Sony NGP (Vita) – system specs and our naming suggestions!

June 5, 2011
Ash
Editorial, Games

With portable gaming bigger than ever in Japan, the Vita stands to sell a ton of units no matter what the price point actually ends up being (It’s going to be $299.00… you’ll see). But one question remains, what the hell is a Vita and why did Sony choose that name for this powerhouse portable. For those who haven’t taken Latin, Vita means life… (only in Latin, a very dead language). Shouldn’t the name of such a superior piece of gaming technology just SCREAM awesome? Like the Ronin, Kitana, or perhaps the Yamato. On another note, With all the hacking and PSN downtime Sony NEEDS the Vita to be a huge success, and with a name like Vita they’re off a poor start. Without a doubt the executives at Sony are a bit flustered right now, and as we’ve learned in the past, a flustered company often makes poor decisions. While the PSP is still the best selling console in Japan, it barely ranks here in the U.S. and in Europe. Apparently, here in America we like our video games big, powerful, and tethered to a colossal flat-screen T.V. Sony is about to drop a superior piece of portable gaming technology into our hands in the form of the ~~NGP~~… errr… Vita. Let’s hope for their sake that their choice of names doesn’t screw them out of the gate.

This thing is the freaking Swiss-Army-Knife of gaming. That’s right, the ~~NGP~~ Vita can do almost anything:

Multi-touch 5-inch organic light emitting display (OLED) as the front display
Multi-touch pad on the rear of the device
Dual analog sticks
Two cameras (front and rear)
Software titles on small, dedicated flash memory-based cards
Three motion sensors, gyroscope, accelerometer and electronic compass
Wi-Fi and 3G network connectivity
PlayStation Network access, including ““LiveArea™”, “Near” and “Activity” log features Trophy Support
NGP will be able to play PSP titles, minis, PS one classics, video and comics from the PlayStation Store.
Now here are some technical specifications for you hardware buffs out there:
CPU ARM® Cortex™-A9 core (4 core)
GPU SGX543MP4+
External 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
Sound Built-in stereo speakers
Built-in microphone
Sensors Six-axis 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
Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left)
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 = 1×1) (Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode)
Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR ?A2DP/AVRCP/HSP)