A few days ago I traded 3360 fly buys points in for a PS Vita. Here are my thoughts so far.

Day 1: Had to work late so didn't get much of a chance to play with it when I got home. Unboxed it and had a good look at it as you do. Pressed all the buttons and such as you do. Then I decided that before I turn it on I'll slip the provided sim card in... uh oh my stubby bitten down fingernails couldn't for the life of me pull the slider out to slip the sim card in. Had to use a nearby tab off a can to pull the thing out, no biggie though as I won't be doing it again anytime soon. I then turned it on and preceded to go through the set-up steps. All the usual guff, time and date, wifi etc, then I got to the PSN sign up part and was quite surprised that because it needed a system update I had to make a temporary sign in so I could update it. Hmm still no biggie but kind of annoying. After I updated and signed in I then played a little with the built in game/tutorial Welcome Park which is full of mini games to get you accustomed to the many control systems the Vita has. I was rather impressed with capacitive touch screen response, not so much with the rear touchpad as it must be single touch and I was getting rather frustrated with the mini game only to realise that my other finger was still touching the side and therefore it was not registering my other finger. The sixaxis works like a charm. Unlike a lot of people I'm quite fond of motion gaming and was pleased with that. The camera was fun as well, I got my Terminator skull to move and talk, took three attempts and when it did it looked freakishly stupid but was good for a laugh and for showing the off some of it's functions. I was pretty happy with the fact that I was earning trophies while playing these mini games as well.

Day 2: Now this was the day the thing started to bug me a bit. Not really because of the hardware (it didn't freeze or anything) but mainly because of Sony's incredibly stupid decision to make overpriced proprietary memory cards and not even include a measly 512mb in the box. A little on board storage might have been nice as well but no. So I decided to jump online and future proof myself by ordering a 32gb card. I had yourvoice survey points to spend and unfortunately Mighty Ape were all out so I had to import one through Fishpond with up to a one month wait and even with the $100 off I got it still cost me $33, FML I could have got a 1tb external for that sort of money. The least Sony could have done was released the 32gb memory cards worldwide on release. So for the record I couldn't download any of the apps and have a play, I couldn't download any game demos or Wipeout 2048, I couldn't use the camera, actually all I can really do at the moment until my memory card arrives is thrash the hell out of Welcome Park. Well alright then I'll just get myself a game that doesn't require a memory card. How 'bout Uncharted... No, ok what about Little Deviants... No, ok I know I'll get Modnation Racers oh wait I already own it on PSP through PSN I'll just transfer it over... Doh. NOT HAVING A MEMORY CARD WITH A VITA IS LIKE NOT HAVING AN ACTIVE SIM CARD WITH A MOBILE PHONE. Sure I can use some of the features but I can't use it for the majority of the things it was made for.

Day 3: Went to turn it on, it didn't turn on so I plugged it in and was worried when I didn't see any kind of light on it, checked the manual, orange light when charging, looked at it again and was quite surprised to see I'd plugged the cord in upside down. I'm used to things only going in one way or not at all. Oh well plugged it in the right way, orange flashing light, don't remember reading anything about light flashing, attempted to turn on, no success, checked manual again, nothing about orange flashing light, Google search "an orange flashing light while charging indicates that the Vita is too low to power up", Ok then. About five minutes later the device stopped flashing so I turned it on and thought I'd try out the browser but as I did I noticed the 3G symbol instead of the wifi and thought screw that I'm not wasting my 100mb so went into the settings and connected again but while messing around with the other settings I noticed it disconnected again, another Google search "Vita will disconnect from access point when not in use to conserve battery power, will reconnect when app is opened that requires it, no settings to change this". Hmm can be a little frustrating as it is time consuming when opening the app, I am surprised there's no option to change this. Tried the browser, it's what you'd expect from a console browser a lot easier to use however with the touchscreen as opposed to a controller or remote.

Day 4 (Today): Had a quick play with "near" an app which lets you know of any nearby Vita users within a 10km radius. Absolutely had no idea what I was doing, it really needed it's own tutorial but it only had hints, still wasn't really sure what was going on, but I was surprised that there was another seven Vita users within an 8km radius. Unsure however if they were all online at the time or they had just checked in at that location last, probably the latter. Also had a play with Google maps, works fine however was disappointed there was no turn by turn navigation built in, otherwise I might have considered the car mount.

Overall so far I think the Vita has great potential however it is a $300 device with a $500 price tag. If I didn't get it for free I wouldn't even have considered the 3G version and the fact that I wouldn't consider anything less than a 16gb memory card you're looking at at least another $70 not including the price of games. It's memory card dependence is a downside as well, it's so important to have at least some memory I feel it should be bundled with some. It will be interesting once more games come out and the price gradually comes down and hopefully they start bundling them with memory cards. I'll update this thread once I get a game next week sometime.

Also for those tl;dr people here's the summary

Day 1: Worn fingernails couldn't open card slots. Really quite impressed with control system and trophy support.

Day 2: No memory card = No fun.

Day 3: First charge confusing. Wifi connection confusing. Browser is acceptable.

Day 4: "near" extremely confusing. Maps disappointing.

Overall: Great potential, too expensive.

Any questions feel free to ask.