PlayStation Vita Slim shows off thinner, lighter design (photos)

The Sony PlayStation Vita has been given a slimmer, lighter design for 2014, promising improved battery life as well. The PS Vita Slim is already available in Japan and is making its way to UK stores on 7 February for around £180. Sony has yet to confirm whether it will see a US launch.

The new Vita is around 15 per cent slimmer than the previous model.

It's about 20 per cent lighter too, which should really help cut down on the weight of your airplane carry on.

Aesthetically, you'll still recognise it as the same Vita you know and love.

The touch-sensitive rear panel is still in place.

Along with the dents on either side, which help to get a firm grip.

Sony has replaced the proprietary charger with a micro-USB port, allowing you to use the same chargers you probably have knocking around from your phones and tablets.

A 3.5mm headphone jack still sits on the bottom. Make sure to use headphones when playing games unless you want an entire plane full of people to hate you.

The 5-inch display keeps the same impressive resolution, but it now uses LCD rather than OLED technology. OLED displays are typically top-notch, so it'll be interesting to see how this LCD panel compares to its predecessor.

The Vita Slim keeps the same button arrangement as before, so you won't need to get used to anything new.

The analogue sticks felt just as comfortable to flick around as before.

The transparent shoulder buttons remain the same as well.

The slimmer design made it feel more comfortable to hold in our hands-on time. We'll see how much impact the weight reduction has in the full review.

It keeps the same internal specifications, although it now has a built in 1GB of storage.

It comes with Wi-Fi built in for you to download new titles.

Oh look, some volume keys. Those will be handy for, y'know, changing the volume.

Sony reckons you can get up to six hours of gaming from a single charge. We'll put that claim to the test.