Some things stay with you because they were expensive. Others stay because of what they meant at the time. My PS Vita Slim is the second kind.
I bought it in 2016 with my first salary. Not because it was the smartest purchase, not because everyone recommended it, but because I wanted one. I had been eyeing the Vita for a while, mainly for achievement hunting, and when that first paycheck landed, the decision was already made.
Ten years later, it is still sitting on my shelf. And I still play it.
Why the Vita still feels special in 2026
It is easy to look at newer handhelds and wonder why anyone would still bother with a PS Vita. The screen is smaller, the specs are ancient, and Sony stopped supporting it years ago.
But the Vita was never about being the most powerful handheld. It was about being the right size, the right weight, and the right feel in your hands.
The PS Vita Slim fits in a way that larger modern handhelds do not. I can pick it up, play for twenty minutes, put it down, and come back to it later without any friction. The sleep mode is instant. The battery still holds up well enough for casual sessions. The physical buttons and sticks feel solid, even after a decade of use.
There is also something about the build quality that feels intentional. The matte finish on the Slim model does not attract fingerprints the way glossy handhelds do. It feels like a device that was designed to be held and used often, not just displayed.
And the portability still matters. I can carry it in a jacket pocket or toss it in a bag without needing a dedicated case. That kind of convenience is hard to appreciate until you compare it with bulkier alternatives.
The games I still own
I never had a massive Vita library, but the games I collected over the years are still some of my favorites. Here is the full list of physical and digital titles I still have:
| Game | Why it stuck with me | | --- | --- | | God of War Collection | My most played Vita game, and it ran beautifully on handheld | | Uncharted: Golden Abyss | The Vita's showcase title, and it delivered | | Need for Speed: Most Wanted | Perfect pick-up-and-play racing for short sessions | | Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified | Rough around the edges, but I had fun with it | | Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate | A solid side-scrolling take on the Arkham formula | | Assassin's Creed: Liberation | Underrated open-world stealth on a handheld | | F1 2015 | Surprisingly satisfying for a portable F1 experience | | Gravity Rush | One of the Vita's most unique exclusives | | FIFA 15 | My biggest surprise, played it way more than I expected | | The Amazing Spider-Man | Fun web-swinging in a portable package |
I am not going to review every game here. This is about the collection as a whole. These games represent a specific chapter of my gaming life, and seeing them together still reminds me of afternoons spent grinding through God of War Collection or chasing platinum trophies.
If I had to pick a top three, it would be God of War Collection, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Those three alone justified the purchase for me.
And the biggest surprise was FIFA 15. I did not expect a football game to pull me in on a handheld, but it did. Something about playing quick matches on the Vita felt effortless, and I ended up spending way more hours on it than planned.
A friend with the OLED, me with the Slim
One of my friends owned the original PS Vita with the OLED screen. The colors on that model were vivid, almost unreasonably good for a handheld from that era. Every game looked richer on his screen.
But I preferred my Slim. It was lighter, the battery lasted longer, and the matte finish felt better during long sessions. We used to compare the two constantly, and the honest answer was always the same: both were great, just in different ways.
That kind of friendly comparison is part of why the Vita era feels special. It was a small enough community that owning one felt like being part of something, not just following a trend.
Why it is rare to see one now
I almost never see anyone using a PS Vita in 2026. When I pull mine out in public, people either do not recognize it or they light up with nostalgia and start talking about their own memories.
That rarity is part of why I keep it. Not as a collector's flex, but because it feels like holding onto a piece of gaming history that most people have moved on from. The Vita had a loyal audience, even if it never had the numbers Sony wanted.
Achievement hunting memories on the Vita
The real reason I wanted a PS Vita in the first place was achievement hunting. PlayStation trophies were a big part of how I played games back then, and the Vita had its own set of platinums and challenges that felt genuinely rewarding.
I spent hours going through God of War Collection trying to clear every trophy. The portable format made grinding feel less tedious because I could do it anywhere: on a couch, in bed, during travel. That flexibility changed how I approached completionist gaming.
Some of my proudest trophy moments came from the Vita. They were not the flashiest achievements, but they represented real time and effort on a device I cared about. That combination of personal attachment and gameplay milestones is something I have not fully replicated on any other platform since.
PS Vita vs modern handhelds: a personal take
Modern handhelds like the Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch are objectively more capable. Bigger screens, better performance, larger libraries, active developer support. On paper, there is no contest.
But capability is not the full picture for me. The PS Vita does a few things that still feel right:
- Size and weight: It fits in one hand comfortably. Modern handhelds feel like carrying a tablet.
- Instant sleep and wake: No boot delays, no update prompts. Pick up, play, put down.
- Battery life for casual sessions: Still holds enough charge for the kind of short play sessions I use it for.
- Physical controls that feel tight: The buttons and analog sticks have a precision that some modern devices do not match at their price points.
I am not saying the Vita is better. I am saying it still has a place, at least for me. Some devices earn their shelf space through performance. The Vita earns it through feel and memory.
The first salary connection
There is a reason this article is not just a hardware retrospective. The PS Vita Slim was the first real thing I bought with money I earned myself.
That matters more than any spec sheet. Every time I see it on my shelf, I remember what that first salary felt like. The excitement of earning something, choosing to spend it on something I genuinely wanted, and then getting years of use out of that decision.
Not every purchase ages well. This one did.
