Playstation Vita vs. Nintendo 3DS Comparative Analysis – Which ‘wins’?

Posted on 4 March, 2012 by dkpatriarch

Playstation Vita vs. Nintendo 3DS Comparative Analysis

Which portable ‘wins’?

by: AXiDER

©2012 Alex Baldwin

With the PlayStation Vita‘s launch finally here, the 2nd and last member of the current handheld generation has joined the Nintendo 3DS in proving that dedicated handheld gaming consoles are still relevant in the age of smartphones and tablets.

With that in mind, I’ve put both devices through their paces to find the strengths and weaknesses of each platform.

I hereby present OXCGN’s definitive comparative guide to the latest and greatest handheld consoles.

SIZE, WEIGHT & DURABILITY

While it may not matter for home consoles, handhelds are designed to be taken with you in bags or pockets, making the physical size and weight of the device of significant import.

The Nintendo 3DS occupies a similar footprint to the previous generation Nintendo DSi in its folded state while being a bit heavier, giving it a reasonable chance of fitting in pockets without much fuss.

In comparison, the PS Vita is a monster of a handheld, adding almost another 2 inches to the length and making it almost garaunteed that Sony’s beast demands a bag for transportation.

In thickness both devices are similar, while the PS Vita is slightly heavier.

In terms of durability, the PS Vita feels more ‘premium’ and well-engineered than the 3DS with tasteful accents but it’s hard to ignore the fact that the unfortunately plastic screen is begging for scratches, not to mention the rear touchpad.

A case is an absolute must.

On the other hand, the clamshell nature of the 3DS helps provide its own protection that eases some worry about damaging the device.

However, as many 3DS owners have discovered there is a slight manufacturing flaw in a large number of 3DS units that makes the plastic borders of the lower touchscreen come in contact with the upper 3D screen, leaving visible marks and potentially scratching it.

Overall, the 3DS still manages to be a bit more portable and durable.

Winner: Nintendo 3DS

SCREEN

Nintendo and Sony went in polar opposite directions this time. While Sony chose a large, high-resolution (960 x 544) OLED display, Nintendo went with dual smaller screens, the upper of which offers glasses-free 3D at 800 x 240 resolution (400 x 240 per eye) with 3.5 inches.

As a guide, an iPhone screen is also 3.5 inches.

In terms of image quality, the PS Vita wins hands-down.

OLED screens are ideal for gaming, offering almost infinite contrast due to each individual pixel creating its own light so black parts of the image are quite literally black as the pixels switch off and have extremely wide viewing angles. They also have the benefit of extremely fast response times (<0.001ms), entirely removing the motion blur the PSP suffered from.

In contrast, the 3DS screens are typical LCD displays with middling colour and contrast.

However, the 3DS’s ability to display glasses-less 3D is very impressive by directing every second line of pixels to a different eye using tiny slits, producing a convincing image.

Unfortunately this comes with a very small ‘sweet spot’ for optimal view, as movement of the handheld gives the appearance of the screen shimmering or ‘crosstalk’ (see parts of the image the other eye is supposed to be viewing).

This makes it less suitable for use in vehicles, as well as games with motion-sensing. The far lower resolution than the PS Vita is also difficult to ignore.

Winner: PlayStation Vita

USER INTERFACE

With the latest handhelds offering far more than just launching games, both Sony and Nintendo have redesigned the home user interface.

Nintendo have chosen a grid of square icons with a few permanent shortcuts to common screens such as friends and notifications. The grid can be zoomed to show more or less icons, with off-screen icons accessible by scrolling horizontally.

Unfortunately no sorting or grouping is available, which makes it far slower to find what you’re looking for as all content is treated equally as an icon, including games, settings and even videos.

The PS Vita uses a similar system, replacing square icons with round bubbles and vertical scrolling. However, apps and games can be easily sorted onto individual screens and user-defined colours or images on the background of each to help group content together.

Non-game or app content such as videos are instead kept inside their own apps, making it much cleaner.

The 3DS allows minimal multitasking with access to a select few functions such as the friends list while playing games, but launching anything else (even settings) will require the current game or app to be closed.

In comparison the PS Vita has a rather elegant system that displays running games or apps as post-it notes that are closed by tearing off the corner in a very tactile manner. While only one game can be open at a time, other apps such as Twitter can be used without closing games.

Background notifications will also continue to run and display via a bubble in the top-right.

The respective online stores for the PS Vita and 3DS echo this trend, with a clean design, searching and categories for the PS Vita while the 3DS uses a basic side-scrolling list of weekly ‘categories’ that make little sense and far too much difficulty in finding specific items.

