At E3 2011 Sony announced thier latest hand held gaming console, The Playstation Vita. This is the successor to the amazing PSP which impressed everyone on the hardware side of things, but struggled to please with it's line up of games. I mean what use is an amzing console without games?? I myself had a PSP but traded it in for a DS Lite due to the pitiful arrangement of games on the market. This time round Sony hopes to change that and already announced 13 games for the PS Vita;

1) ModNation™ Racers (working title)     
Experience fun-filled kart racing at your fingertips.

2) Everybody's Golf™ (working title)
     Hit the course as everybody's favourite golf series comes to the fore on PS Vita.

3) LittleBigPlanet™ (working title)
    Take Sackboy with you on an adventure powered by your own imagination.

4) Virtua Tennis™ 4
    The dazzling console tennis experience in the palm of your hand.

5) Uncharted Golden Abyss™
    Uncover the dark secret behind the massacre of a Spanish expedition to Central America 400 years ago.

6) Little Deviants
    Unleash your inner deviant on PS Vita.

7) Wipeout 2048 (working title)
    The future of racing – at your fingertips.

Sony have also announced other games for the PS Vita including Bioshock and many more.

The PS Vita uses the latest technology to deliver the best performance and graphics. With a stunning touch screen and dual analog sticks, the PS Vita is every portable gamer's dream come true. There is also a rear touchpad which allows you to fully enhance your gaming experience. As far as connectivity goes you can take your pick from Sony's 'always-on' 3G Mobile Broadband or a Wi-Fi only model. The 3G Model of the PS Vita will be provided by AT&T who were the only North American Company to offer 3G connectivity to Apple for the iPhone when it launched in 2007, and now there doing the same with Sony. The deal was announced during Sony's E3 Conference and was received with somewhat of a dissatisfactory groan. AT&T have somewhat of a reputation for a lack of reliabilty and have been known to cut short more than thier fair share of calls. The exclusivity of the deal inside the US will probably mean that there will most likely be locked data prices for a possibly unreliable service. Lucky for us Brits though the deal only covers the US so we wont have to put up with a possibly low level of service. Sony have not yet announced any partnerships with other service providers outside the US, but says 'more details are on the way'. In addition the PS Vita is fully compatible with PlayStation Network, as well as connecting with PS3. Social gaming is right at your fingertips with the PS Vita thanks to it's two new apps, 'near' and 'party' both of which come preloaded on the 3G model of the PS Vita.

Party works with your friends list to display all your currently connected mates, what games their playing, and even allows you to chat with them all in one place. The best feature of Party at the moment is the ability to chat with your friends regardless of what game you are playing, much like rival microsofts party chat for the Xbox 360. You can talk to your friends through either a headset or the system's built-in microphone and speakers. PS3 users have been craving cross-game voice chat and the PS Vita is finally here to make thier dream come true.

Near takes social networking to the next level allowing users to comment on and recommend games to one another, track their friends' locations through the built-in GPS or simply compare trophies. An extract from the AT&A Partnership press release explains fully the capabilities of near; 'Developed specifically for PlayStation Vita and pre-installed on each system, "near" will allow users to find out what other PS Vita users in their vicinity are currently playing and what titles are most popular in the area. Users can meet with friends and new players virtually – regardless of what games they are playing – simply by sharing their game information across PlayStation®Network... "Near" also enables location-based gaming features such as "gifting," in which a user can access virtual game-related items that other users are sharing, through checking in at geographic locations that others have also visited. The virtual items can include content unlocked from games, such as character costumes, weapons and treasures. Sharing these items between users adds a unique dimension to the portable gaming experience on PlayStation Vita while enhancing the social connectivity among the PS Vita community.' 

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)

Screens:

Front touchscreen: 5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, approx. 16 million colours, OLED multi touch screen, capacitive type.

Rear touch pad:

Multi touch pad, capacitive type.

Cameras:

     - Front camera.

     - Rear camera.

     - Frame rate: 120fps@320x240(QVGA), 60fps@640x480(VGA).

     - Resolution: Up to 640x480(VGA).

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 (3G / Wi-Fi model only).

      - 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:

      - Mobile network connectivity (3G / Wi-Fi model only).

      - IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1x1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode).

      - Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR (A2DP/AVRCP/HSP).

Slots / Ports

      - PlayStation Vita card slot.

      - Memory card slot.

      - SIM card slot (3G / Wi-Fi model only).

      - Multi-use port (for USB data communication, DC IN, Audio [Stereo Out / Mono In], Serial data communication.

      - Headset jack (Stereo mini jack) (for Audio [Stereo Out / Mono In]).

      - Accessory port.

Power

      - Built-in Lithium-ion Battery, Not Removeable

      - AC adaptor.

Supported AV content

Music

      - MP3 MPEG - 1/2 Audio Layer 3, MP4 (MPEG-4 AAC), WAVE (Linear PCM).

Videos

      - MPEG-4 Simple Profile (AAC). H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Hi/Main/Baseline Profile (AAC).

Photos

      - JPEG (Exif 2.2.1), TIFF, BMP, GIF, PNG.

Overall I'm really excited about the PS Vita. The hardware all looks good apart from the 3G Service from AT&T, yet for me that's not an issue as I live in the UK. The online capabilities all look superb which is one thing portable game consoles usually lack. Im also very interested with Sony's line up of games which for me makes a console. Personally I feel that this is an excellent console just i wish it was 3D!


- Matt