New PS Vita Model

[Devin]

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Sony announced at it's pre-TGS conference in Japan that a new model of the PS Vita will be released on October 10th. It's more affordable and has a bunch of improvements. Below is the list of changes for the new PS Vita model. It will retail at 19,980 Yen which is about $190 USD. There's no announcement on when the model will hit the West.

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1GB Internal Storage​

5" LCD Screen (No OLED.)​

Increased Battery Life (One hour extended.)​

20% thinner​

15% lighter​

Micro USB Port​

New 64GB Memory Card​

New Colors (White, Blue, Yellow, Pink, Olive Green, and the standard black.)​

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Source

 

[DinohScene]

Seems that removing stuff/cheaping down is a new trend?

Why the switch from OLED to LED?
Is it to expensive for Sony to make a profit off off it?

 

[Devin]

Seems that removing stuff/cheaping down is a new trend?

Why the switch from OLED to LED?
Is it to expensive for Sony to make a profit off off it?

Seems to be that way. This is what the original Vita should have been. I'm already frothing over the micro USB port. Darn Sony cable I don't have x50 of.

 

[Snailface]

Seems that removing stuff/cheaping down is a new trend?

Why the switch from OLED to LED?
Is it to expensive for Sony to make a profit off off it?

OLED is Sony's 3D -- it's completely useless for selling to the mass market.

 

[DinohScene]

Not only that but isnt mUSB flimsy as fuck?

It's like Sony is pursuing Apple when it comes to cables.
When they finally come up with their own port, it costs you 50 quid to replace it.

 

[nukeboy95]

Is there a name for the model yet?

 

[Devin]

There isn't a official "name" for it. In the video they say the "PS Vita 2000 series".

 

[Deleted User]

it looks cool but i already have a vita

 

[T-hug]

Sad to see the OLED go but I'm definitely getting one of these and a 64GB card!
I like the grey one but will most likely go for black.
The TGS conference is still running I wonder if there will be any FFXHD news... also I bet Japan are pissed they must wait until 2014 for PS4.. I know I would be!

 

[AngryGeek416]

will these come to the west? want the gray one

 

[ViRGE]

Seems that removing stuff/cheaping down is a new trend?

Why the switch from OLED to LED?
Is it to expensive for Sony to make a profit off off it?

It's hard to say. The OLED screen isn't even made by Sony, it's made by Samsung. So we don't know what Samsung was charging Sony for it. But given the specialty nature of the screen Samsung can essentially charge whatever they want since Sony wouldn't be able to line up a second supplier. Furthermore as a device intended to be sold for half a decade or more the Vita's OLED screen is something of an anachronism; it was fairly low DPI to begin with (a resolution more suiting gaming), and Samsung's newer OLED screens are only higher DPI yet. So it's entirely possible that Samsung was having to run an extra special production line just for the Vita, since its OLED screen is so much unlike any other screen they produce.

If all of the above is the case, then at some point Samsung is going to want to free up capacity for higher margin products, and Sony is going to want to further reduce costs as is typically the case for systems as they age. An LCD panel (even IPS) can be sourced from many manufacturers, and it will have a more traditional cost curve as a 5" qHD panel isn't in any way exotic these days. Better yet (for Sony), if it's TN then it's downright cheap.

There's also the outside possibility that someone at Sony has been analyzing power consumption based on real games, and has found data that supports the use of LCD over OLED. OLED has great power consumption at low subpixel intensity (blacks and other dark colors at low brightnesses), but bright, colorful images will typically invert that. Using OLED on a dedicated handheld console was always something of a concern for that reason, and it may very well be that the real world power usage was worse than Sony's projections.

Edit: On a side note, I have no doubt that there's a developer weeping in a corner somewhere over this. One of the quirks of the OLED screen in the Vita is that like most Samsung OLEDs, it has an overexaggerated color gamut. Games that have been calibrated against the OLED are going to look "off" on the LCD screen, as most LCDs have a properly centered white point and color gamuts closer to the sRGB standard. It'll be similar to how early GBA games looked weird on the GBA SP and DS.

 

[GameWinner]

I think you should add the newly announced PS Vita TV to the Op.

 

[DinohScene]

*snip*

Fair enough.
Sounds like a pretty good reason to me.

 

[ViRGE]

Not only that but isnt mUSB flimsy as fuck?

Flimsy compared to what, though? MicroUSB is rated for 10K insertions, which should be reliable enough for any use cases (the Vita's proprietary connector doesn't have a published rating). Now I wouldn't want to try to hold up a Vita by a microUSB connector, but you're not supposed to do that with the Vita's proprietary connector either. So with Sony not using the Vita's proprietary connector for anything else of note, I can't think of any reason not to replace it with a standardized connector. Maybe they'll switch to the USB charging standard and we'll be able to use standard 3rd party chargers, too.

Note that the PS4 DualShock controllers also use microUSB, so this means that Vita 2000s will be interoperable with those, similar to how PSPs and PS3 DualShocks were interoperable.

 

[Terenigma]

I am SO glad i put off buying a vita, 1GB built in storage means i no longer have to buy a memory card coz ill just be using it for saves, also the new colours are are a nice touch and altho i cant visually tell the difference between that and a normal vita, the price drop is always good. Good job sony, i will forgive you for the ridiculously overpriced memory cards as long as i can get my hands on that here.

 

[GBA rocks]

Time to buy a used OLED Vita for 100€ and wait for the 2 announced exploits for 2.61.

The sheer novelty of a 5" OLED make it worth it to own an original PS Vita.

Was waiting to know about the inevitable "Slim&Light" revision and now that I know it doesn't sport an OLED, I can buy a fat Vita with little regret.

 

[driverdis]

Edit: On a side note, I have no doubt that there's a developer weeping in a corner somewhere over this. One of the quirks of the OLED screen in the Vita is that like most Samsung OLEDs, it has an overexaggerated color gamut. Games that have been calibrated against the OLED are going to look "off" on the LCD screen, as most LCDs have a properly centered white point and color gamuts closer to the sRGB standard. It'll be similar to how early GBA games looked weird on the GBA SP and DS.

my guess is that Sony will add a color gamut option to the new vita that will fix this like how the psp 3000 had an option to change the "color space" from wide to normal.

I am interested in how the screen compares to OLED as I play my Vita for hours on end and its going to suck ~10 years from now when the OLED cannot produce the same PQ as it did at launch because of deterioration.

If the LCD is close enough, I may upgrade if it hits the U.S. , which is doubtful considering the lack of Vita sales.

 

[ViRGE]

I'm watching the announcement video right now and I'm seeing a lot of off-angle color fading for the new Vita's LCD panel. It may just be the video, but if that's accurate we'd be looking at TN panels for the new Vita.

 

[Issac]

Hmmmm interesting There is a few games I do want to play so yeah

 

[reprep]

waiting for the screen comparison reviews. all other features are looking great (slimmer, with micro usb, 1 gb flash)