This review is from: PlayStation Vita (Wi-Fi + 3G) (Console)
Firstly I want to start by saying that the Vita itself is amazing and has a lot of potential. It is much more capable than my 3DS and already has a decent selection of titles to choose from. However, all that is mirrored in the other reviews so I will review this for its additional feature; The 3G.
I will say this plainly. Do not buy this version. Buy the WiFi version as the 3G is wasted here and I will explain why.
Firstly Vodafone customer support is worse than useless. It took 2 days to get the sim card credited and then another day for the Wipeout code to arrive. It took a total of 3 days to have the 3G working and free game as promised. This was also with phone operators accidentally barring my sim then blaming me for it, an atrocious website that won’t allow you to top up or use a voucher, a customer rep who didn’t actually know what a Vita was and being repeatedly lied to about the ETA of my game code. The forum mods who sorted my problem were excellent for their part, I should add.
Still not put off? Okay….
Once everything is up and running you can now check friends lists, use social apps and shop on PSN. That is pretty much ALL you can do with 3G on the Vita. Most games require wifi to take part in online gaming, with no other option. You can buy on the PSN store but unless the content is smaller than 20MB in size then you need wifi to download it. That pretty much rules out EVERYTHING but the most useless of DLC, even Minis tend to weigh in at 50MB or more. So unless you are willing to pay 5 pounds a month minimum just to go on Facebook and see what games your friends are playing, I suggest you give this a wide berth.
If you really want 3G then buy yourself a portable MiFi adapter or better yet, just tether the Vita to your phone’s 3G connection. You will save a massive headache caused by Vodafone and their merry band of chimps and you will save yourself £50 as well. I should also add that either of those 2 methods will remove the 20MB download restriction and the WiFi online gaming requirement, seeing as your Vita will recognise them both as a WiFi connection. Please do not get caught out by this, I was and after the crap I had to put up with for what turned out to be a pretty useless I wouldn’t want to see anyone else lose out. Trust me, just get the WiFi version instead.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: PlayStation Vita (Wi-Fi + 3G) (Console)
I preordered a Vita 3G/wifi model and it arrived on release day. I’ve got to be honest I was pretty excited by the prospect this device, and thus far I haven’t been disappointed, the screen is bright and vibrant, the new OS easy to navigate (if anything I find it a little disconnected at present but I’m sure Sony will tighten this up) and the selection of launch games offering a varied choice and showcasing the various features of the Vita . All I would say is I bought the 3G model as you get wipeout for free if you top up £5 with Vodafone, and since I was going to buy wipeout anyway it worked out at about £10 pound difference and I thought worth the punt to have the 3G on board, but having said that , if was to choose again I’d probably go for the Wifi model, battery life on my brothers wifi model compared to mine (with 3G switched off) is slightly better, and at present I don’t really think there’s a need for 3G certainly nothing I couldn’t live with out and you can always make a wifi hotspot out of your IOS/ android phone and hook up that way.
So in summary great piece of kit, feels like a device that dies anything and I can see my home console sitting untouched for. Quite sometime it’s that emersive, but if your debating Wifi or 3G and money is tight then I’d say go Wifi, yr not really missing much.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: PlayStation Vita (Wi-Fi + 3G) (Console)
£200 device with games priced at £40 – sounds crazy in today’s world where, like it or not, gaming is moving toward a more casual market. And in this economy too, Sony have taken quite the gamble. I decided to take the risk with the Playstation Vita (Wi-Fi only model though, what with the economy and all) and am happy to say i believe i made the right decision. I hope my review can help you make the right one as well…
= 3G VERSION = I strongly believe the 3G version of the PS Vita is not worth the extra money, apart from signing up and paying for your 3G access which is not even remotely great in the UK there is also the issue of battery life. The standard Wi-Fi Vita performs admirably, but there is no doubt in my mind the 3G will severely lower that time. There are plenty of places in the UK with Wi-Fi access available now, so i would suggest asking yourself if you really need the 3G access and are willing to pay for it with both your money and at the expense of the Vita’s battery life. I asked myself this too and found the price was just too high.
= HARDWARE = Firstly the battery life surprised me, consdering the rumors of horrific life, and the doubts i had after reading the Vita’s spec sheet, the battery life is good consdering the amount of pressure the system is under, especially when gaming. With brightness at 50% and with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled, the Vita lasted for around 4 hours when gaming and messing around with it. A full on gaming marathon of the most demanding game currently available (Uncharted Golden Abyss) lasted for a respectable 3 hours and 30 minutes – enough to cover most journeys without the need for a recharge. Pumping up the screen brightness, and disabling Bluetooth and Wi-Fi will no doubt have a big impact on the battery life. Recharging the battery from 0% to 100% takes 2 hours and 30 minutes, this is mainly to do with the size of the battery itself.
