides options about the game you’re about to launch… such as downloading an available patch, browsing the electronic manual, or using online features.
This new “Live Area” crossbar does take some getting used to, but is an elegant and clever solution to the system, and you’ll wish that Sony’s other consoles had them.
The system has several internal sensors much like the SixAxis controller. The system has motion sensors that sense left/right and forward/back tilt.
Let’s look at the System Settings next…
The Playstation Vita’s system settings is opened via an application icon rather than buried in a system menu. This way you can have the application resident in memory and can easily switch to it on-the-fly. Below are the options available.
- Flight Mode
This toggles all communication on and off. It is really helpful that this is the first option, as you can quickly toggle this to help extend your system battery life. - System Update
Searches Playstation Online for required firmware updates. Expect this to be a weekly event as Sony continues to battle piracy
- Network
This option lets you configure and connect to Wireless networks, connect Bluetooth devices, and test your Internet connection - PlayStation Network
This lets you monitor and modify your personal Playstation Network account. From here you can edit your account information (name, preferences, and payment information). You can also change your Privacy and Facebook settings, such as publishing when you get a new trophy or downloaded a new game. - Application Data Management
This option lets you manage saved game data from PSP games, or add-on content for Vita and PSP games. - Sound and Display
You can adjust the screen’s brightnes level, Notifications and the menu’s background music. You can also toggle AVLS, which is a fancy work for automatically adjusting your headphone volume.
- Location Data
This option lets you enable or disable which applications have access to the Vita’s GPS. - Security
You can adjust Parental Controls and Screen lock options from here. - Date & Time
You can change your date and time, as well as the Time Zone, date and time format (unlike Nintendo’s forced 24-hour system), and even enable Daylight Savings time
- Language
Not only can you change your default system language, you can modify input settings like Auto Capitalization, and predictive text entry - System
This is where a lot of meta information is stored. You can display the system’s current version, which applications will auto-start, whether the system will charge via USB, error history, and legal notices. - Format
Not only can you completely format your memory card and restore your system back to defaults, but you can clear the learning dictionary and start screen image.
On the next page we look at the pre-installed applications…
You really can’t do a lot right out of the box unless you purchase a game and memory card. Memory cards are required to save games, and of course to download anything from the Playstation store.
Pre-installed applications
The Vita comes with a Party application, which lets you use a Bluetooth headset to speak with friends and other games in channels. The Friends application lets you monitor and edit friend gamertags on the Playstation Network, and you can even do Group Messaging.
The system does come with Google Maps and a useful web browser, but like many console browsers does not support Flash or HTML5, so you can’t really use YouTube or many other video-streaming sites. The browser is rather slow, as it only loads the parts of the page it has to display immediately. Scrolling a web page will appear blank until the browser can catch up. Given that the Vita has twice the RAM as a PS3 I find this unacceptable.
Of course there is the Playstation Store application and Trophies, which works like Xbox Live’s Gamer Points.
The system also comes with a capable MP3 player, but does not natively support streaming. You either need to copy files to the system’s memory card, or use a web-based interface to browse your local network’s media.
The same thing applies to Vita’s Videos application, but videos that you download from PSN automatically appear here. You can manage/delete your videos directly from this application rather than going into System Settings.
The original PSP introduced Remote Play, and you can do the same with the Vita once you connect the handheld to a Playstation 3.
Sony finally introduced a way to manage downloaded games and content via the Content Manager application. Many people run out of space on their memory cards, and instead of having to delete them and redownload from the Playstation Store, you can copy the stuff you’ve paid for to a PC or PS3. Of course you have to download software for the PC or register your Vita with the host console, but then you can select which items you want to transfer to your handheld.
The Photo application works very similarly to the camera apps on the Nintendo DS. You can toggle between forward and rear-facing cameras, and can even take video. The photo quality can easily be outdone by the cheapest of digital cameras, and there is no LED flash or lighting. Much like many cell phones, you can take a screenshot of any game or system screen from your Vita by holding down the PS and Start button at the same time. The captured screenshots appear in this Photos application.
