Tegra3's CPU does well, its GPU, which is not the standrad GPU for that processor but one Nvidia themselves cooked up, is crap in comparison.

I'm talking about the phones and tablets shown just a week ago at MWC from multiple makers including HTC and Asus just to name a couple. I'm talking about what every Android OEM has stated as their next products throughout this year.

Vita's chips are what all the next phones/tablets will have THIS year. In the next 3 to 6 months. Since they do more multitasking, they also all hae 1GB of RAM or more, making this year the point where they are equal.

iPhone 5 won't have the A5X chip. It will have an A6 chip that will be essentially identical to what Vita has. It will have the same 1GB RAM as this iPad as well as a new form factor and some new enhanced OS features. That's Apple's standard yearly changes and you should expect no different.

Android OEMs are expecting this same thing and as such they will strive to continue to be a step ahead with similar setups.

By next year it will still be quad-core based items, but the RAM and speeds will be increased to not be ~1Ghz, but more like 2-3Ghz. Either that or we'll see the first Quad-Core ARM9 64bit chips rolling out.

Point is, in 2013 a smartphone or tablet will be as good or better than netbooks and most low-mid level laptops and more powerful than the Vita/PS3/360.

2013 I'll snag my next Nexus device or maybe Windows8 that will be my phone and have a docking laptop solution for a tablet/laptop similar to the Asus Padphone. ( http://www.asus.com/Mobile/PadFone/ )

BTW looking at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapdragon_(system_on_chip) shows S4 chips greater than Vitas 2nd half of this year and exactly in line with what I said above. A 2.5 GHz Quad-core CPU and a Quad-Core GPU that will be in 2013 phones/tablets.

Again, THIS year we'll see Vita matched within 6mos. 2013 Vita will be soundly beat. Of course this is only in terms of raw power. With that and knowing what Apple has already done in gaming and what Google has said about gaming just over the last day or so, we'll see Vita/PS3/360 level games on those devices in 2013. Vita's only saving grace will be controls and for many people already buying those other devices, why buy for just controls? Why not just buy a bluetooth controller for far cheaper and far easier to carry if needed?

Until iOS or android gets a game i'm interested in, no dice, and so far there have been no exclusives good enough to justify gaming on a phone or tablet instead of my PSV/PSP.

I dislike the idea of not getting a dedicated controller, but at least with the iPhone stuff like this is possible. Though id much prefer a direct from apple/HTC/samsung provider. So I _could_ handle it, but it seems severly limiting, not to mention battery life issues when you combine gaming and phone into one unit with _todays_ battery tech.

Gaming on a tablet seems worse. It too would need physical buttons for me to take it seriously, and even in that case most tablets are too big for me to consider it for mobile gaming, so id then prefer to just play a home console.

I think it is too soon. At least another year or two before phones can be reliably used by _everyone_ as both a heavy gaming device and a heavy phone device, retain the thinness most people expect these days, and have peripherals heavy gamers will want.

I am extremely skeptical of tablet gaming. Most likely it would boil down to being _docked_ into a unit so you could use your TV and a wireless controller to play. I accept this only because who wouldn't want to use the already impressive computing power. Outside of that use, casual players that like angry birds and other flick and finger use type games will probably be ok with sitting on the couch with their tablet to play games. Heavy gamers will expect a better experience.

I don't know about Android/Windows tablets, but for the iPad you don't need to be docked if you have an Apple TV. With that you can use Airplay to play content wirelessly from an iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch on your TV. Games included.

One of my favorite games requires a touch screen (unless you play it at an arcade) and I played it all the time on my iPad. Jubeat Plus (Jukebeat Plus outside of Japan).

http://www.apple.com/appletv/airplay/

Yes. That's essentially same thing as a dock, its an extra accessory, an expensive one, but that works. Now it just needs a controller. Before you say the tablet would be the controller, let me say, NO.

Connectivity Wifi, Bluetooth, 3G to locked carriers (no multiplayer gaming)

This means no multiplayer gaming using 3g connectivity?    Wow, that would suck.

You keep saying that but I dont remember any smartphone or tablet being shown off at MWC that has amazing, ahead of its time specs. The HTC X uses tegra 3 for its worldwide release, and a dual core s4 for US release. The new panasonic EULAGA Power also uses a dual core S4. The ASUS padfone uses the S4 as well.The new galaxy tabs and the galaxy note 10.1 also have dual core setups. Im not too sure what LG have in store for us coming this year, but im gonna gues either tegra 3 or snapdragon. Theres also intels new medfield tec for smatphones and tablets but im pretty sure performance isnt up to scratch yet.

