But I mean, it's bigger than the older generation PSP.
How did they think people would respond to that?
It's all about technical "real estate" as I like to call it. The CPU and GPU being dedicated to gaming will most likely be running at full tilt vs. an iPhone which is a throttled down A4 for the sake of battery life and heat issues. My iPod Touch can get quite warm after a extended session of Infinity Blade.
Sure Apple does have a nice looking phone or even the iPod Touch as a game machine but it's limited to touch input.
The other thing to consider on the Vita's side is the physical controls as room had to be made on the device to accommodate those as well as the innards to utilize them. Even the 3DS could use a trimming (which will likely happen in the future when sales slow) and compare the launch DS to the DSi, not only was it smaller, but far more refined like many Apple products and the original PSP.
I'd like to get my hands on a Vita to really give it a close look. Not just an in-store demo unit, but one for me just so I can see just what's going in inside.
Much like my original iPad, it's size is huge compared to the tech that really drives it. Most of it is just pure battery and even more room to spare and why the iPad 2 lost a lot of weight in the process.