A Playstation Vita Phone with a 5inch OLED screen and a slide out gamepad with even the most advanced current cell phone battery would be thicker than the PS Vita already is and would probably have at _max_ 1 hour of playable time before you either had to plug it back in or forgo being able to take calls throughout the day.

Not only is it not practical it would just plain not be anywhere as good as the PS Vita is. It would have to sacrifice something and I for one would skip it. I do not believe we could have everything we have now with the PS Vita and add in it being a smart phone.

I guess I didn't specify this in the OP, but I would say that my vision of this PSVPhone is an Android based product. Personally, I still think PSV has core Android elements with a heavy layer of Sony modifications. So, you'd have the same smartphone experience with the full Android market, etc. Additionally, have you read about Blackberry's addition of Android apps in their OS or news breaking of running Ubuntu Linux with Android? Basically, you could easily have a full Android experience along with Sony's defined OS for their security and gaming.

The only difference in owning your current smartphone would be the slide form factor vs the probably candy bar style you currently have.

Also, don't you already sign a 2 year contract with your phone or are you buying older gen phones for less or brand new phones for $500? I don't see why there is any resistance to signing a contract for this true playstation phone idea I'm describing. There is no loss as a phone or a portable game console. There is only gain in that it hits a much larger market with far more pricing options.

Also, the number of people who would buy the currect PSV would still buy this phone. The costs and performance would be exactly the same. The only difference is a much larger additional market would also buy it. The people like myself who either won't buy a 2nd portable media device and/or don't normally care that much about portable gaming. We would be intrigued to buy it since it would replace a device we already carry.

I really like the size of the Vita, it feels great in my hands. However, if it was a phone I wouldn't like the size. Also, if you go the route of making it a slider styled phone, it would then be too thick for my tastes. Hiding analogs like these would require quite a hefty device and it is thick enough as it is. Remember, those analogs stick out, you can't just simply make them disappear unless you flatten them out on the device and I do not want that, no sir.

So it would be either too big or too thick as a phone. If you decide to shrink the screen to solve that issue I would then have an issue with the screen being too small, plus it would still be too thick.

I say keep it the way it is.

You also mention it as being a Android based device, but you and I both know that all Android devices (Phones especially) become real laggy after a while and require reboots, task killers, cache dumps, etc... just to speed it back up.

That is the last thing anyone would want with something they would most definitely use as a dedicated gaming device.

One moment Uncharted runs great, next time you boot it up it's lagging out the ass. "Ok, time to reboot the Vita and clear out some stuff. Ah fuck, stupid AT&T bloatware is strangling my Vita and I can't delete it unless I mod it. Hope that doesn't block me from PSN."

It would be a disaster and I wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole, and we know that I am one who enjoys gaming on my phone, but that kind of gaming that I enjoy is different. So regardless of what the media or some others might think, I actually see the need for a dedicated gaming device.

Only hurdle I still see is software pricing.

I don't understand part of your logic.

Yes the form factor would be smaller in width, same in depth, and larger in thickness. That's obvious but not a detraction in any way, IMO.

The battery/play time would be identical. The Vita has a 2200mAh battery and that is already a battery common in phones as either stock or optional. My Galaxy Nexus phone has a 1850mAh and an optional 2000mAh that barely affects its thickness. The Razr Maxx comes stock with a 3300mAh battery.

I think too many of you just don't know enough about mobile phones and their current tech. Vita will be outaded by smartphones by next year. (This comment is to a lot more posters in this thread that just the one I'm quoting.)

If even half of the PSVs sold turn out to be 3G models with active data plan subscriptions, your argument might have a leg to stand on, but it sounds like the overwhelming majority of potential buyers won't even commit to that because they "just want to play the games."

For clarification; I just want to play the games. I paid $300 for a 3G model with a data plan that I can activate or deactivate on a monthly basis. I would not sign off a 2 year contract, even if this non-existent Android Vita phone was free. I already have a smartphone and even though I'm in the market for another one, I'm looking at the best Android models available or will simply hold out for the iPhone 5. 

Feel free to change the increasingly hypothetical situation to if Samsung made a Galaxy III Vita phone or a Motorola Razr Maxx Vita phone, but seriously; this is getting a little ridiculous. 

In the end, most people would still want a PSV that played the games, no plans, no contracts even if you are not in that majority.

