Sony's new Xperia gaming phone adds fresh dirt on the PS Vita's grave

Sony's latest gaming smartphone has pretty much ensured the PlayStation Vita will stay dead.

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10 years ago, Sony made both smartphones and gaming handhelds; the Xperia and the Vita line co-existed and served different markets. Nowadays the Vita has been rendered largely obsolete by the power and utility of today's smartphones. After 7 years on the market, Sony has decided that dedicated handheld gaming peripherals just aren't worth it.

PlayStation was noticeably absent from Tokyo Game Show 2022, but Sony's Xperia smartphone segment debuted an interesting device. The latest Xperia 1 IV Gaming Edition smartphone adds fresh new soil to the Vita's grave. The Xperia 1 IV Gaming Edition packs on an extra 4GB of RAM onto the base Xperia 1 IV handset to deliver serious hardware specs and performance targets; outfitted with a massive 16GB of DDR5-3200MHz RAM, Qualcomm's powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, and a 120Hz screen with 240Hz touch scanning, the new Xperia gaming edition was built specifically for pro players (namely F2P mobile games).

Sony has also made a separate peripheral that comes with specially-designed Xperia Stream hardware--a portable handheld dock with a built-in cooling fan, LAN ports, and even HDMI out for streaming.

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Like the rest of the Xperia lineup, this particular handset is quite expensive. The Xperia 1 IV retails at $1,600 and that's not including the extra gaming peripheral, which costs about $150 on its own.

Designed in collaboration with professional eSports players, the Xperia 1 IV Gaming Edition combines Xperia Stream gaming gear, featuring a total cooling system, with customisable settings, live streaming and more.

• High-performance gaming gear designed in collaboration with pro gamers
• Total cooling system lets you play for longer
• HDMI, LAN and USB-C ports for stable gaming
• 3.5mm audio jack for your favourite gaming headset
• Game enhancer control optimises cooling automatically