E3 2011: Sony PlayStation Vita: Inside and Out

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6317468/e3-2011-sony-playstation-vita-inside-and-out/?tag=topslot;title;1

By: Sarju Shah, GameSpot - Posted on Jun 6, 2011

Get all the details behind the PlayStation Vita, Sony's upcoming handheld console.



At E3 2011, Sony's Next Generation Portable (NGP) finally got a name:

Vita. Sony revealed a number of other important details. However, the

handheld still has no official release date outside of a holiday 2011

release window. A Wi-Fi-only version will cost $249, and a Wi-Fi/3G

model will retail for $299. US-based 3G service will be provided by

AT&T, but Sony didn't reveal any pricing for the data plans or

whether they would be contractual or monthly. European pricing for the

console will be €249(Wi-Fi) and €299 (Wi-Fi/3G), while Japanese pricing

will be ¥24,980 (Wi-Fi) and ¥29,980 (Wi-Fi/3G).



The Hardware Specifications

The Vita moves the bar forward in just about every single aspect for

a gaming handheld: graphics, communications, and controls. The GPU and

CPU are state of the art for the handheld and mobile industry; it will

be the first handheld console ever to feature 3G cellular

communications. Much to the delight of gamers, the Vita will also have

two analog sticks in addition to a slew of secondary controls that

include a multi-touch capacitive touch screen and a multi-touch rear

touchpad. The Vita will also feature motion controls and GPS

functionality. Games will ship on small flash memory-based cards,

effectively pushing Sony's UMD format out of the picture. The Vita will

be able to play PSP games from the PlayStation Store.



Front Side Rotated Shoulders Angled Underside Left Side

The basic hardware stats for the handheld remain unchanged since

they were revealed back in January. Previously unannounced stats for

the Vita pertain to the cameras, which didn't have any specific

resolutions attached to them, and a full port list. Both cameras appear

to be capable of recording video at 120 frames per second at a

resolution of 320x240, and 60 frames per second at 640x480. The maximum

resolution for both pictures and video appears to be 640x480.



Based on ARM's publicly provided Cortex A9 CPU specs, the chip can be

configured in single, dual, and quad-core varieties. Based on its spec

sheets, the dual-core variant comes in two flavors, optimized for

either power or performance. The power-optimized chip lowers the clock

speed to 800MHz, which results in 4,000 DMIPS (Dhrystone millions of

instructions per second) of computational power and .5W of power

consumption. The performance-optimized version bumps the speed up to

2GHz, and the computational power jumps to 10,000 DMIPS with 1.9W of

power consumption. Assuming a linear scaling of performance, the ARM

Cortex A9 with four cores could perform anywhere between 8,000 and

20,000 DMIPS. By comparison, the iPad, which is based off of the 1GHz

Cortex A8, has roughly 2,000 DMIPS of computational power.



Imagination Technologies makes the PowerVR SGX543MP4+. However, we

can only find information on the PowerVR SGX543MP. The normal

nomenclature model for the PowerVR SGX543MP contains additional numbers

following the MP that indicate the number of cores onboard. Imagine

Technologies can configure the GPU to have 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 cores.

Sony opted to use the SGX543MP4+, which indicates that the chip has

four cores. We have no details on what the "+" indicates.





Imagine Technologies states:

"At 200MHz core frequency an SGX543MP4 (four cores) will deliver

133 million polygons per second and fill rates in excess of

4Gpixels/sec. Higher frequencies or a larger number of cores each

deliver more performance. At 400MHz core frequency an SGX543MP8 (eight

cores) will deliver 532 million polygons per second and fill rates in

excess of 16Gpixels/sec."



Assuming the chip hasn't been highly modified from the PowerVR

SGX543MP4, a 200MHz PowerVR SGX543MP4+ could live up to the PlayStation

3's 4.4Gpixel/s fill rate spec. We also have to add that raw fill rate

numbers rarely translate into real-world performance.



