The sun is rising across the United States, and at retailers everywhere you can finally purchase the standard edition PS Vita. A large group of gamers have already gotten their grubby mitts on the first edition bundle a short week ago. Should you pick one up today? Is it worth the price tag? Read on to find out.

My first impression with the system will always be that it is quite large. The 5″ display is nestled between dual analogue sticks, a d-pad, and the standard circle, square, x and triangle buttons. It’s about 1/8 or 1/4″ thicker than the PSP 3000 and weighs a bit more.

The weight is a direct result of the amount of hardware included.The front and back touch screen, quad-core processor, and advanced video processing make for a beefy unit. The back touch screen is being thrown around by Sony as a “game changer” or rather one of the systems pieces that make it a game changer. Depending on which game utilized it I found it to be more of a gimmick than anything.

Whether stroking the back to help Drake climb a rope, or tapping the back to push a robot off a cliff in Little Deviants the current utilization seemed a touch forced. Little Deviants used it in a creative way, and Uncharted utilized it in a non-obstrusive way, but I found myself using the analog stick to perform the same tasks with a touch more comfort.

Display:The display is gorgeous and the capabilities of the handheld are mind bending. The games are all visually stunning. Uncharted looks so close to a PS3 title I found myself wondering whether I’d ever turn on the console again. Everything was crisp, the water and lighting effects were rendering perfectly with no delay, and even the distance the games were rendering was up to snuff.

Touch Screen and OS: The touch screen is quick and responsive and the operating system on the console is a stroke of genius. The bubbly interface wouldn’t be my first choice for icons, however, the way it differentiates items to be launched and what’s currently running is perfect. The flawless multitasking is something to be envied by the mobile and pc industry alike. The Web-OS style cards, that are simply peeled away to close is another design stroke of genius. At any given point I’ll have 3-4 items running in the background and a game running. Generally I would leave NEAR, the Playstation Store, Maps, and any of the games I’ve been playing recently and the system runs as if nothing has changed. Jumping in-between a game and an app is simple and fast. Press home, slide to the app you wish to load, tap it and, voila app loaded.

Bluetooth: I’ll touch quickly on the bluetooth integration for the Vita. It’s amazing, there I said it. Full a2dp support allows you to pair any bluetooth device such as your Jambox, or any headset for that matter, and utilize it for in game chat during multiplayer or to simply give yourself a better sound experience. Jawbone LiveAudio and Uncharted: Golden Abyss = handheld bliss, just saying.

3G: Im a huge proponent of having data wherever, why ever, however. I can’t figure out tho, why spending monthly money to have data on this one is worth it. If you don’t have a smart phone or tablet, it makes total sense to have the Vita with you for maps and other application utilization. If you have a smart phone, then the need to utilize the 3g portion of the Vita goes away almost entirely. I have loved not worrying about WiFi when searching for a nearby person or quickly looking something up, but realistically I could get by without the data plan. Setting up the data plan through the device also lead to a huge headache, after 3 attempts I finally moved to my laptop and set the connection up through At&t’s main site. I realize that using the early access bundle not everything was ready for the full launch. But AT&T and Sony should have had their information together for the mobile site to ensure that the device was a quick set up. Once it was configured the data ran beautifully, it was simply the set up stage that caused tears of frustration.

The Price: You’re paying a bit of geek tax to purchase this guy on day one, and it’s worth it. The amount of hardware put into Sony’s latest handheld makes the value proposition very strong. The amount of titles available at launch also put forward a tempting proposition. You can walk into the store to pick up your handheld and leave with Uncharted, ModNation Racers and, Hot Shots Golf to provide yourself with hours of game play opportunities.

Battery Life: As with any device dedicated to gaming, the battery life is a tough battle. The 2100 mAh battery does a good job at keeping the system alive for about 4 hours of gameplay. My only complains are based on the lack of warning that you’re running low, and if the system powers down due to battery drain, it doesn’t give you a message or heads up at all. The screen goes black, and causes you to panic ever so slightly. When recharging it generally takes 30 minutes of sitting on the charger untouched before the unit will find life again.

Application Availability
This is probably the biggest frustration I had with the console itself. When shopping for Vita software in the Playstation Store, I found it frustrating how many items simply said, “not Vita compatible.” I understand that it is a different genre of code, and the game has to be built for use on the console, but I had hoped that Sony and developers would prepare for launch by making some of the SEN titles easily transferrable. On a positive note, I love that a huge chunk of the PSP releases are available in the Store for download, and will play on your Vita. I also hope to see growth in the “App” section of the Playstation Store. Currently the only application you can purchase for the Vita is the extended service plans of varying lengths, LiveTweet (thank god they released this, I was going to write an entire section bitching about the lack of twitter integration.) Flickr, and Netflix. These are 3 very important pieces of the application puzzle, but I hope to see more come. I’m impressed with how fast a Netflix application was brought to the handheld. This section has a bright future.

Summary:

Pros:

• Gorgeous display, beautiful graphics
• Quick and simple multi-tasking
• Easy access to the Playstation Store
• Well designed “mobile” version of the Playstation Store
• Quick development for applications seems to be bringing, “must have” apps to the store
• Bluetooth Integration all around is stellar
• Near Integration — People are actually using it!!!
• Great list of launch titles, and a bright future of more software releasing quickly

Cons:

• Rough 3g setup through the device
• No warning on battery drain shut down
• Wait time on charging when battery is fully drained
• small list of apps currently available in the store
• The Sony web browser is still clunky, I don’t know when they’ll get that running smoothly

Should you buy one? I say yes, this is the strongest handheld launch I’ve seen Sony do yet. There are actually titles for this one worth playing Hot Shots and many others will keep you grinding away for hours, while Uncharted gives you the blockbuster play you need. This system is worth the investment in this robots eyes.