Let's give the Vita credit for something only it does

And that is customization.

Seriously, of the five dedicated game systems on the market (PC not included, because we all know PC's the best at this anyway), Vita is actually somehow, against all odds, the only system that actually lets you customize it. I mean, seriously, somehow between the generation transitions, all other systems lost the ability to be customized- the Xbox One (probably because Microsoft seized the OS in an effort to have it align to their vision), the PS4 (I guess because they're still working on it? Seriously, you can't even change the background color), and Nintendo never had much customization to begin with anyway, and sure enough, outside of some swapping of tiles and folders, the Wii U and 3DS are disappointingly deficient in that regard.

Meanwhile, the Vita offers complete and full customization. There is nothing you cannot change. You can have your own lock screen. You can have your own wallpaper. You can have your own different wallpaper for each different screen. On each screen, you are not bound to a grid, and you can place your game and app icons anywhere you want. You can create folders. Seriously, it's the most amazingly flexible and intuitive customization system I have seen yet. iOS and Android don't offer this degree of customization flexibility.So we really should give the Vita credit here, because this is something that only it can do, and, simply because of how the Xbox One and PS4 are (as in, consoles with no direct touch input or manipulation) it is also likely to be the only system this gen that does it.

BONUS ROUND: Share your PS Vita lock and home screen layouts here for everyone to see! It'll be fun to see just how much everyone has utilized the Vita's amazing customization options. Here's mine:

(and yes, in case it wasn't abundantly clear, I did spend a lot of time on getting this right lol).

I often refer to the Vita as my Persona 4 machine- this isn't meant to be derogatory, and I basically remodeled my entire Vita in celebration of this very fact. This is also a massive step up from when I just had three boring screens before with all the bubbles just arranged in order as they had been out of the box, the games just lining up at the end in order of installation.

Anyway, that just demonstrates some of the flexibility the Vita can demonstrate when it comes to this, so yeah, let's just give it credit for this here. And if you have any creatively done customizations, be sure to share them!

Not sure what you're getting at with the icons? E.g in the Wii U/3DS menu you can place the game tile where ever as well. Is that what it's doing? Are the bubbles floating where ever? Or is there a offset grid as well? From your images, it still looks like a pre-set grid rather than floating point.

Pretty cool that it has wall papers though. Although I wouldn't give it the title of "highly customisable" if you're just placing tiles and wallpapers. That's just a couple of nifty details.

Really a shame There isn't an option for Wallpapers for Xbox One or PS4, considering the last generation Xbox and Playstation had those options.

Who cares? This is like when Android fanboys tout "customization" and "open source" as an important feature. People who fiddle around with their phones changing every little constantly instead of actually using it must have some form of OCD.

@trugs26: The Wii U and 3DS grid is just that, it's a grid. On the other hand, here's what the Vita grid looks like:

With the great thing being that any spot on this 'grid' is fair game, meaning you can make irregular, non linear shapes, like I have in the OP.

Anyway, the point is not that any one of these customization features standout- a non linear grid, or wallpapers, or individual wallpapers, or custom lock screens, or folders, are by themselves hardly anything to write home about. But put together, they all contribute to make the Vita the most flexible and full featured system that there is on the market when it comes to customization. Even more impressively, they also make it more customizable than iOS and Android, which still stick to a linear grid, and do not offer separate wallpapers for individual screens, I believe (I might be wrong on Android offering this in its latest incarnation, in which case, feel free to correct me).

I used to arrange my screens and set wallpapers too but I stopped. My Vita is pretty delicate and sometimes slight bumps makes it think that I ejected the memory card so I have to restart the system and when it turns back on it removes all the bubbles for installed games and just leaves everything organized randomly and it happens pretty often for me so I just stopped.

I agree that out of the available current gen platforms it's the most customizable but certainly not more than ios, much less Android.

@charizard1605: you don't own an x1 right? Honestly I have my screen customized as far as the tiles. I can put what I want on my startup. Theme's like ps3/360 had are missing. Really hope they get them, or let me use downloaded pics as a theme.

I didn't know Charizard is now a viral marketer for Sony.

@cainetao11: Yeah, that's what I meant, the PS4 and Xbox One seem to be regressions as far as customization goes with respect to their predecessors. And yep, Xbone is the one I am missing of the current crop for now!

@Aljosa23: I was desperate enough to take any job. Yes, even working for Sony.

Double Agent!