Winner: PlayStation Vita

CONTROLS

The Nintendo 3DS has a responsive d-pad and buttons with gyroscope motion-sensing and a resistive lower touchscreen. An analogue ‘circle pad’ acts as a flat thumbstick, sliding rather than tilting in the direction desired. It works well, although can be a bit slippery when holding in a direction for extended periods.

What’s notably missing is a circle pad for the right-side of the device, making camera control in 3D games far more awkward than it should be.

While Nintendo has attempted to remedy this is the optional ‘Circle Pad Pro’ attachment that adds a huge amount of bulk and only supports a few games, it ends up being a bandaid solution to an issue that may become more prominent throughout the life of the console.

In comparison, Sony has seen fit to throw in almost every control option imaginable into the PS Vita.

In addition to the traditional d-pad and buttons, dual analogue thumbsticks are provided. While they are small with little travel, in practise they work well and add a much greater degree of control to many core games without protruding too far from the system.

They could use a bit more resistance, as they feel a bit loose.

As is the norm, the gigantic screen has capacitive multi-touch control which will only sense fingers rather than a stylus. It is both accurate and sensitive; sometimes seem a bit too sensitive as buttons will press almost before you’ve touched the screen.

In a first, the rear of the device behind the screen is also touch-sensitive. Time will tell if developers are able to use it in meaningful ways.

In addition, the PS Vita also offers gyroscopic motion control while the 3G version adds GPS to the mix for location-aware games and apps.

Winner: PlayStation Vita

SOCIAL

With social networking a part of everyday life, both Nintendo and Sony have embraced it in their latest devices.

The PlayStation Vita offers apps for Twitter and Facebook, while supporting chat with friends and an intruiging app called ‘Near’. Operating similar to FourSquare, Near shares your location (based on Wifi or GPS) and displays a radar-esque interface with other Vita players noted around you by distance as well as the games they’re playing.

This creates a list of the most-played games in your area, giving them a ‘buzz’ rating and allowing you to rate your own games using emoticons for others to see. It also encourages checking in at other locations.

While this is comprehensive, Nintendo’s effort is ingenious in its simplicity.

‘StreetPass’ allows 3DS consoles to communicate anonymously with each other, even while asleep. This exchanges your Mii and data from games played on both consoles automatically as you’re out and about, so you only need to open your 3DS back up once home to see what you’ve got.

Collected Miis will greet you and offer pieces to 3D puzzles of Nintendo games, as well as participating in a simplistic RPG to collect hats for your own Mii.

It’s addictive and successful in encouraging you to take your 3DS with your everywhere.

Additionally, a new app called ‘Letter Box’ takes the place of Pictochat from the DS by allowing you to exchange hand-drawn and animated letters over the internet with people registered on your friends list.

In the end, Nintendo’s social features suit a gaming console much more while Sony’s Facebook and Twitter integration were left barely used in my testing due to the reality that my phone does a much better job of this and is naturally always with me when I’m out and about.

Winner: Nintendo 3DS

CONSOLE PRICES

After launching at AUD$349, the Nintendo 3DS has dropped to AUD$249 which makes it an almsot direct replacement for the price zone the Nintendo DSi previously held.

This is a very attractive proposition, and can even be found for AUD$199 with some shopping around. All you need to get started is included in the box.

The PS Vita is available at two price points: AUD$349 for the WiFi model and AUD$419 for the 3G + Wifi model.

While the hardware inside definitely justifies the price, as a dedicated handheld gaming device it’s difficult to ignore that it’s crossed the invisible line that makes it seem like a much more significant purchase and in line with full consoles such as the Xbox 360 with Kinect and PlayStation 3, both of which are usually bundled with several games as well.

Additionally, a memory card is also required for use of the PS Vita which starts at AUD$25 (4gb), although you’ll want at least 16gb (AUD$65) if you intend on downloading many games digitally.

Winner: Nintendo 3DS

GAME PRICES

The Nintendo 3DS has continued the typical game pricepoint of the DS in Australia, with new releases priced at AUD$69 RRP with no digital download option.

In comparison, the PS Vita game RRP range between AUD$39 and AUD$69.

As an example, Little Deviants is at AUD$39, Modnation Racers: Road Trip at AUD$54 and Uncharted: Golden Abyss at AUD$69. Games are also AUD$5-10 cheaper to digitally download via the PlayStation Store.

As the PlayStation Vita is region free, it is also possible to create a US SEN (previously known as PSN) account and purchase from their PlayStation Store for far lower prices due to the approximately equal value of the Australian and US dollar.

As an example, ModNation Racers: Road Trip is AUD$27 to download from the US store rather than AUD$48 on the Australian store.