While Sony has openly talked about winding down its support for the PS Vita, calling it a “legacy platform” it also appears the company is at least considering making a few tweaks and changes to the design of the device. Recently released documents at the FCC shows that the PS Vita 2000 is being slated for a few updates.
Before anyone gets overly excited, it doesn’t appear the tweaks are going to be bringing a totally new and refreshed version of the handheld console. Rather the changes filed with the FCC will improve on the design a bit. The full implications of the changes filed with the agency aren’t really known, considering that Sony hasn’t actually made an official statement about these filings.
According to the FCC report, the software version for this version of the Vita will be changed from 2.0 to 2.2 and the major change that was laid out in the report is, “Antenna and non-transmitter circuit changed from the original device.” It also appears that the other changes are minor but could be significant when it comes to the performance of the device.
The manufacturer of the LAN adapter is no longer an in-house plant run by Sony, now the company is Foxconn (yes the same Foxconn that has had a longstanding relationship with Apple) and the Bluetooth antenna gain has been changed from -2.1 dBi to 0.73 dBi. When looking at all the changes put together, there are some that have clearly been done in order to reduce manufacturing costs. Other changes however seem to indicate Sony might not be ready to give up on the PS Vita just yet. Check out the full PDF report of the filing here.