JoltVib

The original Vita's headline feature was its beautiful 5-inch 960 x 544 OLED display, but Sony has made the somewhat controversial decision to replace it with an LCD for cost-saving reasons. On paper, that’s not necessarily a bad thing: LCD technology has improved leaps and bounds since the Vita's introduction, and many of the best screens in the smartphone world are LCDs.

But the Vita is a fixed gaming platform, so upgrading the resolution was likely never an option for Sony. The new model’s 220 ppi LCD is decidedly behind the curve on paper, then — more like a two-year-old smartphone than an HTC One — but in practice it's not really a problem for the Vita. Despite Sony's continued reputation for putting out phones with less-than-top-tier displays, this panel does reasonably well in terms of contrast, color reproduction, and viewing angles, and the resolution is more than sufficient for games and the system's chunky OS.

Some may even prefer the LCD, as it doesn’t exhibit color shift when viewed at an angle. Still, the punchy colors and fast response time of OLED are perfectly suited to video games, and for me the old model has the better screen overall. It shouldn't be a big issue for first-time buyers, but many with an original Vita will want to think twice about upgrading.

Software-wise, the new Vita is exactly the same as the old. That's not to say that there haven't been improvements since the system's original launch, however; Sony has released several updates to improve and expand the Vita's functionality. The browser's rendering is a little speedier, you can transfer files over Wi-Fi, and the Control Center-style sheet that pops up anywhere when you hold the Home button has been revised. Notable omissions from launch, such as PSone game support and a Mac syncing client, have since been added.

This week’s firmware update was more significant than most — among other things, version 3.00 prepares the Vita for the PlayStation 4’s launch with features that enable the two consoles to work with each other. Remote Play will let Vita owners stream PlayStation 4 games to the handheld, PS4 Link allows for Wii U or SmartGlass-style second-screen functionality, and cross-system chat has also been added. I wasn’t able to test any of this out before launch, but the Vita should be most useful to anyone planning to pick up a PS4.

Sony also now includes dedicated apps for Google Maps and email with the OS, alongside extras in the PlayStation Store such as Skype, Flickr, Netflix, and so on. You'll almost certainly prefer to use smartphone equivalents at any given time, but I'm sure someone's life has been saved by needing to email on their Vita for urgent Google Maps directions with no other device available, so it's nice to have the option. And the LiveTweet app somehow remains one of my favorite Twitter clients on any platform.

Overall, my assessment of the Vita OS is much the same as it was two years ago: it has its quirks and its gaudy bubble-based interface is no more attractive, but it's fast, stable, and functional. Of course, the OS is just a small part of the software story.

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