Like i said in my previous post, most smartphones and tablets are using either the nvidia's tec as in tegra 3 or qualcomms snapdragon dualcore S4 for this year. Now ive already said that the tegra 3 cpu/gpu combination is considerably weaker than the PSV cpu/gpu. And andreno based gpu's are weaker than tegra 3, go ahead and check the benchmarks. You must remember that adreno is qualcomms own solution for gpu's. This is why they recently got licenses to use powervr tec. This is qualcomms own admission as having inferior gpus. This statement holds true for the quad core S4 releasing at the end of this year and begining of next which has an upgraded adreno gpu but stil a pretty weak one.

Il say this again, i think you getting caught up with core count, raw specifications which get made a big deal by these manufacturers, while ignoring the underlining architecture and ignoring the ACTUAL performance these solutions can achieve.

So i think we are gonna have to agree to disagree because i absolutely dont understand where you coming from. The PSV will be cutting edge the remainder of this year, and at the very least it might get matched but certainly not bested. Next year is when we will see competing manufactures get up to speed with PSV and then after that pull away.

To add to that Superchunk the next gen for tegra and snapdragon, as in after Q1 2013 is anyones guess, since that information hasnt been revealed yet. Unless you want to trust nvidias proclaimed advancements for their next tegra device...but only a stupid person would do that.

Its not like a manufactures is going to come out with something amazing for the remainder of this year, the tec is already known, its already planned for release and it is not better than PSV :)

Even a new galaxy S3/iphone 5 is limited to what the manufactures have available for the 2012/2013 timeframe.

Follow the links. In every case there are chips coming out now that are equal to Vita and chips slated for 2012 (probably late) that are superior. Look at their tables and the last few items listed and their specs. All based on ARM CPU/GPU configurations have items clearly better for THIS year. I don't really compare Tegra since they build their own GPUs to go with the ARM CPUs and without a wide range of benchmarking, its not as easy to speak to. However, these two alone will be in high-end products as well as a simple understanding of Apple and what they always do its obvious their next chip will be identical to Vita's in the iphone5 later this summer.

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Samsung's chips http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exynos

Here's the GPUs likely to be combined with these CPUs

Then combine this with Samsung now adding 1GB RAM and likely having 1.5 or 2GB by next year with this group.

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Snapdragon S4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapdragon_(System_on_Chip)

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Qualcomm-announces-Snapdragon-S4-Pro-chip-with-Adreno-320-graphics_id27381

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My point still stands. By end of summer there will be many devices equal to Vita in terms of raw power. As 2013 starts there will be many devices soundly beating Vita and as the year rolls on it will only begin to be more of a separation. 

Its like you not reading some of the things im posting...

adreno based gpus are weak in comparison to powervr gpus! They are weak compared to tegra as well. The adreno 320 is better than the current one in the S4 chip but not much better. This is why qualcomm has just recently licensed powervr gpu tec imo. To advance their gpu offering for their next gen stuff. And since we talking gaming performance gpu power is very important.

With regards to the exynos chip..which announced smartphones/tablets use the Exynos 5250 or higher? All of samsungs tablets announced at MWC does not have these SoC's in them, ALL OF THEM. The galaxy S3, according to current rumours is most likely to get the Exynos 4412, which will put it in the same ballpark as PSV in terms of CPU performance but again the gpu is inferior! 

And since most manufactures have NOT announced their next gen tec, i dont see how you can claim that it will be that much more advanced than PSV when they arent even up to scratch at the moment.

To end this, my main point from a prev post:

"Im not saying the PSV is waaaay ahead of the rest, but what im saying is that it is ahead at the moment (especially in terms of gaming performance), im also saying that in the next year the PSV's chipset will stil be relevant, id imagine quad core cpu/gpu combinations will only become the norm then."

You then said this:

"Vita's chips are what all the next phones/tablets will have THIS year. In the next 3 to 6 months."

Thats where i call total bullshit. NO phone/tablet thats currently announced or even rumoured to be announced, releasing in 3 - 6 months will have the power of the PSV especially not tegra 3 or S4 devices! 

I feel like ive derailed your thread enough! lol my apologies.

I don't think casuals really care about hardware capabilities, look at the Wii vs HD consoles or HD consoles vs PC. Price, games, and features (not necessarily dependent upon hardware) are going to be more important when making the Vita worth buying.