I picked up my Hong Kong edition PlayStation Vita Uncharted Starter Pack on 31 December 2011, and I have spent quite some time and racked a dozen trophies or so on it. It is now nine days later, and I am finally comfortable enough to write a review on it. I bought the Wi-Fi only version, as I havce no no need for the always-on Internet connection or GPS services available in the 3G version.
Besides the handheld, the Starter Pack also includes the Asian version of Uncharted: Golden Abyss (don't worry, everything's in English) and the Vita Accessory Pack, which contains the following items
- screen protector
- protective case that doubles as a stand
- wrist strap
- decent-sized microfiber cloth to wipe the screen with
- a tray to hold eight games and two memory cards
- 4GB memory card, which I traded in at the shop for a discount towards the 16GB card
I also bought the Japanese version of Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, which brought the total sum to RM1730.




This is actually the very first launch console/handheld I had ever owned, as my previous PlayStations and Nintendos were actually bought a few years after they were released. It's nice to be able to gloat about having the PlayStation Vita, unfortunately there's no content for it, games are minimal (even if one can read Chinese and/or Japanese) and there's no one to share games with.
This is a gorgeous handheld, and it is a much more polished product compared to the PlayStation Portable (PSP). It is blessed with a gorgeous 5" OLED touchscreen with a resolution of 960×544, double that of the PSP's 480×272 resolution. It's not exactly in the same league as Apple's Retina Display, but it's pretty darn close.



The Vita is also equipped with two analog sticks, a welcome relief from the single half-arsed analog nubbin on the PSP. The standard four PlayStation buttons are there, along with two shoulder buttons. Behind the Vita is a touch panel, more about this later in the article. It also comes with front and rear cameras, but the maximum resolution supported is only VGA (640×480), so it's obvious they were designed for gaming purposes only.





The touchscreen is very responsive, and is comparable to the iPhone or the iPad. Colors are gorgeous and black levels are very deep. I had transferred a few 720p MP4 videos from my PS3 to the Vita and they are absolutely stunning to look at. It should be noted that video must be encoded with the H.264 codec and the maximum resolution is 720p. 1080p content and MP4 videos encoded with other codecs (i.e. XviD) are not supported. I hope Sony is able to introduce better video playback features with firmware updates in the future, as the Vita would definitely make a great video playback device, certainly far better than the PSP.
Gone is the XMB we have come to know and love on the PSP and PS3. In its place is a near interface, known as LiveArea, where a maximum of 10 bubbles may be placed on a page. In some respects it is quite similar to HTC's implementation of Android. It isn't quite as elegant as the XMB, although I have to admit it is very easy to navigate and the large bubbles are much easier to tap at compared to iOS icons. The operating system is completely dependant on the touchscreen, the buttons are not used at all in the main menu.



Setting up the Vita is a straightforward process, and I had it connected to my secured home Wi-Fi connection in no time. All the typical network controls are there, allowing me to assign a static IP address for the device, as well as specific gateway and DNS servers. Unlike the PSP, which had a Wi-Fi hardware switch, the wireless radio on the Vita is always on, much like the PS3. This can be a drain on the battery, so I found it best to enable Flight Mode while gaming and only turning off Flight Mode when I want to sync my trophies with my PSN account.
As my PSN account is based in the US, I am unable to access the PlayStation Store at this point in time as it is currently only open to those with Japanese PSN accounts. I expect this to change by the end of February though when the Vita will be released in the US. It also has some sort of social connectivity feature called Near, but I was unable to test it at all simply becuase hardly anyone has a Vita yet.
The Vita comes with firmware 1.0 out-of-the-box, and I was prompted for a firmware upgrade immediately upon connecting it to the Internet. Upgrading to firmware 1.5.1 is identical to that on the PSP or PS3, so there's nothing new here. Based on the download time, the Vita firmware files are definitely larger than PSP firmwares, but not quite the 100+ MB packages I have had to download on the PS3.
The Vita is the very first first-party PlayStation hardware to actually have a traditional directional pad. All prior PlayStation controls opted for four separate recessed buttons in lieu of a traditional gamepad, which I thought was problematic on the PSP since it was smaller than those found on the DualShock controllers. Response from the pad is very smooth, and I had no problems busting out moves on Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the four control buttons, as they are significantly smaller than the PSP and are positioned very closely to the right analog stick, which caused me to die a coupla times during the more frenetic gunfights in Uncharted: Golden Abyss.
The top of the Vita has the power button, the Vita Card slot (all Vita games are distributed in a proprietary flash memory format known as the Vita Card), an external connectivity port for future expansion, and volume controls that are almost identical to the ones on the iPhone 4 or the iPhone 4S. Unlke the PSP, there are no slots in either side of the Wi-Fi only version. The 3G version has a small SIM card slot on the left. The Vita Card is roughly the same size as an SD card.

