Recently, Sony has announced its new portable hand-held gaming device, the PlayStation Vita, which is to supersede the enduring PlayStation Portable. Despite the fact that Vita at first glance looks just like PlayStation Portable, the upcoming gadget comes with numerous improvements, especially when it comes to the motion-sensing system. Vita is scheduled for release toward the end of 2011.
Vita is powered by a potent quad-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU and will come with an incorporated mic. The new motion-sensing system is based on six-axis, while the electronic compass on three-axis. Besides the much anticipated 3G and Wi-Fi support, Vita will also feature two cameras, one in the front and the other in the rear, with which users will be able to record video.
The new PlayStation hand-held gaming device has a 5-in OLED touchscreen as well as a pad with multi-touch support on the rear. This pad is in fact one of the highlights of the new device because it enables gamers to perform five distinct finger motions, touch, grab, push, pull, and trace, in order to accomplish a three dimensional-like motion within games. Two analog sticks are also included.
At approximately 182 (width) x 18.6 (height) x 83.5mm (depth), PlayStation Vita is not much different than PlayStation Portable in terms of size. The screen however, has been considerably improved. The new 5-in OLED capacitive touchscreen has a 16:9 aspect ratio, comes with a 960×544 resolution, and can display up to 16 million colors.
The new PlayStation Vita will have a PS and power button, directional (up-down-left-right), action (square-cross-circle-triangle) and shoulder buttons (left- right), left and right stick, start and select button, and volume buttons.
Vita will be initially available in two versions. Both come with Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR, but only one will support Wi-Fi and 3G at the same time. This difference is obviously reflected in the estimated retail price, the Wi-Fi model being priced at $249 while the 3G/Wi-Fi one is $50 more, at $299.
Vita will come with four slots or ports: a Vita game card slot, a memory card slot, a multi-use port (USB, DCIN, Audio), and a SIM card slot. The latter is exclusively available for the 3G/Wi-Fi model.
Sony’s upcoming hand-held portable gaming device supports a wide range of AV content. Music formats supported include mp3, mp4, and wave. Video formats include MPEG-4, H.264/MPEG-4 while photo formats include JPEG, BMP, and GIF.
While gamers who expect a radical design change will be disappointed, it’s unlikely that most people will complain that Vita looks just like PlayStation Portable. For after all, there is nothing wrong with Portable’s design that needs changing.
The improved motion-sensing system, the addition of two capable cameras, and the superior OLED touchscreen are by far Vita’s major attractions, and in all probability they won’t fail to make an impact. All in all, Vita seems to add new features to a design that has already been proven to work, the result being perhaps the best portable hand-held gaming device to hit the market this year.
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