Lots of time has passed hasn't it? Does these eigth generation handheld systems live up to the hype since their reveals?

Well, as an owner of both, I think the graphics shown in those demos is what we got--though "The Naked Sample" was never released, we got a full on port of MGS3 with a few enhancements.  Both lived up to their promise, and in some ways surpassed it.

The thing is, we have smartphones that are almost equally as impressive.  The target moved so quickly that, even though both portables live up to their potential, it still isn't as impressive as it should have been.

I own both and I am satisfied with both. I personally prefer the Vita as I find it the better system, however so far the 3DS has better games. I really hope they both get fully utilized because this is the first time in a long time that i've really enjoyed actually playing a handheld game.

I like my 3DS, it's way better than my DS Lite. I wouldn't say I expected something extremely different, since it still has the basic dual screen design, and the 3D effect on my XL is nice.

the 3DS has exceeded my expectations

I've been in love with Vita since it was first announced and it has exceeded my expectations as far as enjoyment goes. To me smartphones will never compare to handhelds similarly to how consoles survive next to PCs.

3DS wise I jumped on the bandwagon right after it was announced but it didn't have any must own games. As a result its launch came and went with me never picking it up. It has some great games and has also exceeded my expectations so I'm hoping to finally get one this holiday season.

I like them both, but still feel they have a good amount of work to do to exceed my lofty expectations. I consider about 5 of my 3DS games as "must-own", whereas I have 8 titles for the Vita that I feel the same way about. The problem with the Vita titles is my must-own games are pretty much all ports of larger console titles rather than exclusives. The tech from both consoles however is phenomenal and far surpasses what I thought they would be capable of.

The 3DS has, the Vita is getting there. Imo.

The Vita = Hell yes.