Sony PS Vita hands-on, first impressions

Finally received the PS Vita I earlier ordered via the Multiply Marketplace and managed to unbox and play with it before my flight to Europe earlier this week. It has been a while since I used one like this (got a PSP a couple of years ago but rarely used it) so I was a little unfamiliar how the Vita fared in terms of usability. Check out our unboxing and first impressions after the jump.

The basic package I got was the US, WiFi version and, aside from the device itself and the charger, there wasn’t anything else in the box. The PS Vita is actually huge and a bit heavy, moreso if you put it side by side the older and smaller PSP.

There are now two analog sticks or nubs laced on both sides, the usual D-Pad on the left side and the Playstation controls on the right side.

There were more controls now than it was before and the large screen has a capacitive touch so navigation is much easier. Just didn’t like that UI and the 3D-like graphics they’ve used here (not the XrossMediaBar interface which we’re already familiar with).

I was not really that impressed at first until I played a game (separately bought  the proprietary 4GB card for Php1,650USD 28INR 2,384EUR 27CNY 205 and a Marvel vs. CapCom game for Php1,890USD 32INR 2,730EUR 31CNY 235) and that’s when the magic began and changed my mind.

Really great graphics, nice and brilliant 5-inch OLED screen and great over-all experience. I’ll just show you the video to better appreciate what I mean here.

Sony PS Vita
ARM Cortex A9 4-core CPU
Quad-Core PowerVR SGX543MP+ GPU
512MB RAM, 128MB VRAM
Front & Rear Camera
Built-in GPS
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR

The rear camera isn’t that good, bordering on decent but not that big of a deal. The cameras have abilities for face detection, head detection, and head tracking. Unlike the older PSPs, the battery on the PS Vita is integrated and non-removabe.

Disclosure: We got the PS Vita using the Php5,000USD 85INR 7,223EUR 81CNY 621 voucher given to us by Multiply. Multiply is also sponsoring a contest to our readers for another Php5,000USD 85INR 7,223EUR 81CNY 621 worth of shopping money here.