Sony Computer Entertainment Australia has finally announced an Australian price and release date for the PlayStation Vita, their new portable gaming system.
The PlayStation Vita will be available from February 23, 2012 and will come in two varities. A WiFi PSV will be for AUD$349.95 for Australia, NZD$449.95 for our New Zealand readers and €249.99 for Europe. Meanwhile the 3G and WiFi version will be AUD$449.95, NZD$549.95 or €299.99. The prices are hefty, especially for a system that will likely be used exclusively for gaming, but this isn’t surprising from Sony. Anyone remember the PlayStation 3?
The Vita also comes to Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Australasia on October 23, 2012 and a list of specifications has been revealed after the break.
| Platform name | PlayStation Vita |
| Model number | PCH-1000 series |
| CPU | ARM® Cortex™-A9 core (4 core) |
| GPU | SGX543MP4+ |
| Main memory | 512MB |
| VRAM | 128MB |
| External Dimensions | Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largestprojection) |
| Weight | Approx 279g (3G/Wi-Fi model) Approx 260g (Wi-Fi model) |
| Screen (Touch screen) | 5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLEDMulti touch screen (capacitive type) |
| Rear touch pad | Multi touch pad (capacitive type) |
| Cameras | Front camera, Rear camera Frame rate : 120fps@320×240(QVGA), 60fps@640×480(VGA) Resolution : Up to 640×480(VGA) |
| 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 (3G/Wi-Fi model only)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/Wi-Fi model only)3G modem (data communication): HSDPA/HSUPA, GSM/GPRS/EDGEIEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1×1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode)Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR （A2DP/AVRCP/HSP） |
| Slots/Ports | PlayStation®Vita card slot, Memory card slot. SIM card slot (3G/Wi-Fi model only)Multi-use port (for USB data communication, DC IN, Audio [Stereo Out / Mono In], |
| Power | Built-In Lithium-ion Battery: DC3.7V 2210mAhAC adaptor: DC 5V |
| Operating environment temperature | 5℃～35℃ |
| Supported AV contentformat | Music－MP3 MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer 3, MP4 (MPEG-4 AAC), WAVE (Linear PCM)Videos－MPEG-4 Simple Profile (AAC), H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High/Main/Baseline Profile(AAC)Photos－JPEG (Exif 2.2.1), TIFF, BMP, GIF, PNG |