There is a “Near” application which grabs your GPS information and shows you other Playstation Vita players in your vicinity. The application works so well that it’s actually creepy, but you can easily find the gamer tags of other people and browse what games they play, which can help you find friends in the real world.
The system comes with a “Welcome Pack”, which basically showcases all of the ways games can use the features of the PSP. There are very simple mini-games that use multitouch, camera, tilt, microphone and sound.
On the next page we look at the stuff you can get for free…
The Playstation Vita comes with a decent amount of pre-installed applications, and some of the more useful ones are available for free from the Playstation store.
While the Vita comes with Augmented Reality (AR) cards like the Nintendo 3DS, you can’t use them until you download some free simple games from the Playstation Store. The first of these games are Cliff Diving, which transforms your desk or table into a mini pool that a diver jumps into.
The second one is Fireworks, which displays a house or building onto your desk and you launch and detonate fireworks with the touchpad. Of course both of these games respond to motion controls, so the angle of these objects change as you move the Vita around.
The third free AR game is Table Soccer, which creates a virtual soccer field wherever you want. Also available is a static model from the Resistance franchise that you can move around.
One of the more useful downloads is a Netflix client, which lets you stream movies and TV shows from the Netflix catalogue, and of course you must have an active account to use it.
Social applications
To really compete with tablets and smartphones, the Vita also has some social applications. To get the most out of these you really need to have a 3G version of the handheld; otherwise you have to be in a hotspot and connect to it.
There is a decent Facebook client, but unfortunately is a very basic client so you can’t play FB games. LiveTweet lets you update your Twitter feed and browse your Twitter account.
The Foursquare client lets you check in at places on the go, but again this usefulness is severely limited unless you have 3G enabled. The same holds true with the Flickr client, which lets you take photos from your Vita and upload them in real time to your account.
The last of the free applications is Music Unlimited. This is a pay service that you can use to stream unlimited music (as long as you have a subscription), and it does come with a 30-day free trial. Be wary however: any application that requires a credit card for a “free trial” is never truly free. The app does have the ability to cache songs you like to your memory card for times when you don’t have a network connection.
Next we look at graphics and games…
Talking about the specifications and features of this system is great and all, but what is it capable of? As far as gaming goes, it can easily compete with full-fledged consoles, and can completely dominate any other handheld console with its power.
As mentioned previously, the screen is very bright and vibrant, and produces the deepest blacks and the whitest whites. This OLED screen is easily the best looking display in my house, and that’s even compared to our 55” plasma display. Movies and games look phenomenal on this screen.
The killer application that shows off all of the Vita’s capabilities is easily Uncharted: Golden Abyss. Not only are the graphics on par with the PS3, but you use analog sticks, motion controls, touchscreen, back touchpad, and even the cameras. Using motion controls to narrow in on an enemy with a sniper rifle is amazingly intuitive and works very well. The motion controls work to keep Drake’s balance on narrow beams and avoid obstacles in a waterfall, and a few puzzles are solved by using the touchscreen. You even “hold parchment up to the light” to reveal hidden messages. The only thing that’s rather gimmicky is when using the touchscreen to fistfight or slash through obstacles with your machete.
Another way the PS Vita shows off is with Wipeout 2048, which is easily the most graphically complex game on any handheld.
One of the reasons the original PSP had lackluster acceptance was because of the lack of quality games, and the few good ones were practically ruined by the lack of a second analog stick. Nearly all of the games launched with the Vita are quality games, and are spread across several different genres, so no matter what type of gaming you prefer there is a good game to buy.
If you like platformers then Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack, Escape Plan and Rayman Origins are right up your alley. Sports fans will dig FIFA Soccer, Virtua Tennis, Hustle Kings and Hot Shots Golf. Casual and arcade gamers will love Super Stardust Delta, Lumines: Electronic Symphony, and Touch My Katamari. Action gamers absolutely have to have Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Unit 13, and Resistance is coming out in May.
The buttons have a satisfying feel to them, and the system has a good amount of weight but is still light enough to not cause fatigue.
We do have a few gripes about the system, however.
While the rear touchpad is easy to use, it is easy to accidentally rub while playing games that use it. Also, the glossy plastic that covers the top and back pick up fingerprints like you wouldn’t believe, which require very frequent cleaning.
