Yes, it is .

I haven´t seen the new model in person, but (going by impressions) the screen in the 2000 model isn´t that great.

I´d go with the "old" 1000 model, the screen  looks fantastic in colourful games like Tearaway.

The first thing you should get with a vita before looking at any other games is probably the 8gb mem stick with 10 vita games. its basically the same price as an 8gb mem stick but you get a few awesome games and a few .... meh time killers to fill it and start your vita collection.

Of the 10 games btw 3 of them are Vita games, 3 are psp games and the other 4 are just smaller psn titles.

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2013/06/19/ps-vita-mega-pack-10-games-and-an-8gb-memory-card-for-39-99/

Edit - the games are all a download code that comes in the box btw, which adds all the licenses to your psn account so if you upgrade your mem stick at a later date or delete them and redownload um you can do it freely as many times as you want.

The new model is LCD while the old model is Oled.
Oled is more colour beautiful, but the lifespan of the screen is lesser than the LCD. The LCD screen is also cheaper, that's why they changed it on the first place.

Oled > LCD. That's it ~

I can't give any recommendations since most of them have been suggested lol

Ya know I've actually seen a few reports where the LCD screen handles games and content which isn't native resolution a bit better than the OLED screen. If you see some stuff like cutscenes in Resistance you can see the OLED bleeding textures pretty badly, games which are native full resolution do look beautiful on OLED tho.

The main thing which rocks about the OLED is the black screens, if you are playing the system in the dark and there is a black room... its black, not grey washed out with backlight shining through it.

Can you get this other places besides Europe?

My hidden gem would be Guacamelee!
It's cross buy for Vita/PS3.

one and done in first post...good job!!!

I'd just throw in Smart As

EDIT: also get a 32gb memory card...you'll thank me later :p

I took a look around but it seems not http://community.us.playstation.com/t5/PlayStation-General/vita-will-the-US-get-the-mega-pack-bundle/td-p/40777565 well just here they say that one of the games offered in the 10 is an EU psn exclusive game so wouldn't be available in Canada, I know you can make an EU psn account on the Vita and you could use the download code that way.... but you can only have 1 psn account on a vita at a time, it's not like the ps3 where you can hop back and forth with ease, would mean you'd have to get euro cards and stuff to add credit to buy stuff from the store on there.

Sorry mate I should have checked you could get it before teasin you with it! I'll take a look online tho to see if there is anything similar in Canada for you.

The 2000 feels so much better in my hands though(My hands are admittedly huge and truckasaurus like).  They had PSV 2000's at the Metrico booth at SXSW this year.  Nicer buttons, easier to hit select and start.  Overall nicer ergonomics.  USB mini charging and improved battery life.  I"m looking forward to upgrading myself.  If only they just made it use SD cards Vita 2000 would be perfect.  

I didn't notice the screen difference at all though Metrico might not be the best example to illustrate it. I had to pull out my 1000 to make sure my intuitions were correct about it being the new model. The changes are slight but I'm actually with sony on the changes improving things overall this time.