Current Complaints: Playstation Vita

It has been 6 months since the playstation vita released in Japan, 4 months internationally and 2 months since I got one myself. For the whole 2 months since buying one, I can honestly say that this handheld is pretty awesome. So much so, its practically my companion cube. I use it to play games, watch videos and occasionally impress friends. However, despite all the greatness packed into this system, there are some issues I found that slightly diminishes it.

PS Vita’s Video Player

Lo and behold, the PS Vita’s video player with a snowboarder regretting his last move.

The PS Vita’s video player is one nifty app that I am thankful for. Two lovely features, that I presume comes from the PS3, is the feature to skip 15 seconds forwards or back and the scene selector that has intervals ranging from 15seconds to 5minutes. Both features that make video watching smooth and pleasant. These however do not make up for the fact that it hasn’t got one basic feature every video player in the world has, the feature to go to the next or previous video. I have tried every input I could think of and not one swipe or press of a button goes to the next/previous video. The only way to go to the next video is to wait for your current video to end, of course with the continuous playback option on, and the next video will play. It just perplexes me as to how a next gen portable has a video player that doesn’t skip or go back a video.

PS Vita’s Music Player

The PSV’s music player playing Beat, not to be confused with Beat It by MJ.

The music player is pretty much a standard one, no little neat features packed into it. The only thing I could complain about it is that it has no visualizer like the PSP or PS3 (I assume it’s to save energy) and that it doesnt allow me to make my own playlist. I have, like many others, tons of songs in my vita and because of this, having the option to make playlists would be nice. Again, strange how Sony forgot to implement a simple feature into the PS Vita. For now, the default playlists will have to do.

Lack of Buttons For UI

These buttons and sticks exist for a reason!

One of the sleekest and fanciest thing you’ll notice about the vita is the UI. Another thing to notice is the lack of physical inputs from buttons or sticks. Try clicking a button or moving a stick, they wont do a thing when you’re in the home screen. This is slightly disappointing seeing as Sony is focusing so much on the vita’s sticks and buttons in most vita trailers. However, it is understandable why they don’t work. The UI was built with touchscreen in mind. I presume as a way to grab the attention of apple, android and touchscreen fans. As a gamer, I would like to have the option to use them as I like. If game developers can think up of ways of mixing touchscreen and physical controls, surely the people behind the vita’s UI can think up of something.

Battery

No, that isnt the actual PS Vita battery indicator.

No, I’m not going to address the plain and obvious issue PS Vita owners have been complaining about, the battery life. For me, it’s plentiful enough for watching videos, listening to music and playing games but don’t be misled, I’m not saying having a stronger battery wouldn’t be great, it would. What I would rather like to complain is the battery life indicator. There is no way to specifically tell how long your vita will last other than the 75%, 50% and 25% marks. Sure, you could estimate how much time you have left from the battery’s indicator level but honestly, I would rather have a time indicator that accurately tells how much time I have before the battery dies out.

Lock Screen

The lockout screen is evil…..

This is a warning, do not get locked out of your vita unless you are a very patient person. As vita owners know, the lock out screen has four tries and once you’re out of them, you will get locked out for an hour till your next try. I found this out the frustrating way when I tried it myself. There are no available updates as of yet that allows owners to customize their lockout time. Again, you have been warned and I apologize if I piqued your interest to try it out yourself.

That’s about as much as I could find in my time since owning my vita. Hopefully, someone at Sony notice’s this article and resolves some of the issues mentioned here. If you have something that to complain about, please share in the comments below or if you have a trick to solve these problems, please do tell. Thanks for reading.