Run a poll and see what I'm talking about. 

I've never needed task killers or cache dumps, etc on my android phones. Especially not my Android 4.0 ICS Galaxy Nexus, which runs amazingly fast and has had zero reboots since I bought it two months ago. Additionally, all computers require reboots occasionally, including the Vita if someone actually left it running for months on end. I think you're being overzealous with your opinion on this one.

Furthermore, I defined it more as a dual OS structure anyways. Look up the ubuntu on android news coming from MWC right now for better clarity. Basically the playstation games are not running on Android, but on Sony's OS. No different than current PSV.

As for size and scope, of course there is a heavy opinion in all of this for everyone's personal tastes. I prefer 3DS design to PSVs longer/wider setup. I do prefer thinner phones, but I'd sacrifice a slight growth in thickness for a quality game system. (Xperia Play was not it, unfortunately)

I also don't think any significant group would really not buy it just because it was a slider. PSP Go had a lot of positive response before the realization of its download only, lack of 2nd analog, etc all sank in.

Slider/flip phones like the moto-droid and others are very popular and definitely show that the market is there for them almost as much as candy bar style products.

I'm sure they could find a way to shut down all background processes when running a PSV game. As a game centric device, it's fairly reasonable to expect priority to be given to game software, even if at the cost of background services.

I game on my phone a bit as well, but not in the same capacity. 15 minutes is usally the max per session and even then, it's not a common occurence.

Maybe a question for you and any PSV/smartphone owner would be if you could add an earpiece to your PSV and pay for a cell/data plan, would you ditch your current smartphone and whatever apps you use with it?

No it won't because those phones will require you to play games with your fingers taking up precious screen real estate and half assed controls for many big time genres such as 1st person shooters. Smartphone controls are outdated already. I love my phone but I can easily admit this. Controls for most games absolutely SUCK.

Also, how do you figure it wouldn't get any thicker? Gonna collapse the sticks and turn them into nubs again? Gonna make it so you could press the sticks in and then slide the phone back in (Then you could accidentally collapse them during gameplay I assume). How you gonna pop them back out, grab them and pull?  Maybe erase all tactile feedback and make them like the Xperia Plays touch analog pads? <- Yuck...

Going to ditch the back touchpad I assume? Not gonna buy a phone where you can't put a simple casing on that protects the entire thing. People toss their phones around, that is why they buy these cases that protect them the entire way around.

Now if you manage to pull everything off and make it slide, you run into the old problem of cramped hands. I don't need that back. Like I said, the thing is a dedicated gaming device and I for one appreciate that the sticks and buttons are spaced out and the device has the size it has, but I would hate that size if it were my phone.

While I understand the urge to compare my idea with the current 3G Vita, its apples and oranges. The 3G Vita, which I have repeatidly blasted as a bad choice, is no where near what I am suggesting. It a added feature with no value based on what the PSV currently is. The phone idea I'm supporting is an 100% fully enabled fully featured smartphone that a very large market of people already own and carry.

These are not two different devices and people wouldn't buy it just to play games. They'd buy it as a replacement of their phone, something they do every couple years already. They may not ever play a playstation type of game on it, but use it for android only games just because it has a better set of controls. They may use it for tons of playstation games as well. Then for those who don't want a smartphone and thus are not interested in the hybrid, Sony sales (as they already do so no different) a wifi only device (like the same separation of tablets) for $300 that will only play games.

There is no loss here and you hit ALL viable markets.

I don't need to run a poll as there is too much speculation on loosing features, loosing battery life, loosing controls, etc and etc based on people's mindset of the differences between a smartphone and game console. When in reality by next year 3DS and Vita will be the lower powered machines, with the only advantage of better controls. (hell, by mid this year 3DS will be dwarfed by quad-core Androids)

The only real arguement is purely based on personal prefence between a slider type device or the current PSV form. I think in the long run this would be a marginal affect on the device as most people wouldn't care or would overlook that if it was the only item hey disliked.

Hell, just pull up the MANY threads on this site when the Xperia Play (playstation phone) was first being rumored and discussed. There was NO negative feedback on it until it launched and people realized it wasn't a "playstation" phone, but mearly an low-end android phone with slightly better controls than the touch screen... and I mean barely slightly better.