Nearly everything about the Vita is proprietary, which means the realistic initial cost of ownership is a bit higher than the sticker price. While the USB port is proprietary, it is easy to insert the cable the wrong way, which prevents charging, and can potentially damage the system.
Next we analyze the battery…
Probably one of the biggest gripes is the battery life. While the internal battery is rated at 2200mAh (about the same as the extended battery for the PSP), it only lasts about 3 to 5 hours of gaming. The battery is not user-replaceable, and many computers cannot charge the system via USB unless it can provide at least a lot of juice. The included AC adapter is rated for 1500 milli-amps, so to charge while playing you’ll probably need about that much. You can charge the Vita from an underpowered USB port, but the console has to be completely off (not in standby mode), and it does so very slowly.
My big gripe about non-replaceable batteries is that they eventually lose over half of their capacity over time. Lithium Ion batteries are probably one of the best dry-cell battery technologies available today, but they will inherently lose 20% of their capacity the first year, and nearly half past its second or third year. I would replace the battery of my iPhone every year if it were feasible.
Which leads my to another good point: if you replace the battery yourself, do you also give up the right to having it repaired? I know that Nintendo will not repair any console once it’s been opened, no matter how much you pay for it. Let’s hope that Sony doesn’t have the same policy. Regardless, I don’t want to wait 2 weeks every year while my Vita’s battery is being replaced by Sony.
While extended batteries have been announced by Nyko and Sony, it is unclear if they will provide the gameplay time they intend. Most mobile devices detect if they are plugged in, and adjust their power-saving modes accordingly.
Using an external battery does not necessarily result in “double the life” because the device still thinks it’s plugged in and therefore doesn’t use power-saving features. It is unknown if the Vita uses any of these power-saving tricks when using batteries, so it is unknown how much extra life you’ll get from external batteries.
On the next page we render our verdict…
The Playstation Vita is one of the most exciting handheld gaming devices ever created. It has powerful graphics that can give current-generation consoles a run for their money, and it implements the controls of all of them combined.
Vita is clearly trying to expand its audience to include casual gamers and more of the types of games that appear on cell phones and tablets. Some may say that the Vita has an identity crisis because it includes so many control types, but I say that it expands the device to do practically any type of game.
As far as a price point, I think the Vita is extremely competitive when you put things into context. Yes, you can get a PS3 for the same price as a Vita, but the Vita has the same miniaturized technology as a good smartphone or tablet. A good smartphone costs about $500 (you may pay less, but your phone provider pays the difference), and the Vita comes with practically double the technical features at half the price.
Vita appears to have a much stronger opening titles than the Nintendo 3DS when it started, and they both debuted at about the same price (around $250). 3DS sales picked up when the price dropped, and as an industry analyst I can tell you that Sony will sell more Vitas if they do the same thing. Sony may be unwilling to do this, as they are already taking a loss on each unit sold.
The main thing that will determine the console’s success will be the quality of the games. Sony only has a few beloved exclusive franchises left, and those are aimed at more experienced gamers (of course I speak of SOCOM, God of War, Resistance, and Uncharted). Sony recently closed SOCOM developer Zipper Interactive, so that is yet another franchise down the drain. The PSP struggled because there was a lack of quality games, and there are several reasons for that… but Sony will say that publishers were scared off by piracy.
The Playstation Vita is one powerful device, we really want to see it succeed and feel that the gaming community deserves a device like this. Our only major gripe has to do with the non-replaceable battery and short battery life. Microsoft will be watching very closely to see how the Vita fares, and if it does well then you can bet that a portable Xbox is right around the corner.
People are spending more time on the go, which is the main reason why cell phone games are taking up a bigger slice of the gaming pie. The Playstation Vita offers serious gamers the first real portable console experience, and has reset the bar for any future portable gaming devices.
2 Comment
I love my system, but really hate the battery life thing. The other day I turned it on and got a "battery low" message, even with the system plugged in. It had to charge for at least 20 minutes before I could play it… and THIS WAS WITH THE VITA PLUGGED IN! That's messed up.
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