New PlayStation Vita coming October 10th: lighter, thinner, more battery life

If it's big enough for a live broadcast (with English translation), it's going to be good, right? Sony has announced a new version of its PS Vita, just weeks after announcing a price-drop across both the US and Europe. (Japan was treated to the discount back in February.) It's 15 percent lighter and 20 percent thinner than the original model and will add an additional hour of life to the battery. The new (WiFi-only) Vita will land in Japan first, on October 10th priced at 18,980 yen (about $190). Other hardware improvements (alongside pink, black, blue, grey, lime green, and yellow color options) include a micro-USB charger -- like your smartphone -- and 1GB of onboard storage. Interestingly, the screen tech has been changed to LCD from OLED, but we'll have to see it in the flesh before we jump to any conclusions on performance. Alongside those colors, Sony's already planned for three special edition models: Gundam Breaker, God Eater (camouflage!) and Otomate.

To augment that new built-in storage, Sony's cut the prices of its own memory cards too. From 4GB to 32GB, they've been reduced to between 1,554 yen (about $15) and 6,804 yen (just over $68). There's a new 64GB Vita card too, priced at 10,479 yen (roughly $105).

As for that original model PS Vita, it's getting a new 'Play!' Game Pack, which comes with pre-installed games and a memory card packed in -- as well as 90 days of PS Plus, gratis. No launch date yet, but it's priced for Japan at 24,129 yen (about $241). Sony's press conference continues, but we're hoping to get to test the device later on. Wish us luck.

Filed under: Gaming, Sony

Comments