Norman Rhodes | On 20, Mar 2012

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It has been about a month since Sony unleashed the PlayStation Vita here in America. A system that shows so much promise and technological advancement for a handheld system. It features a powerful 4-core ARM processor, multi-touch OLED touchscreen, Rear Touchpad,TWO analog sticks and Sixaxis technology. It promises to bring the next generation to the palm of your hands, but does it do that? We will pass judgement on the Vita after spending a lot of time with it!

What We Liked (Pros)
The PlayStation Vita has a lot of great features for you to check out and play around with, but the best addition to this system is the second analog stick. if you remember, it was someone difficult to play Shooters on the PSP due to the lack of a second analog stick. That problem is solved and a very welcomed addition on the Vita. Now I can sit down and play a game like Uncharted the way I would on my home console.

While having a second analog stick might be a small addition to some, it’s big to people like me who are big shooter fans. Nothing however, is as big as the system itself. The PlayStation Vita is bigger than the 1000, 2000 and 3000 series PSP. We know because of all that tech that’s crammed inside of it but also, a good size for both people with small to big hands to hold it comfortably. On the other hand, some with big hands might find it a little difficult to play games with the small buttons on the system.

Another big plus for me would be the systems battery life, I read reviews when the PlayStation Vita came out and the majority of them talked about how the battery life wasn’t that good. Over the past few weeks I’ve played the hell out of it, used multiple applications at one time and left it off the charger some nights and never have I gone past 50% battery life left. To me, the system has pretty good battery life for all of your gaming needs. Either that or I need to go on a very long road trip where I’m nowhere near a charging station.

The final things I have to talk about are the touchscreen, launch games and probably something else…I thought I wrote all of this down before starting this review…oh well..WING IT. The screen is crisp, clean and clear. I think I just used three different words with the same meaning to describe how beautiful the screen is on the Vita. While watching Netflix on this system I found it to be the nearly same experience as watching it on my home console. Another thing that impressed me were the game that were available at launch. You had big titles like their first party titles in ModNation Racers and Little Deviants to big third-party titles like Uncharted and FIFA Soccer.

What Needs Improvement (Cons)
When I first got this system, the first thing I wanted to do was transfer all of my games I bought from the PlayStation Store on my PSP to my Vita to continue playing them. When I went to do such thing I found out that not ALL of the games I’ve downloaded were available through the store to be re-downloaded. I thought this was very unfortunate, especially being that the Vita doesn’t support the PSOne and PS2 Classics yet. We know that they’re suppose to add support for those games sometime this year but I think it something that should already be there.

Another thing that really bugged me was that there is NO internal storage. We’re in the year 2012, and this system is being made well after the digital only PSPGO which featured internal storage with an option to upgrade and the Vita doesn’t give me that same option? I think it’s a big step backwards from the GO and shows that with this system it’s all about making money off of the consumer. Which by the way, we will gladly throw away on one of those very expensive memory cards Sony is selling for the PlayStation Vita. With the option to download games that come out for PlayStation Vita there, you would think Sony would have at least 4-8 GBs of space already made available to you ON the system.

The last thing is the camera on this system, it’s not great…its not even good. It’s horrible, but you don’t expect any gaming handheld to have a GOOD camera so we can give it a pass on the quality being crap. There’s not too much to say about it other than it sucks…case closed…moving on.

The Verdict: The PlayStation Vita is every handheld gamers dream, a system that is powerful enough to handle near home console quality graphics and a good amount of games that appeal to the hardcore gamer as well. I think people should actually spend the 249.99 or if you want 3G with your system, you can pay the extra 50 bucks and get the 3G/WiFi Model. It has a lot of great features for you to use as well as the ability to browse the PlayStation Network while you’re on the go. You won’t become a photographer with the 0.3MP Camera or a Cinematographer, but you can murder and take names while waiting in line at the DMV.

This review was based on of a retail purchased PlayStation Vita.

Editor Note: Yes, we know it nearly took us a month to finally review the Vita! It’s called taking our time and making sure the review is our accurate representation of the product we’re reviewing.