The bottom of the Vita has a proprietary multi-purpose port, which is used to charge the device and/or connect it to the PS3 or PC via USB, and the Vita Memory Card slot. Yes, the Vita requires a highly expensive proprietary memory card to store data. Sony's justification was that they wanted to have a uniform experience for all Vita customers, as there are many different classes of SD or MemoryStick cards out there. This is bullshit if you ask me, and it reeks as simply another attempt to gouge customers out of more moolah. Be careful with the teeny tiny Vita Memory Card though, as it is even smaller than a MicroSD card.


As with the PSP, USB charging is only possible when the device is inactive, although I have not tested if it will detect the 2.3V USB port on my Kensington car charger (which I use to charge my iPad 2 when I am on the go) as a proper power socket. Charging it to 100% takes a few hours, similar to the iPad 2. I noticed it does perform an initial quick charge, so even a quick 15-30 minute charge can get it up to 70%.
It should be noted that unlike the PS3 or PSP, the PlayStation Vita system name cannot be set manually and will adopt the name of the PSN account associated with it automatically. And here comes the main gripe for most people - the Vita only supports a single PSN account, and the only way to switch between accounts is to wipe the device and start anew.
Trophies earned in Vita games are added to your overall tally, but for some reason are not shown in the PS3, although I imagine this is but a PS3 firmware upgrade away. PS3 trophies are shown on the Vita, with Facebook integration intact. Sony has also promised Vita versions of Foursquare, Twitter and Skype in the near future.

Having just completed Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception on the PS3 only a month ago, I was jonesing for more of Nathan Drake's adventures. Needless to say most of my Vita gaming time was spent with Uncharted: Golden Abyss. Despite being presented on a handheld device, this is a full-on Uncharted game, and is approximately the same length as Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. The graphics are absolutely gorgeous on the 5" OLED screen, and screen captures really do not do justice to this game.
It utilizes all the various input capabilities on the Vita to full effect. Along with the traditional DualShock controls, the touchscreen may also be used for melee and stealth combat, and climbing up walls. The rear touch panel is used to zoom in with the camera or sniper rifle. Full SIXAXIS tilt sensor and accelerometer support is enabled, although only in a very limited manner on some jumping situations and for tossing grenades. The rear camera is used in a very surprising manner to solve a puzzle, which I shan't spoil here. I especially welcome the use of the touchscreen to scale the wall and rapelling with ropes as they were the usual causes of Nathan Drake's untimely death with my less than masterful jumps using the DualShock3 controller with the PS3.
Curiously enough, the Vita actually ccomes with a built-in game called Welcome Park, which is a simplistic tutorial to get gamers accustomed to its various input methods. It's similar to the way Microsoft implemented Solitaire with Windows 3.0 to familiarize users with the mouse (I'm betraying my age by even typing this sentence). Me, I play Welcome Park just for the sake of earning its trophies. Yup, this simple tutorial app has trophies of its own. :-)
The Vita game cases are similar to traditional DVD or Blu-ray cases, albeit significantly smaller in size and are bright blue in color. Most packages only contain the Vita Card, and only a sheet of paper with safety instructions on how to remove and reinsert the Vita Card. This seems like an awful waste of plastic to me, as Sony could have employed a smaller case. Still, it does occupy a lot less shelf space than its PS3 and PSP counterparts.




Overall, this is a very solid piece of gaming equipment and puts anything I have on my PSP, iPhone 4, and iPad 2 to shame. Heck, not even the Nintendo 3DS has anything on this sexy beast. Despite reports of sluggish sales in Japan, I hope the Vita will ultimately be a success the same way the PlayStation3 eventually proved to be.
In the mean time, it's only a short wait til February before I can (finally) have more content on my starved Vita.