After a huge success of the PlayStation Portable which was unveiled on May 11, 2004, Sony is now all set to release the next version of the handheld gaming console called PlayStation Vita (pronounced “vee-tah”, not “vy-tah”). After much rumour and speculation, the company finally announced the new PS, which was formerly code named NGP (Next Generation Portable) with some brilliant specs and features.

The Sony PlayStation Vita which was formerly unveiled at Sony’s E3 2011 press conference, aims to provide the most comprehensive portable gaming experience around. The new version of the handheld gaming console comes with two analog sticks, a 5-inch OLED multi-touch screen, supporting Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and optionally 3G. The PS Vita will also support social networking apps like the PS4, such as Facebook, Skype, Twitter, and foursquare, which will be available for download for free from the PlayStation store.

The PlayStation Vita is set to release in Japan and parts of Asia on December 17, 2011, along with a promised 26 games at launch and 100 in an unspecified ‘launch window’. Before we get in depth about the specifications and features, here’s the official trailer of the PS Vita:

PlayStation Vita Features

Design and Display

The PlayStation Vita looks quite similar to the PSP, however without any doubt the Vita is more impressive and elegantly designed. It sports a 5-inch OLED multi-touch capacitive touchscreen, 24-bit color with a resolution of 960 × 540 qHD and has pixel density of 220 ppi. The console has a huge size that measures 182 x 84 x 19 mm in size. To give you a fair idea on how huge it is, consider placing an iPhone 4, which will perfectly fit in the space where the display of the PS Vita is. Doesn’t that sound enormous?

Having said that, the PlayStation Vita fits comfortably in your hands and with the round edges it makes it easier to play games on it.

Controls

In the earlier version of the PlayStation, there was just a single analog stick, but in the PS Vita you can find two analog sticks on its front, joined by a D-pad along with the standard PS button. On the top, it has the Left and Right shoulder triggers along with the Start and Select standard buttons.

It has two touch-sensitive pads behind the device where you rest your fingers for support. It is quite similar to the track pad on your laptop and it is designed to function in a similar fashion. These pads work in combination with the controls of the PlayStation Vita which can be used to stroke and poke for additional controls when playing the game. The popularity of this new control all depends on how the game developers make use of it for the PS Vita.

Other features include…

– Chatting – The PlayStation Vita supports chatting with your friends while you’re watching a video or playing a multi-player game, in a way to keep you connected.
– Unlike PSP, the PSV will not support video output or contain a removable battery.
– Hardware wise, the device features a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 MP Core processor (3 of the 4 cores will be usable for applications) and a quad-core SGX543MP4 + GPU. It will have a 512 MB of system RAM and 128 MB of VRAM.
– It was confirmed by Sony that the battery would last for about 3-5 hours of gameplay, 5 hours of video, and up to 9 hours of music listening with the screen off.
– The PS Vita will have a storage media card slot, where users can plug in NVG cards of capacities ranging from 4 GB to 32 GB.
– Note: NGV is a new proprietary flash card format similar to the Nintendo 3DS Game Cards.
– It also sports a Six-axis system – 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope – enabling the PS Vita for sensing motion. Along with that, it has another 3-axis compass with integrated GPS and connectivity options such as 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.
– The PlayStation Vita has both front and rear cameras with supporting features such as face detection, head detection and head tracking that can be used for personalization and customization.
– The device will also support backwards compatible PlayStation Portable downloadable titles, PlayStation minis, PlayStation Suite games, PSOne Classics, videos, and comics from the PlayStation Store.

PlayStation Vita Technical Specifications

Here’s a complete list of technical specification the of the PlayStation Vita:

PlayStation Vita Pricing and Availability

Pricewise, the PlayStation Vita is expected to come in two versions – PSV Wi-Fi only and PSV Wi-Fi + 3G. The 3G version is priced at $299.99 USD while the other version could be priced at a $50 lesser price – $249.99 USD. However, there hasn’t been any mention of data pricing. Sources indicate that the Vita could adopt AT&T’s tablet data series, with $15 for 200MB of usage and $25 for 2GB.

Additionally, the more expensive (3G) version will come pre-loaded with some special applications that take advantage of 3G’s “always-on” capabilities, such as augmented reality software.

Sony PlayStation Vita Price in Singapore Dollar (SGD):

– Approximately S$ 395.00 (Wi-Fi + 3G)
– Approximately S$ 330.00 (Wi-Fi Only)

It is set to release in Japan and parts of Asia on December 17, 2011 and in Europe and North America on February 22, 2012.

With the PSV release, Sony has announced the initial availability of 26 game titles in Japan. PlayStation classics such as Katamary Damacy, Virtua Tennis, Hot Shots Golf, and Ridge Racer are expected to come along with new exciting games such as Uncharted: Dark Abyss and a Michael Jackson rhythm game.

Pre-Order Yours Now!

You can pre-order your PlayStation Vita now. The cheapest place we found to purchase the PlayStation Vita is Amazon:

Pre-Order/Order: PlayStation Vita – WiFi
This PlayStation Vita comes with WiFi.

Pre-Order/Order: PlayStation Vita – 3G/WiFi
This PlayStation Vita comes with WiFi + AT&T 3G.

Pre-Order/Order: PlayStation Vita – First Edition Bundle
This version will be released on February 15, 2012.

Amazon offers a Pre-order Price Guarantee, so if you order now and if the price decreases between your order time and the end of the day of the release date, you’ll receive the lowest price.