The PS Vita is Sony's first original gaming hardware since the PlayStation 3, all the way back in 2006. Spiritually the successor to the PlayStation Portable, it shares much the same form factor as its elder cousin, eschewing a DS-style dual screen, or a slide-out pad like the later Xperia Play and PSP Go. There are crucial differences though, namely a touch-screen interface and the much-requested dual analogue sticks.

Powering the Vita are eight cores, four on the ARM A9 CPU and four on the PowerVR SGX GPU, a chipset not a million miles away from those in Apple's iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. There's also a large 5" 940 x 544 OLED screen, 802.11n class wi-fi, Bluetooth, and optional 3G connectivity. The games either come on cards or can be downloaded from the PlayStation Store, so no more universal media discs (UMDs) are required. Nor are old PSP games on UMD supported.

Along with the capacitive multi-touch screen, there's also a multi-touch area directly on the rear of the unit, utilised in games for additional interactivity. It's most certainly a first, but it's a strange feature, one that turns out to be slightly odd in use.

So it it any good? Well, with the exception of the back now being a little tight for finger space, it feels like a PSP finally done properly. The sticks feel good, and the buttons are directional pad click nicely. Undeniably, Sony knows how to do hardware well.

The 'LiveArea' UI, however, is not as solid as the hardware, and clearly has had no input from Sony's mobile division. The first thing you notice is how 'cheap' it looks - the apps are displayed in bubbles and open up as pages. You then flick through these pages to flick through apps, and peel them away like peeling off a sticker to dismiss them. Though the XMB of the PS3 and PSP was clunky, it was good; this is just strange, and frequently the touching of the screen feels at odds with how you hold the device.

There are other issues too. The 3G, for example, is mostly useless, since you can't game over it or download over 20MB. Even worse, the essential memory is provided by proprietary memory cards at a staggering premium of around £15 per 4GB. Bad move, Sony. It's an extra expense you need to budget for, given that there's no internal storage to save downloaded games to.

The PlayStation Store is just as uninspiring as it is on the PS3, though it's simple to navigate (our PS Vita sometimes needed poking to work, though). However, full games are not cheap, and while you can get any previous PSP downloads, if you have the UMD versions then, unlike Japan, you're out of luck for the moment.

Thankfully, the PS Vita excels at its raison d'etre, and that's pure gaming. Enhanced by the excellent screen and offering plenty of grunt, it's as close to a PlayStation 3 in your hand as you'll get, and the quality of the launch line-up only goes to substantiate this.

Games such as Uncharted, FIFA and WipEout all look fantastic, and crucially they are distinctly richer gaming experiences than the best the mobile world currently offers, especially when coupled with real, malleable controls.

Here's the crucial rub, though: who will buy it? It's certainly not cheap, and the established gaming demographic of kids has arguably moved on to smartphones with their cheap, impressive games and apps. It appears the biggest market could be the hardcore gamers, prepared to spend the premium to have the premium experience.

But is this enough to make the PS Vita a success? If the struggle of the 3DS, the successor to the world's most popular handheld, is anything to go by, Sony has to make a real effort, and stunts like proprietary memory cards and £45 games are not going to win it any friends. There's little disputing that the Vita is a strong piece of hardware, but it's been surrounded by premium pricing of the very things you need for it to be able to run. And it's that that lets it down badly.

Excellent hardware in an underwhelming ecosystem