Does the PS Vita need a memory card? What kind of memory card does the PS Vita use? What size memory card should PS Vita use? In this post, MiniTool will give you answers. Keep reading to learn about that.
Introduction to PlayStation Vita
PlayStation Vita (officially referred to as PS Vita, some players refer to it as PSV) is a handheld game console sold by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCEI) on December 17, 2011, and was code-named Next Generation Portable (NGP) during development.
In addition to playing games, you can also use to it surf the Internet with 3G / WiFi enabled, listen to songs and watch movies, take photos, run software, use GPS positioning and navigation, etc.
PS Vita has two main models: PCH-1000 and PCH-2000. Compared with the PCH-1000 model, the PCH-2000 released in 2013 not only reduced weight and thickness, but also changed the screen from OLED to LCD and added 1GB of storage space.
Does the PS Vita Need a Memory Card?
Let’s come back to our topic—PS Vita memory card. Some people may wonder whether the PS Vita needs a memory card. The answer is YES. If you’ve got a PS Vita, you may need an extra storage.
Unless games stored all their save game data on the game card and you rely on a 100% physical game collection with no need for game patches or DLC, you must need an extra memory card.
The size of patches and DLC for many retail games as well as games from the PSN Store is not small. The 1GB of PS Vita PCH-2000 console is woefully inadequate, not to mention the original 1000 series PS Vita that came with no on-board storage.
Therefore, with most games having patches at one stage or another or using memory cards, you’re left with little choice but to get at least one card at some point.
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What Kind of Memory Card Does the PS Vita Use?
PS Vita canceled the UMD drive and retail games need to be downloaded into a memory card. Of course, players can also buy games in the PS Store and then download the games to the PS Vita memory card to play.
In order to prevent PS Vita from being hacked, PS Vita does not use usual SD cards to store data, but a dedicated PS Vita memory card.
The dedicated PS Vita memory card is different from ordinary memory cards. It uses different shape specifications and cannot be directly recognized by computers. Special management software is required.
But actually, the PS vita has been hacked by some users, at least the 2000 series. If you have hacked the PS Vita, you don’t need to use dedicated PS Vita memory card.
PS Vita Memory Card Capacity and Price
Sony provides PS Vita memory card with five sizes: 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. Then, what size you should choose? This depends on your needs and the price.
If your main interest is buying retail games, then all you really need is space for DLC and patches so a smaller card would suffice. 8GB card is OK. But if you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber and would buy and download games, 32GB or 64GB card is recommended.
As for the price, the dedicated PS Vita memory card is about 3 times expensive than the microSD card of the same capacity on average, and the speed is only about Class4. In a word, the cost performance is extremely low. Here is the selling price of the PS Vita memory card on Amazon:
- 4GB: $14.26
- 8GB: $14.35
- 16GB: $42.99
- 32GB: $71.99
- 64GB: $132.99
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Linda has been working as an editor at MiniTool for 5 years. She is always curious about computer knowledge and learns it crazily. Her articles are simple and easy to understand. Even people who do not understand computer can gain something. By the way, her special focuses are disk management, data recovery and PDF editing.