Playstation Vita - one of the best handheld designs ever?

It's a well known fact that the Vita is dead (and that Vita means life). But it still gets games, and there is still a passionate following of the system. We know that software never really worked out on the US side, but let's talk about hardware. To this day, I still think the Vita has the best hardware design for a handheld. Yes, even better than the Switch (which I still consider a console, not a handheld). What makes the Vita the best handheld design? Perfect size and handle. Good audio and screen. Great power for a handheld, though not really realized. The best example is Killzone Mercenary and that was just scratching the surface for its power. It could have been great.

So where do you land on this question, SW?

Only played it for Uncharted Golden Abyss. Was fine, not particularly comfortable imo. Powerwise, I kinda just wished I was playing a console game on a TV.

Just a bit of an odd duck all around for me. Though admittedly I'm not into handheld gaming in general. Just Uncharted ;)

It was a nice piece of hardware, but power as usual, is not enough to succeed, 3DS is still thriving to this day.

This thread should be in the Retro forum.

@raugutcon: I agree, just like the xone.

The fact that it will be able to use micrSD next year.

No it gets uncomfortable after an hour or so. Also the back touch pad can be annoying

@recloud: ahahahahah you killed him

@Ant_17: "The fact that it will be able to use micrSD next year"

?

Can't say.

Wait until Sony drops giving away vita games on plus.

nope, Switch is better, and I use Switch entirely as a handheld, dabbled with putting it on TV and didn't much care for it to try again. technically it's a hybrid, and it's pretty much whatever the user wants it to be, it's not like Wii U where it is a portable screen controller that works in range of the main hub, the Switch is entirely portable and can be taken wherever the user desires, my main complaint is it is big and lacks the portability of say a 3DS which just folds up and goes right into my pocket or bag, for the Switch I needed to buy a carrying case for it

I really would like to be able to get one on the cheap, but it seems those bad boys hold their value.

Obviously, the PSP Go is what the Vita should have been. Sony sure did goof on that part.

@recloud: wrong there pal, Vita is dead, X1 isn’t.

If it wasn't for the back touch screen and lack of SD card option than the design was close to prefect for sure!

Sure looks dead to me.

I mean, Vita is getting 3 exclusives this year, while the Bone just 2.

Absolutely. Sexy as fug.

@recloud: This thread is about the lolvita, don't try to derail it with the X1

Hardware wise, I definitely preferred my Vita over my 3DS. But due to some of the NIntendo games, I probably played them about the same amount. Which admittedly probably wasn't enough to justify either purchase (I only played about 10 games total on each).

That's all they talk about. Its like the news on Trump.

definitely. as a piece of gaming hardware it is excellent overall.

the form factor is quite comfortable. the buttons are small but not too small. the sticks are nice. the shoulder buttons are solid and the back touch pad is a nice addition. really the only things that annoy me are the placement of the speakers (on the original model), getting game cards in and out (its a little overly fiddly) and the use of a custom port and cable (fixed in the second version) for charging and data transfer. oh yeah; and the use of custom vita memory cards which sucks. its not pocket friendly as its too big and the sticks stick out but we havent had a pocket friendly handheld since the GBA SP. they are designed to go in a backpack.

hardware wise it was also excellent. lovely build quality (original model: i havent used the new one), good sound, great screen, solid battery life and a good selection of CPU, GPU and ram. developers liked working on the vita and it was the first to show sonys new devs first approach to hardware development. it also really showed what mobile hardware could do. seeing the likes of wipeout,, assasins creed, killzone and uncharted using quite a bit of tech from the PS3/360 and looking as they do was quite remarkable. digital foundry have some interesting interviews with developers who worked on the vita. its a shame the vita never got its own GT. or monster hunter.

im also going to say it.....i like the Vitas OS and system UI. it wouldnt be great on a TV but for a portable its lovely. fast, very responsive, intuitive and simple UI with not too much bloat (they have also disabled some of that bloat over the last couple of years). its also very customisable and has that right level of playful for a gaming machine. the PSN store on it is crap though (the 3DS has a better rendition of its own estore).

the switch, in a lot of ways, is the nintendo vita and thats a really really good thing. i think the switch is a bit better. nintendo accepted that they werent making something for the pocket so it has a nicer and bigger screen, more comfortable controls, better sound, much more powerful but still dev friendly and is generally a better vita all round (getting carts in and out is still fiddly mind). but i consider it as a sort of spirtual successor to the vita rather than the 3DS (definitely not actual successor of course).

Vita's fine. Didn't think much of it. I liked the feel of it. Feels expensive. Screen looked real good, too. I think Nintendo could learn some things from it.

3DS actually made good use of its normal screen +touch-screen layout. It made it more portable, more interesting. Protected screen while traveling, though you could slap a screen protector on a Vita I s'ppose. In the end I liked my 3DS about twice as much as my Vita. The 3DS is sturdy. Dropped it twice in a comical fashion, and it still worked like a charm. A shame that it scratched the paintjob, but hey.

Yeah I love the design and everything, love my Vita. Found it very comfortable to use for long periods. The 3DS is better in terms of games, but I find it hard to go back to after using the Vita and it's not that comfortable to hold.

I buy everything, so you know it's bad that I don't own a Vita.

All it needed, IMHO, was its own unique Metal Gear game. Alas, it couldn't even get that.

Although I want to thank the Vita, its colossal mishandling of memory sticks probably led to the Switch not making the same mistake.

