Sony PSVITA Review and specs

The PSVITA is by far the most advance handheld gaming device to date, in terms of graphics it's the closest thing you'll get to a PS3 and Xbox360 in the palm of your hands and the good news! Sony just gave the Vita another price drop -- In the previous years handheld gaming devices has had their worst competing with android, iOS, and 0.99 dollar games, not to mention the versatility of smartphones and tablets, which in turn resulted in poor sales. In retaliation, Sony gave the Vita other features that could cope-up with the demands of the new breed of gamers such as a dedicated web browser, new and innovative control schemes, online video services (Youtube, Netflix), SNS integration (facebook, twitter, Flickr) and the ability to multitask, it seems the strategy works, Sony's handheld to say the least, is slowly crawling out of the pit, with game titles you'll find nowhere but here in the Vita's library.

The front is cluttered with numerous buttons and knobs but it is ergonomically arranged by Sony making the Vita one of the most comfortable handhelds to play with, even till day's end. The right thumb stick is a welcome improvement on the Vita and has set a benchmark in handheld gaming control schemes, with it games are much easier to control, giving gamers a real console like experience on the go, the Vita does support a wide array of control schemes like the rear touch pad, which at first feels awkward to use, and as far as my first experience with it goes it's hard to make precise hits, but as your learning curve improves you'll certainly go back for more, games like Uncharted The Golden Abyss make use of the Vita's all out control schemes.

The Vita sports a quad-core processor (ARM cortex A9), a 512MB of RAM and a dedicated graphic processor, it's not as powerful as the latest android gaming device in terms of hardware specifications but the graphics are leaps and bounds better than any iOS and android games combined. Games does not only look good but also plays good as well, frame rate is at its best and lags are barely there, a feature in which an android device can only dream of, more so, the presence of a physical buttons optimized on each game and the experience of a real gaming console is something that the iOS and android could never fare, it remains a bragging right for owning a Vita.

"It has 5 inch OLED display that will make any gamers salivate" games looks more vibrant than any other handhelds that are currently in the market and will more than make up for the amount of money you spent on the system and even the games itself, most importantly, newbies and core gamers alike will find the UI appealing and easy to navigate, in fact it is one of the best UI I've seen on a device, who ever designed it really deserves a "pat in the back" good job Sony.

Enough of the good stuff! Sony may have pampered us with the Vita's excellent performance but underneath it is Sony's greedy attitude to make more money by simply forcing us to buy their over-priced proprietary media cards, as funny as it sounds the PSVITA doesn't come with a built-in memory, so you'll be forced to buy a Vita card to save your games and downloads, sadly, it doesn't come cheap the 16GB Vita card is almost the same price as that of a budget smartphone's, it's been really a pain in the neck as Sony continuously do this for more than a decade, they could have at least included a 1 gig Vita card in the box for game saves.

The Vita features a front and rear camera for taking photos and videos, but the grainy resolution makes it more like a toy than a serious snapper also used in augmented reality games.

The Vita's game library is still thinly stocked and the presence of must have triple "A" games are just a handful, most of them are just ports and remakes of an old game, however the Vita do have some few tricks up its sleeves "the cross play feature" it allows gamers to play their PS3 games on the Vita, also transfer game saves on both system, but sadly, there are only few games that are compatible with cross play, not to worry though, the PSVITA is still in its infancy stage and needs a little more time to mature, hopefully 2014 will be a good year for the Vita.

PROS: Near PS3 graphics, dual thumbsticks, good ergonomics, SNS integration.

CONS: Proprietary media cards and ports.


SPECIFICATIONS:

CPU: ARM® Cortex™- A9 core (4 core)

GPU: SGX543MP4+

External Dimensions: Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth)
(tentative, excludes largest projection)

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, Rear camera

Sound: Built-in stereo speakers, 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
PS button
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:
802.11b/g/n (n = 1x1)(Wi-Fi)(Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode)
Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR (A2DP/AVRCP/HSP)

Sony PSP 3000 Review

Sony unveiled their third iteration of the Play Station Portable (PSP 3000) in the fall of 2008, with minor cosmetic changes and a few hardware add on and software tweaks as well. At first glance, the changes are hardly recognizable unless compared side by side with its predecessor, design-wise the PSP 3000 have better ergonomics than the PSP 2000 because of its well contoured edges, playing it on long period is much more comfortable. The addition of a recessed circular indentations on the buttons and D pad layout made the Playstation's patented circle, square, triangle and X buttons slightly protrude the surface and is more pronounced in the center lay out resulting to better and comfortable clicks to the thumbs, the design was so successful that Sony decided to use similar design on the PSvita’s button layout, only better.



There are also some hardware changes as well on the PSP 3000 the inclusion of a built in mic is one, its main purpose is to support voice chat with the built in skype application and other online enabled games, “call of duty in particular”. It’s a huge leap in my opinion for it eliminates further expenses on the gamer’s side, all you need now is a standard earphones which most of us already own, however you still have to worry about the expensive proprietary memory card. (Memory stick Pro Duo)



The most significant revamp on the PSP 3000 is the brighter and more vibrant screen, as a matter of fact, if you compare it side by side with its older brethren the difference is easily noticeable even from a far, Sony claims gamers can now play their PSPs outdoors without compromising visibility, thanks to the PSP 3000’s anti glare feature, and with an enhanced screen games looks more vibrant than ever before.

Sony did add a little more spice on the PSP 3000 by enabling gamers to play PSP games on their TV using the PSP AV out accessory, sounds promising, but in fact, it does work.



The PSP 3000 comes with the firmware (5.0) and with it Play Station Network (PSN) not only will the PSP 3000 play tangible games on its proprietary UMDs, it can also play downloaded materials on the Play Station Network, a huge advantage over its younger brethren the PSP go, which can only play downloadable materials from the Play Station Network, and its smaller screen is a major turn off.

The PSP 3000 now has increased contrast and wider color display that gets rid of a lot of the older PSP's ghosting side effects, however, gamers claimed that they’ve experienced jaggies and other graphic malformation in the form of lines during high speed game plays, some say it’s a cure worst than the disease, but I dare not speculate on that matter for I haven’t experienced it first hand, even if I did I think it’s barely noticeable and most importantly, it’s not worth the bother.



The PSP have had a hefty price on its debut release and struggled to get a foot hold in the electronics market in terms of sales, it took them merely two years to jump start their way in the hand held gaming market which was then spearheaded by the Nintendo DS, now on the late part of its life cycle the PSP has undergone a series of price drops and gamers who have yet experienced the PSP are now playing it first hand, it may be an old horse but the graphics and gameplay is still not outdated. The PSP has definitely carved its name as one of the best handheld console in gaming history.


PROS: Excellent game library, more vibrant screen.

CONS: Reduced battery life.