Take your VITA-mins!

     Some people may think that the handheld gaming market is dead. While I prefer to play video games on a console and a big screen television, I for one don't think handheld gaming is a thing of the past. There's something enjoyable of being able to take that video game experience with you when you are away from home. Thanks to Sony, that enjoyment has returned due to their newest handheld device, the Playstation Vita. In this review I'll be giving my opinion on the device itself such as apps and features. I'll be posting more reviews on games separately. So let's get to it!

     First off let me talk about the look and feel of the Vita. This is one sleek and sexy handheld gaming machine. It has that fancy piano black finish that looks nice, but of course leaves finger prints on it. It's also easy to see that the Vita is also put together really well. It is surprisingly light weight, but doesn't feel cheap at all. I won't bore you with all the specifics of the insides, but it has a quad core processor, front and rear cameras, dual analog control sticks, accelerometer, and a rear touch pad. So needless to say, the Vita is one powerful handheld gaming machine!

     When you first see a Vita you are automatically drawn to the screen. That's because it is a 5 inch OLED display. This screen is gorgeous looking! The dashboard, apps, and of course games all look amazing. Not only is the screen beautiful looking. It is also a touch screen. Now I will be the first person to say that Apple has perfected the touch screen with amazing responsiveness. I was shocked at how responsive the Vita's touch screen is. It glides between features with a breeze and the pinch and zoom effect is very snappy.

     The dashboard or interface is a change for Sony. No longer do you have the traditional dashboard like the PS3 and PSP. The Vita has more of a simple look to it as all the features, apps, and games appear as circles. This makes using the touch screen ability easier. Personally I think the look of the dashboard works well for a handheld device. You can have multiple pages to place all of your apps, games, etc. and of course you can move everything around to where you like it. You can also change the color of each individual page or even upload photos to use as the backgrounds. There are pre-loaded apps such as "Near" that allows you to search for what other Vita players in your area have been playing and add them as friends. You can also link your PS3 account along with all your trophies and friends list to the Vita. You also have access to the Playstation Store to download videos, digital copies of games, dlc, and even demos.

     Like most other mobile devices, Netflix has a downloadable app for the Vita. I've watched a couple episodes of television shows on the Vita and it works great. The picture quality looks very good on the OLED screen. I haven't had any sudden load times or and stuttering during playback either. This is a must have app for your Vita. There is a Facebook app which is similar to what other mobile devices have. You can take or leave that app. If you're a Twitter, Skype, or Flickr user, there is an app for you too.

     You can also surf the web on the Vita and it works pretty well. Pages load fairly quickly but there is a slight delay when scrolling up or down in a website. It's only around a 1-2 second delay so it's not bad. Unfortunately, the Vita does not support flash at the moment but it is suppose to be coming in the future. Battery life for the Vita is about five hours and to many that sounds terrible. To me I think that's good considering you'll be streaming movies from Netflix, web browsing, and of course mainly playing games.

     The Vita is a great handheld gaming device. It's well built, sleek looking, and has the inner parts to produce some great looking games and experiences. It offers several of the main social network apps and Netflix which is a plus. Some people complain that it doesn't offer all the apps like Apple or Android, but it's not trying to be an iPhone, iPad, or Android device. It's a handheld video game system and it does that very well. I have the WiFi version ($250) but there is a WiFi/3G model available too ($300). If you want the most powerful handheld gaming device out there, you can't go wrong with the Vita. I tip my cap to Sony for creating this. Well done Sony. Well done.

Final Verdict: 10/10

Written by: Alter Ego 83