The PS Vita is armed with a quad-core processor and GPU – both of which are needed to drive it’s gorgeous 5″ Super AMOLED touchscreen which has a resolution of 960 x 544. It’s a great display, with accurate color reproduction, good viewing angles, vibrant colours and deep blacks which sometimes blur the line between screen and bezel. It’s not as sharp as some of the mobile phone displays out there but it has a respectable 220ppi, the iPhone Retina display is 326ppi and the Galaxy Nexus’ 316ppi. It’s not a big deal however and cannot take away from how gorgeous the screen looks when playing games, its truly amazing.
Along with the familiar Playstation buttons and analog stick is a newcomer – the second analog stick. The Vita is the closest thing to a home console like experience while on the move, something which no other handheld device has accomplished. There are no more genre restrictions, shooters and adventure games will work just as well on the Vita now that there are two analog sticks available for controlling. Like the analog sticks the buttons are good quality too and have a nice and responsive clicky feel to them. The shoulder buttons are smooth and the D-Pad is nice and accurate. Coupled with how comfortable the Vita is to hold, how solid and high quality it feels due to its weight, playing games on this thing is a treat.
The rear touch pad is new and works well enough, its the same size as the screen and allows for controlling whilst keeping your main fingers free. The two built in cameras in the front and back are of average quality, both capturing images at VGA 640×480 resolution as well as recording video. The stereo speakers and microphone are surprisingly good quality. The Vita also has built in 3 axis gyorscope, accelerometer, electronic compass, GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and maybe even 3G. It’s a beast of a machine and although it’s gonna be a tight fit in your jean pocket, it’s still a fairly light and portable handheld device. Put simply, the PS Vita gets it all right on the hardware front packing some impressive tech into a small-ish and affordable device.
= SOFTWARE = The Vita has a touchscreen operating system similar to iOS and Android, the PS3’s XMB interface is no more. The home screen is made up of bubble icons and navigation is fairly simple. The whole OS is designed for touchscreen use, the physical buttons take a backseat which is fine but you also miss out on things like skipping through music with the shoulder buttons and scrolling through a website with the analog stick. The OS has a touchscreen keyboard which is pretty standard, but due to how wide the Vita’s screen is you will need to stretch your fingers a bit to get to the middle letters, it’s not ideal for typing super quick.
Incredible handheld, 3G is useless,
Firstly I want to start by saying that the Vita itself is amazing and has a lot of potential. It is much more capable than my 3DS and already has a decent selection of titles to choose from. However, all that is mirrored in the other reviews so I will review this for its additional feature; The 3G.
I will say this plainly. Do not buy this version. Buy the WiFi version as the 3G is wasted here and I will explain why.
Firstly Vodafone customer support is worse than useless. It took 2 days to get the sim card credited and then another day for the Wipeout code to arrive. It took a total of 3 days to have the 3G working and free game as promised. This was also with phone operators accidentally barring my sim then blaming me for it, an atrocious website that won’t allow you to top up or use a voucher, a customer rep who didn’t actually know what a Vita was and being repeatedly lied to about the ETA of my game code. The forum mods who sorted my problem were excellent for their part, I should add.
Still not put off? Okay….
Once everything is up and running you can now check friends lists, use social apps and shop on PSN. That is pretty much ALL you can do with 3G on the Vita. Most games require wifi to take part in online gaming, with no other option. You can buy on the PSN store but unless the content is smaller than 20MB in size then you need wifi to download it. That pretty much rules out EVERYTHING but the most useless of DLC, even Minis tend to weigh in at 50MB or more. So unless you are willing to pay 5 pounds a month minimum just to go on Facebook and see what games your friends are playing, I suggest you give this a wide berth.
If you really want 3G then buy yourself a portable MiFi adapter or better yet, just tether the Vita to your phone’s 3G connection. You will save a massive headache caused by Vodafone and their merry band of chimps and you will save yourself £50 as well. I should also add that either of those 2 methods will remove the 20MB download restriction and the WiFi online gaming requirement, seeing as your Vita will recognise them both as a WiFi connection. Please do not get caught out by this, I was and after the crap I had to put up with for what turned out to be a pretty useless I wouldn’t want to see anyone else lose out. Trust me, just get the WiFi version instead.
Was this review helpful to you?
|Great piece of kit.,
I preordered a Vita 3G/wifi model and it arrived on release day. I’ve got to be honest I was pretty excited by the prospect this device, and thus far I haven’t been disappointed, the screen is bright and vibrant, the new OS easy to navigate (if anything I find it a little disconnected at present but I’m sure Sony will tighten this up) and the selection of launch games offering a varied choice and showcasing the various features of the Vita . All I would say is I bought the 3G model as you get wipeout for free if you top up £5 with Vodafone, and since I was going to buy wipeout anyway it worked out at about £10 pound difference and I thought worth the punt to have the 3G on board, but having said that , if was to choose again I’d probably go for the Wifi model, battery life on my brothers wifi model compared to mine (with 3G switched off) is slightly better, and at present I don’t really think there’s a need for 3G certainly nothing I couldn’t live with out and you can always make a wifi hotspot out of your IOS/ android phone and hook up that way.
