I own a Vita and honestly love it. A few things:
The hardware is incredible. The system has an excellent weight and balance. It feels solid without feeling heavy. The OLED screen is beautiful. The controls are fantastic, and the touchscreen very responsive. The only complaint I have is that the doors for the memory card and game cartridge are hard to open because I bite my fingernails--I keep a safety pin handy with my Vita to get them open.
The OS is very impressive. The suspend mode might be my favorite feature. If I'm in a game and want to check out a trophy guide or something, I just tap the PS button and my game suspends in memory while I go to the internet browser. You can suspend a game at any point. Once I left my Vita on the charging dock for a week not recalling that I had Uncharted: Golden Abyss suspended. I picked it right back up and continued playing.
I'm a PS+ subscriber, so that's really made it easy to try many different games. Uncharted: Golden Abyss is gorgeous, and as close to console-quality Uncharted on the go as I could imagine. There are points where it doesn't shine as bright as its console counterparts, but it's one of the best portable gaming experiences out there. LittleBigPlanet on the Vita may be my favorite LittleBigPlanet. It uses the touch controls in really clever ways and is really fun. I'm really enjoying Gravity Rush so far, Wipeout 2048 is pretty fun, and Hot Shots Golf is, well, Hot Shots Golf. PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale was my first Cross-Play title and it translates really well. I have a couple PS1 classics and I don't recall needing a PS3, I think I just downloaded them directly to my Vita. I heard Persona 4 Golden is really good, but I haven't played it yet.
Avoid the 3G model (I have WiFi only) as the only gaming you can do over 3G is turn based. Anything worth doing can only be done over WiFi, so not worth the monthly cost for 3G.
On memory card prices, if you shop around, you can get them for less. I got my 32 GB for $75 from TigerDirect.com about a year ago, and I saw 16 GB cards in Best Buy on clearance for $30 just a few weeks ago.
Personally, I think it's the greatest portable gaming system ever. Could it use more games? Sure. Is it lacking games? Absolutely not. There are plenty of really good games for the Vita. I highly recommend it.