Lol I have the same lock screen and almost the same wallpapers

@lostrib: You should share them >.>

As should others, btw!

@charizard1605: The only thing vita does that Android or iOS can't are individual wallpapers for each screen. But they all have folders. On android you can place items anywhere on the grid. You can have seperate images for the lock screen and main screen. Android even has live wallpapers.

On iOS and Android you can crop your pictures to set up the wallpaper to what you want. On Vita it also has to have the correct size or else it just makes a mess.

I knew all of that; I just haven't upgraded to KitKat yet, so I was unsure if they had added that, so I was asking for clarification on that. But thanks :)

So, this brings us to the Vita being able to do everything that iOS and Android can do... plus two additional things: a non linear grid (we can discount this if you want), as well as separate wallpapers for each screen. That does make it more customizable, hence my original claim.

Doesn't the PSP already do this?

Not everything described in the OP, no.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.go.multiplewallpaper

Corrected.

Oh cool, awesome, I gotta download that.

Nonetheless, my initial point- that Android itself doesn't offer that functionality- does stand lol, although with this app, it's basically as customizable as the Vita is.

I find Vita's customization impressive, especially considering it's a handheld console. I had no idea you could make folders on the screen.

They're like exactly the same, but I use transparent backgrounds

I think i'll add more pages soon because I don't like having bubbles on top of the characters

@faizan_faizan: Yes, it really is. I'll be honest, for the longest time, I just plonked a wallpaper and called it a day. It wasn't until very recently that I began playing around with it, and realized the sheer wealth of options available.

Too bad the Vita's OS is Shit.

Exciting.

@lostrib: Yeah, I had to... work pretty hard to ensure the characters weren't hidden by bubbles.

Happily enough, I have a lot more of these waiting, just in case I need to expand the number of pages I have (not that I'll need to, I have a wimpy 4GB card lol). But yeah, yours look great too.

@Blabadon: It's really not, though.

Yeah...PSP was cool about this too. Just wish it had more games :/

Its not as cluttered like this, I just grouped all my games onto three screens.

@bbkkristian: Oh man, I like the Xenoblade theme going on. Are all your screens Xenoblade themed, or is it just the ones with the games on them?

@charizard1605: You and I both know the Vita's OS is a cluttered mess.

My upcoming 32GB card won't help.

@Blabadon: Hey hey hey, as demonstrated, it doesn't have to be a mess.

Shame the Vita has no games.

This is one thing I've always liked about the Vita

I count six on mine. I have a 4GB card.

You need to upgrade

pretty sure that's like no form of OCD

System Wars: "It's all about the games themselves man"

Threads: meaningless shit that has nothing to do with games.

I just realized you don't seem to have a P4G bubble

Vita interface is so ugly... what were they thinking with round icons with distorted images inside. They could have at least made the text go around the icons in a curve or something or have custom icon shapes or even 3D icons that fit the image. I mean remember those 3D icons we used to have on the PS2 in the saves, why not do that.

Maybe it's just me but I don't like it.

but does have to do with the System...in System Wars

Yes.

Customization is important.

Thanks OP, I never really bothered that much customising my Vita, but after seeing those P4G wallpapers I had to copy you im afraid. I am really fussy when it comes to customisation and like minimal clutter. Would be nice if you could customise the Vita bubbles though, like the size and shape etc and to also get rid of the bubbles you dont ever intend on using.

I refuse to pay Sony's outrageous prices.

I dunno, right now my system has nine games on it, that's a fair amount for one that's supposed to have no games.

Yeah, I uninstalled it last night to make room for all these indies. Gonna see if I can actually put my Vita to some other use.

damn, I forgot the obligatory lolvita

Sure, no worries. I have a whole lot of base Persona 4 images you could use for your lock screen and wallpapers, so if you need any more, do let me know, and I'll PM them over.

I think the Vita is the biggest miss in handheld gaming history. It was like Sony tossed itself a big, giant slow-pitch softball and were themselves holding an oversize bat -- and somehow they still whiffed.

What a shame. So much unrealized potential it is staggering.

I'm more than happy with the options available on my 5C. The Android users who obsess over their icons not being the right size or shape are weird.

@charizard1605: Handheld gaming ... who cares really.. I got my android for that if i ever feel like play something on the road ( which im not , im not such a no lifer to play wherever i go.. )

@AzatiS: A lot of people do. A lot of the best games each year are released for handhelds, including last year's game of the year on this site.

Vita is good