So in summary great piece of kit, feels like a device that dies anything and I can see my home console sitting untouched for. Quite sometime it’s that emersive, but if your debating Wifi or 3G and money is tight then I’d say go Wifi, yr not really missing much.
Was this review helpful to you?
|The Best Handheld Gaming Device Ever Made, Period,
£200 device with games priced at £40 – sounds crazy in today’s world where, like it or not, gaming
is moving toward a more casual market. And in this economy too, Sony have taken quite the gamble. I
decided to take the risk with the Playstation Vita (Wi-Fi only model though, what with the economy and
all) and am happy to say i believe i made the right decision. I hope my review can help you make
the right one as well…
= 3G VERSION =
I strongly believe the 3G version of the PS Vita is not worth the extra money, apart from signing up and
paying for your 3G access which is not even remotely great in the UK there is also the issue of battery life.
The standard Wi-Fi Vita performs admirably, but there is no doubt in my mind the 3G will severely lower
that time. There are plenty of places in the UK with Wi-Fi access available now, so i would suggest asking
yourself if you really need the 3G access and are willing to pay for it with both your money and at the
expense of the Vita’s battery life. I asked myself this too and found the price was just too high.
= HARDWARE =
Firstly the battery life surprised me, consdering the rumors of horrific life, and the doubts i had after
reading the Vita’s spec sheet, the battery life is good consdering the amount of pressure the system is
under, especially when gaming. With brightness at 50% and with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled, the Vita
lasted for around 4 hours when gaming and messing around with it. A full on gaming marathon of the most
demanding game currently available (Uncharted Golden Abyss) lasted for a respectable 3 hours and 30
minutes – enough to cover most journeys without the need for a recharge. Pumping up the screen brightness,
and disabling Bluetooth and Wi-Fi will no doubt have a big impact on the battery life. Recharging the battery
from 0% to 100% takes 2 hours and 30 minutes, this is mainly to do with the size of the battery itself.
The PS Vita is armed with a quad-core processor and GPU – both of which are needed to drive it’s gorgeous
5″ Super AMOLED touchscreen which has a resolution of 960 x 544. It’s a great display, with accurate color
reproduction, good viewing angles, vibrant colours and deep blacks which sometimes blur the line between
screen and bezel. It’s not as sharp as some of the mobile phone displays out there but it has a respectable
220ppi, the iPhone Retina display is 326ppi and the Galaxy Nexus’ 316ppi. It’s not a big deal however and
cannot take away from how gorgeous the screen looks when playing games, its truly amazing.
Along with the familiar Playstation buttons and analog stick is a newcomer – the second analog stick.
The Vita is the closest thing to a home console like experience while on the move, something which no other
handheld device has accomplished. There are no more genre restrictions, shooters and adventure games will
work just as well on the Vita now that there are two analog sticks available for controlling. Like the
analog sticks the buttons are good quality too and have a nice and responsive clicky feel to them. The
shoulder buttons are smooth and the D-Pad is nice and accurate. Coupled with how comfortable the Vita is
to hold, how solid and high quality it feels due to its weight, playing games on this thing is a treat.
The rear touch pad is new and works well enough, its the same size as the screen and allows for controlling
whilst keeping your main fingers free. The two built in cameras in the front and back are of average
quality, both capturing images at VGA 640×480 resolution as well as recording video. The stereo speakers and
microphone are surprisingly good quality. The Vita also has built in 3 axis gyorscope, accelerometer, electronic
compass, GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and maybe even 3G. It’s a beast of a machine and although it’s gonna be a tight
fit in your jean pocket, it’s still a fairly light and portable handheld device. Put simply, the PS Vita gets
it all right on the hardware front packing some impressive tech into a small-ish and affordable device.
= SOFTWARE =
The Vita has a touchscreen operating system similar to iOS and Android, the PS3’s XMB interface is no more.
The home screen is made up of bubble icons and navigation is fairly simple. The whole OS is designed for
touchscreen use, the physical buttons take a backseat which is fine but you also miss out on things like
skipping through music with the shoulder buttons and scrolling through a website with the analog stick.
The OS has a touchscreen keyboard which is pretty standard, but due to how wide the Vita’s screen is you
will need to stretch your fingers a bit to get to the middle letters, it’s not ideal for typing super quick.
Like everything nowadays the Vita has…
Read more
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|