No. I love Vita, I have too many games on it, probably more than 90% of Vita owners, but no, it's not the best design.

It's touch screen was pretty elementary. Not as simple as DS or 3DS, but they were compensated by the dual screen and the game design that encourages. Vita on the other hand imitates smartphones without being as responsive.

Its storage system was also garbage. The memory cards are just fucking terrible. Also, how multiple memory cards works is just as bad. In that sense, even PSP did better.

As to its physical design, I'm fine with it for the most part except for the back pad, which is just absolutely terrible idea. Thankfully most devs thought the same and decided to ignore it for the most part. The games that use it, however, are pretty bad. Also, the analog stick and the screen are too close, meaning that you can touch the screen accidentally, and sometimes that triggers unwanted action (i.e. Warriors games that ties specials to bottom left screen).

The screen is great (for its time) but they downgraded it in 2nd gen.

No matter how you want Switch to be "console", that's your own opinion, and the fact of the matter is Switch can be handheld, and is handheld for the most part for a lot of people. And Switch is just so much better in design compared to Vita. Only thing that Vita can be better compared to Switch is its connectivity to PC and backing up data, but Vita is not ideal in that regard either.

Before the Switch came out, the Vita most definitely was the best from a hardware standpoint. I loved the thing, but as with any handheld more powerful than whatever Nintendo currently had out at the time, it just failed to compete from a library standpoint. Frustrates me.

Game Gear is love.

For the 1000 yes. I'm not fond of the 2000's looks.

The dpad is the best imo. I can't believe how much better it is than the X1's dpad.

@Ant_17: "Can't say. Wait until Sony drops giving away vita games on plus."

Vita Pro at E3?

Nah, still the Vita.

Excellent architecture and hardware, but poor market execution and expensive accessories.

@Ant_17: "Nah, still the Vita."

lol

Its far better than Ds designs.

I really love DS, but its really uncomfortable to actually hold in your hands. Playing classic platformers on d-pad and buttons is torture on your hands. And it did not get better on 3DS. It got worse.

Vita is much more comfortable.

Yeah I am ok with the VITA's ui. A lot seemed to hate it though but maybe that was before the folders and physical button implementation.

The circular and diagonal patterns matches the console and allows wallpapers to shine through.

My only hopes for now for better AAA portable gaming is the Switch 2 and future of handheld PCs. It doesn't seem like we're getting games like Dragon Age Inquisition and Witcher 3s with the Switch.

I loved it. Havnt played it in 2 years or so. But I sure did play it A LOT when it was fresh.

Same.

I also remember people asking me on what smartphone it was lol.

@j2zon2591: i really really hope the smachZ is a real thing. if it does arrive it will be an amazing handheld.

After PSP and 3DS it was nice to have proper thumbsticks.

Yeah I bought one thinking it would get a God of War or GTA game like PSP did.

I was wrong.

@R4gn4r0k:

BUT we did get Hyperdimension Neptunia on the Vita! 8 times!!

The comfort level is the one and only strength Vita has over the 3DS. An individual could play that cramp-free unlike the 3DS which induces such feeling after a few moments.

Yeah man still plenty of great games on the awesome Vita !

It's just that Sony dropped support way too fast, and Rockstar pledged support but never delivered.

I love my Vita. I love how familiar the controls feel like you're holding a DS3 or DS4 controller. I also actually really like the touchscreen features tbh. Games that were able to implement them correctly like Little Big Planet, Tearaway, and Uncharted: Golden Abyss are friggin genius. The controls can be kind of janky sometimes because some buttons (including touchscreens) are just too close together. I quickly got rid of Borderlands 2 because I couldn't even go 2 seconds without accidentally swinging my melee weapon and that got annoying like really quick lol

I hope it does okay to at least warrant a few more entries in the handheld pc market. While there's usually GPD, more would be great.

Perhaps so, but like David versus Goliath, it loses over its inferior rival the Nintendo 3DS.

I think they missed the point when it came to handhelds. I liked the PSP a lot, but even that unit felt inelegant with the discs and the way it connected to a PC etc.

A handheld should free you from console trappings, and SONY has consistently pushed forward in one direction only - more graphical power.

Easily one of the best. It actually does some things better than switch does.

Isn't it also PSN's progenitor? Wifi too? Had that tiny nipple stick on top of the usual dpad. Also pushed optical for handheld which had massive advantage in storage to price compared to flash media during their era. I think the UMD had like 800mb while 256mb flash media back then probably cost almost half the PSP.

The VITA might've even done better if it just focused on hardware grunt but instead those cameras/backpads.

Keeping the soapbar form factor is also smart rather than a Go because of how easily accesible the touch screen is.. even more accessible than the Switch because you don't have to shift your grips near as much. This was amzing in games where you could chat live. Didn't they also have handheld party chat first over the 3DS/DS?

Sigh. So much wasted potential but as you might see. Not just graphics.. but still overall a failure since it lacks the soul of a console; "games".

Switch is way better, and the ports are way better.

Nah. That touchpad on the back was a pain in the arse. Plus, I wasn't a big fan of the ergonomics of the handheld. I think the Switch is a much better design for a handheld.

I never owned one myself but Sony definitely nailed the design with the Vita. It's just a shame the game support was lacking. The original PSP had a lot of third-person adventure games, and shooters which suffered because of the lack of second stick. Those types of games would have been perfect on the Vita.