The official UK launch is slated for February 22nd, but thanks to the magic of importing, the PS Vita has already made the trek from Japan to our rain-swept shores. Here Alex C offers his critique of Sony's new baby.
Seeing photographs and YouTube videos is one thing, but holding the PlayStation Vita in your hands, after delicately tempting it out of the packaging and the protective sleeve, is absolutely another. Unless you've managed to get demo time with one over the last 12 months, chances are you won't quite be ready for its size: considerably more generous in width than the first PSP and much bigger than anything else of more recent release. Of course, it's the Vita's five inch OLED screen that defines much of the physical dimensions, but the designers have given everything else plenty of room too.
In front of you, with the sleek curves, gentle contours and heavy blacks, the Vita is unmistakeably Sony. It might look at first glance like one of its predecessors, but it doesn't take long for the eyes to notice the improvements - some dramatic, some that only serve to highlight the quality of the construction: dual analogue sticks that spring back with a subtle but lively bounce, both ringed with a thin edge of silver; coated grips on the reverse to rest your middle fingers; twin cameras and three Apple-esque, metallic effect buttons on the top of the unit for power and volume.
Of course, the Vita hides many such nuances at first, the system's main features only becoming apparent once the console is powered on. There's a slightly pregnant pause when you first flick the switch, an invisible boot up process delaying anything for a couple of seconds, but once the Vita is ready to meet you it's a relatively straightforward introduction. The touch screen works a treat, instantly inviting you to enter the date and your PlayStation Network account, and then presents you with the Vita's brand new user interface, dubbed LiveArea, for immediate consumption.
The console's other new features - the rear touchpad, the gyroscopic sensors and the location-based services - hide away in the various pre-installed applications and, of course, any games you might have picked up alongside the machine itself. The most immediate toy - namely the precise (albeit plastic) touch screen - is new to PlayStation but no doubt familiar to almost everyone interested in Vita, and it's second nature to start tapping, holding and swiping your way around the console's various windows.
