Ben-DutkaThe PlayStation Vita enjoyed quite the showing on Sony's stage at the Tokyo Game Show, and portable fans are excited.
With a Japanese launch date of December 17, a total of 26 titles available for launch, and 3G capability for those willing to spring for the extra bucks, the Vita is lookin' good. However, there are few details that consumers will want to know, and those can be found by checking out this SCEI press release .
You will note a full list of peripherals and accessories that will be available at the Vita release. Optional items include a case, AC adapter, USB cable, cradle, portable charger, car adapter, and memory cards, which come in four sizes. As for the latter, you should also see a brief explanation found beneath the specs:
"Some PS Vita software titles may require the use of separately sold memory card for saving game’s saved data while some software titles are capable of saving it on to the PS Vita card itself. Please refer to the PS Vita game packages or game manuals for further details."
So that's interesting. Some games will call for a memory card, which doesn't come with the unit. Then there's the battery life information, which can be found in the same area. As you can see, the Vita will last 3-5 hours for playing games, around 5 hours for straight video, and 9 hours for listening to music with the Vita in standby mode. Charge time from a dead battery is about 2 hours and 40 minutes.
Well, that falls in line with the current PSP, doesn't it? I was using mine a lot when I didn't have power; it didn't last much longer than 3 hours when playing. But how do people feel about all this information?
Well I never buy the 1st models of portal consoles, after a year there will be another with 5x the battery life, just look at how many DS & PSP releases there were.
I love my PSP1000 and I think you're missing out on the WOW factor of owning something that's new to the public.
The battery life of the original PSP is no where near as bad as people like to say. I can get 4 hours easily, and with games downloaded from PSN instead of on UMD, it lasts even longer.
I'm with him on waiting it out because if the next model isnt my cup of tea, then i can just get this one at reduced cost!
I would have hoped for a little longer battery life but considering the power of the device I think 3 hours is pretty good.
I usually wait for a better model as well for any hardware release, but the Vita is looking so good and has so many great games coming out for it, I don't think I can hold out for the next model around 2014.
Cannot wait to play the old PSone FFs I've downloaded on the go once more. And MGS and Crash Bandicoot 3 and Driver. I miss my PSP. 3DS is cool, but my PSP had everything I wanted. 3DS has nintendo games in 3D. That's about it.
Vita, I shall dream of your awesomeness tonight!! 🙂
Ive noticed people complaining but I certainly don't sit down with my PSP and play for 5hrs straight. I'm fine with the 5hrs of battery life. They had to keep the cost down and honestly with everything going on in that system it's amazing what they've accomplished. My DroidX has a similar battery life as do a majority of the smart phones currently out there but I don't see people complaining about that.
Exactly. Even when traveling nowadays, everywhere has outlets for charging anyways. Every airplane I've been on the last 5-10 years has had outlets on the back of the seat in front of you, even. Trains have outlets, too. Heck, it isn't even expensive to get a car adapter. You've got 3+ hours of wireless use, then you plug it in when you're immobile.
As you mention, it's unlikely that anyone will game for 5 hours continuously on a handheld. Even then you can always plug it in, or carry an external battery pack.
If you remember, about 6 months ago when Vita was about to be announced we were speculating on what CPU/GPU it would use and there was an extended discussion about the battery life. The original PSP has an 1800 mAh battery that lasts about 3-5 hours. After all the math, projections about hardware and discussion, I remember the consensus being that a 4 hour battery life was likely and actually pretty impressive for the power and size of the unit.
When you remember that the Vita has something like 4 times the power of a 3DS as well as that nice biog 5-inch screen, it's something of a marvel that they still manage to get 3-5 hours out of a 2200mAh battery.
Last edited by TheHighlander on 9/15/2011 3:40:15 PM
That battery life is pretty standard I would think. Anything over 5 hours I would've been really surprised by.
The accessories are cool especially the cradle. Im more interested in knowing what Sony's plans for umd and vita. I know they said their looking into it. Whenever I get Vita I plan to trade in my psp.
Remember all the talk about UMDs when the PSPGO came out? Then they did nothing. So they definitely won't do anything about UMDs for the Vita.
3-5 hours? I would've liked more but I can understand. Maybe I can buy another battery so I can swap them out when one runs out of juice? 🙂
Just a FYI,
As with all the prior PSP's, there were aftermarket company's making longer lasting batteries for them. I've replaced all my 3.6v 1200 mAh PSP batteries with aftermarket 3.6v 3600mAh batteries & I seem to get up to an extra 3-4 more hours on them.
I forget the exact link to the company, but I got them from a Hong Kong exporter by way of eBay, and for only 99 cents each.
Once inside eBay, just type in "PSP battery packs" & then bring down the best match menu (upper r/side) & then click "lowest price & shipping first", then you'll find lots of them for the PSP 1000, 2000, & 3000, both in slim or fatter sizes.
