When the PlayStation Portable launched in 2004, it was touted as the portable gaming system to end all others.
Fast forward to 2012, and the PSP is officially dead. Replacing it is the PlayStation Vita, Sony’s super-high-quality gaming device.
The PlayStation Vita and the Nintendo 3DS are in a race for the No. 1 position and every gamer’s money.
So the question is: Is the Vita worth buying?
HARDWARE
The most striking feature of the Vita is its gorgeous 5-inch OLED capacitive touch screen. Taking up the majority of the front of the device, the stunning screen displays millions of colors and crystal-clear images.
On either side of the screen are small analog sticks, making the Vita the first portable gaming system to have dual-analog controls.
A 1.3-megapixel camera, directional pad and triangle, circle, square, X, start, select and PlayStation buttons round off the front of the device.
The top of the Vita has a small power button and a slot for Sony’s proprietary game cards, an accessories port and the left and right triggers.
On the bottom, there’s a dock connector for charging and data transfer, a 3.5 mm headphone jack and the slot for Sony’s annoyingly overpriced proprietary memory cards.
Interestingly, the back of the Vita has a touch-sensitive area as well. A few games like “Little Deviants” and “Uncharted: Golden Abyss” utilize this area, but its lasting usefulness is yet to be seen. It also holds the 1.3-megapixel rear-facing camera.
The guts of the device include a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore as the CPU and a quad-core SGX543MP4+ for graphics, plus 512 MB of system RAM and 128 MB of VRAM.
Basically, that means the Vita can multitask and produce some of the best graphics on a mobile device.
It also has built in Wi-Fi, 3G data service (in the 3G version only), Bluetooth, GPS (3G version only) and Sony’s Sixaxis technology, allowing motion control to be implemented into select games.
USABILITY AND FEATURES
Everything about the Vita is quick and responsive. The buttons press with a satisfying ‘click,’ and the touch screen is accurate and sensitive.
The Vita is the first of Sony’s gaming devices not to use the XrossMediaBar user interface since it was introduced in 2006. Instead it uses LiveArea, a brand new interface that revolves around bubble-shaped application icons.
It’s not anything ground-breaking, but LiveArea is clean and simple, and it works. Swiping to the right reveals the open applications, and closing them is as simple as tearing the virtual “sticker” that is the application window off with the slide of a finger.
The most exciting feature of the Vita is full integration with the PlayStation Network. Friends lists, trophies, leaderboards and the PlayStation Store are all accessible from the home screen.
GAMES AND CONCLUSION
The Vita has a surprising amount of quality games available at launch. “Uncharted: Golden Abyss,” “Super Stardust Delta” and “Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3” are only a few of the games available out of the box.
The Vita may not have as much hype as the original PSP did when it launched, but it definitely shouldn’t be ignored. With vastly better graphics, controls and game play than the Nintendo 3DS or iPhone, Sony’s latest handheld proves itself to be a heavyweight in the portable gaming market.
Taylor Balkom is a 20-year-old mass communication sophomore from Baton Rouge.
 
 
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Contact Taylor Balkom at [email protected]