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 Smartphone controls are outdated already.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.

My bolded statement was referring to hardware capabilities, not gaming controls.

I did state it would get thicker (front to back), but it would also not be as wide (left to right) and the same height (top to bottom). Definitely not the Play's touch pad option, bleh. However, maybe more like 3DS analog pads.

Yes, I don't think the back touchpad will prove to be anything more than an occasional nuisance. There are tons of slider phones out there already and they all have cases, so I don't see you're point with this one.

I don't see the tens of millions of DS and 3DS players complaining about cramped hands. I do recognize that there is a preference to wider vs narrower, but I don't this would affect it in the long run. I'd bet 99% of people buying Vita would still buy it regardless, but add to that a far higher number of users who are more like me and the few others that have agreed with me so far in this thread.

So once you start gaming it shuts down the phone features? Kind of defeats the purpose of what the OP wants doesn't it? Going to look into the Ubuntu thing Superchunk is talking about though.

As for your question, I wouldn't. I like my phones to be small in size and I wouldn't want the Vita to be that small. I actually really like the size of the Vita, especially once I connect the PDP Trigger Grips to it, which is the way I play it.

Thinking about it though, maybe there is a way to make it work. If it slides out it would need to do so by sliding out from the sides, that way once it is pulled out it almost perfect mimics the PSV form factor, although the tracks placed on the back of the device would still kill the chances of keeping the rear touch pad... so I'm still having issue there.

Then I run into another problem and that is I wouldn't want a new, updated, more feature rich and spec upgraded version to worry about each year. How long would that take for early adopter to be left with new games that just don't run quite right? I already run into this issue with my phone and I don't have that kind of disposable income. I want to make (1) purchase that is 100% dedicated to my games that won't make me feel like the odd man out 5 years down the road.

I like the width of the Vita, so if it was a slider device I would want it to slide out from both sides that way the form factor mimic that of the current device. Any other way would cause my hands to cramp.

Can you have a case for that?

So once you start gaming it shuts down the phone features? Kind of defeats the purpose of what the OP wants doesn't it? Going to look into the Ubuntu thing Superchunk is talking about though.

As for your question, I wouldn't. I like my phones to be small in size and I wouldn't want the Vita to be that small. I actually really like the size of the Vita, especially once I connect the PDP Trigger Grips to it, which is the way I play it.

Thinking about it though, maybe there is a way to make it work. If it slides out it would need to do so by sliding out from the sides, that way once it is pulled out it almost perfect mimics the PSV form factor, although the tracks placed on the back of the device would still kill the chances of keeping the rear touch pad... so I'm still having issue there.

Then I run into another problem and that is I wouldn't want a new, updated, more feature rich and spec upgraded version to worry about each year. How long would that take for early adopter to be left with new games that just don't run quite right? I already run into this issue with my phone and I don't have that kind of disposable income. I want to make (1) purchase that is 100% dedicated to my games that won't make me feel like the odd man out 5 years down the road.

And that right there is the reason why the majority of potential PSV buyers would stick with the platform as is. 

Part of the reason why I don't game on my iPhone much anymore is that any graphics intensive games developed within the past year won't run usably on it, and understandably so. Smartphones have about a two year operational life after which, you really can't expect to be able to run more than the same apps you've been running (tough when a lot of apps have automatic updates) and certainly not any apps that take full advantage of current processor/hardware updates. 

Lastly, and I think I'm not the only one in this boat; I'm not buying a new handheld gaming phone every two years. Assuming the PSV platform doesn't go down like the Titanic, like most people who already bought a PSV, I expect to be playing current games on it 4 years from now at minimum. That's the reason why I buy dedicated gaming platforms.

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.)

I think any thicker is too much. I can't wait to get my hands on the PSVita Light if it ever comes.

The battery itself may be the same, but the 3G model gets less battery time than the WiFi one. The problem is that playing games for more than 15-30 minutes at a time _and_ being a phone just isn't compatable atm. Until you can play a game for 4 hours _and_ still have charge to make a couple calls totalling 2 or 3 hours _and_ still get through the entire day (12-16 hours) without needing a charge it's just not going to work.

If SONY wants to try to make a PSVita Phone but still have the Normal PSVita, fine by me, but I won't touch the Phone with a 10 foot pole and I doubt most people would either.

For the record, I own HTC G2. The primary feature I use it for, aside from making calls, is its wi-fi hotspot capability. I have to be real careful with it though, I can only run it for a couple hours a day otherwise my phone will die before I get home.