So anyways, I'm thinking more powerful aftermarket batteries should also be coming out for the Vita after a short while too, huh?
Last edited by BikerSaint on 9/15/2011 12:36:05 PM
Thanks for the info BikerSaint, i for one could definitely make use of more battery life for my psp 1000. And like you said, there will most likely be better batteries in the Vita's future.
Last edited by Fox hounder on 9/15/2011 1:21:34 PM
yah, I bought aftermarket batteries in the past on ebay, lasted longer on my camera.
Vita's battery is not a replaceable one like the PSP, the unit is sealed. No Pandora for Vita….
Highlander,
OK, I didn't know it was going to be a sealed unit.
Hmmmm, what's a Pandora????
Hey Highlander,
I guess you CAN change your own Vita battery now too….
http://www.industrygamers.com/news/playstation-vitas-extended-battery-cures-your-power-woes/
PlayStation Vita's Extended Battery Cures Your Power Woes
Posted September 16, 2011 by M.H. Williams
When Sony released the official specifications for its PlayStation Vita portable, a number of potential owners noted the low battery life. At 3 to 5 hours of playtime, the system is on par with Nintendo’s 3DS, which also got raked through the coals for a short battery life.
Well according to SCEA Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida, Sony’s already working on a way to fix your problem… for a price.
“If you have not noticed we just announced the peripherals for PS Vita as well, and one of the peripherals is the external battery. So if you’re flying from New York to San Francisco – or vice versa -you have no concerns if you have an additional external battery,†Yoshida told IGN PSP UK.
The extended battery was not on the original list of sixteen peripherals that Sony has already released, but it’s good to know it will be coming soon.
Last edited by BikerSaint on 9/16/2011 7:29:34 PM
I really want to get Vita since I never owned a portable gaming system for a long time. Damn, to many hobbies.
We discussed battery life here a couple of months before E3 and if I remember correctly, the gist of the discussion was that 4 hours was likely.
With a quad core CPU and a quad core GPU, the Vita has many more times the power of the original PSP, and 4 times the number of cores as an average smartphone. With that 5-inch bright OLED screen as well, the Vita has quite a large power requirement. Considering that my Motorola Droid – for example – can browse the Internet for about 90 minutes before burning through it's battery – has a 1400 (IIRC) mAh battery, to achieve a 3-5 hours life with all the hardware inside the Vita is a pretty good achievement.
I'd guess that the battery is bigger than the original PSP's battery, probably something closer to 2800 mAh vs 1800mAh on the PSP. Either way, when you work out just how many watts a standard 1800mAh 3.6v battery can push, it becomes immediately clear that any small device either has to sip power very slowly, or carry a bigger battery. So the Vita almost certainly has a slightly larger battery, and a higher power requirement than the old PSP – because of all the advanced processing capability in the system.
So the battery life seems pretty good considering. I bet with the screen down and volume low, you could use the Vita for longer than 5 hours, and if you turn the screen off all together and just use it for music playback, I bet it will last even longer since both the CPU and GPU in the Vita have the capability to dynamically change their clock speed to match the load on them, as well as turn off un-needed cores to save power.
The charging time quoted is from a zero charge condition. The kind of battery used in teh Vita charges much more quickly when the battery is not completely flat, and the initial 60 minutes or so can charge the battery but as much as 70% – assuming the charger can handle the load. So the 2hr 40 minute charging time mentioned is definitely a worst case.
Not sure about the memory cards, I was hoping that they'd be standard memory stick devices, but I can see that they might change that to add an additional hurdle for game pirates.
In your post above you said that the original PSP's had a 1800 mAh battery.
Was that a mistake?
The reason I'm asking is because because all 5 of my PSP's(a original 1000, three 2000 Slims & a 3000 model) all came with 1200 mAh batteries in them, until I switched them out to 3600mAh aftermarket batteries.
Anyway, I'm wondering if these new extended batteries that Yoshida just revealed today will wind up having at least 3600 mAH, just as these cheap .99 cent Hong Kong aftermarket ones I've got in all my PSP's(BTW they work great).
Pretty amazing battery info if you ask me. Very good times for battery usage. Can't wait for this.
I find the new card system troublesome, I like the psp where the save file was right onborad and intercahgable.
So how much data can this thing even hold?
Five hours of battery life sounds great, but if it actually turns out to be 3, I won't be so happy.
pretty good for such a powerful device.
i am sure playing PSP games it will play longer than 5 hours though.
Not the greatest battery life at all no matter how powerful it. Not quite optimal With my extended life battery I get a huge amount more on my psp but even with a normal one it was much more than that.
With no video out either I'm really considering holding off for a later iteration with this announcement of battery efficiency.