CPU:

ARM Cortex-A9 core (4 core)

GPU:

SGX543MP4+

Dimensions:

Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)

Screen:

Touch screen 5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED, Multi-touch screen (capacitive type)

Rear touch pad:

Multi-touch pad (capacitive type)

cameras

Front camera, Rear camera



Frame rate : 120fps@320x240(QVGA), 60fps@640x480(VGA)



Resolution : Up to 640x480(VGA)

Sound:

Built-in stereo speakers, Built-in microphone

Sensors:

Sixaxis motion-sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass

Location:

Built-in GPS, Wi-Fi location service support

Keys/Switches:

PS button, Power button, D-pad, Action

buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square), Shoulder buttons

(Right/Left), Right stick, Left stick, START button SELECT button,

Volume buttons

Wireless communications:



Mobile network connectivity (3G), IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1x1)(Wi-Fi)

(Infrastructure mode/Ad hoc mode), Bluetooth 2.1+EDR (A2DP/AVRCP/HSP)

Ports:

PlayStation Vita card slot, Memory card slot, SIM card

slot (3G/Wi-Fi model only), Multi-use port (for USB data communication,

DC IN, Audio [Stereo Out / Mono In], Serial data communication),

Headset jack (Stereo mini jack) (for Audio [Stereo Out / Mono In]),

Accessory port

Supported formats:



Music

－MP3 MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer 3, MP4 (MPEG-4 AAC), WAVE (Linear PCM)



Videos

－MPEG-4 Simple Profile (AAC), H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Hi/Main/Baseline Profile (AAC)



Photos

－JPEG (Exif 2.2.1), TIFF, BMP, GIF, PNG

This looks like this will last forever. The only thing that might ruin it is bad battery life or horrible games. They've already announced a LBP for it, which will make many people happy.

Oh wow, that looks like it'll be in the market for a while unless they release bad ir uninteresting games on it, which ruined the orignal PSP in my opinion.

The new game: Uncharted: Golden Abyss for it looks really good, especially with the HD graphics on the PSVita. Here is a link for more information: http://e3.gamespot.com/story/6316670/e3-2011-uncharted-golden-abyss-hands-on-preview-touching-and-tilting-in-combat?tag=topslot;title;5

This looks awesome and i want it.although iv seen a thread for this already.
I wont buy it right away

I'm probably going to do something I've never done, ever: first-day purchase. 

I'm really excited for the fact that you can 100% transfer all your digital game purchases from PSP. I don't know what's going to happen as far as save files, but I think the Vita will have PC-USB connectivity so it shouldn't be a problem to transfer them. 

Also, dem dual-analog sticks Sweet zombie jesus.

Sony reveals 26 PS Vita launch titles for Japan Link

I think that it looks really good but I will probably not get it. I have never really liked the games that I got on the PSP and I do not think this will be much different. I have to say it is a strong console.

Please reply to this does anyone know is this a cell phone technically? Can it call and send text messages?

BeaglePuppy1234 : PSVita -No but there is an exception, on both the Wifi & 3G model you can have Skype, and get Skype points for phone calls; but otherwise no.

The 3G model is more for data and browsing the internet away from hotspots not necessarily a phone service. Vita supports Skype, but this should also be accessible with the WiFi-only model so long as you have internet.

If your looking for a Sony phone device with mobile gaming support there is this new Sony Ericsson phone that is also a mobile gaming device running the Android OS with signature Playstation buttons: triangle, X, circle and square. It uses a touch-screen keypad. Sony Xperia Play

I am so getting this.

My old PSP broke and this thing looks awesome, so it can replace that.

Can it read and play MP3 files?

Galacta : Yes it can play MP3's. You can transfer music to it. Also you can transfer photos and videos onto it as well. -Probably because the PSVita itself has a front & rear camera on it.

  I asked my aunt to buy the bundle pack for me because it's better than getting the game alone and cause my old PsP broke and guess what I got instead..... a laptop

xX-Galactus-Xx :

I'd much rather have a laptop than a PS Vita, even just when it comes to gaming. But that's just 'cause I'm a huge fan of indie games and there a tons to choose from on a computer. Plus Steam is pretty fantastic.

  I just use my older brother's laptop when I want to go online and play any games it's why I didn't want it but I'm starting to like having my own and I'll probably buy it myself before or after school starts again