Vita battery life is 3-5 hours

The PlayStation Vita's battery gives you between three and five hours of gameplay, Sony has announced.

That extends to five hours of video playback or nine hours of music playback, if in standby mode. It'll take approximately two hours and 40 minutes to charge from empty.

Sony has also released a full spec sheet for its new handheld, which is due out in Japan on 17th December. Here's the rundown:

• Model number: PCH-1000 series
• CPU: ARM® Cortex™-A9 core (4 core)
• GPU: SGX543MP4+
• Main memory: 512MB
• VRAM: 128MB
• External Dimensions: Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)
• Weight Approx: 279g (3G/Wi-Fi model), 260g (Wi-Fi model)
• Screen: 5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED, Multi touch screen (capacitive type)
• Rear touch pad: Multi touch pad (capacitive type)
• Cameras: Front camera, Rear camera; Frame rate: 120fps@320x240(QVGA), 60fps@640x480(VGA); Resolution: Up to 640x480(VGA)
• Sound: Built-in stereo speakers, built-in microphone
• Sensors: Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Threeaxis electronic compass
• Location: Built-in GPS (3G/Wi-Fi model only), Wi-Fi location service support
• Keys/Switches: PS button, power button, directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left), action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square), shoulder buttons (Right/Left), right stick, left stick, START button, SELECT button, volume buttons (+/-)
• Wireless communications: Mobile network connectivity (3G/Wi-Fi model only), 3G modem (data communication): HSDPA/HSUPA *specification for Japanese region, IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1x1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode), Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR （A2DP/AVRCP/HSP）
• Slots/Ports: PlayStation®Vita card slot, memory card slot, SIM card slot (3G/Wi-Fi model only), multi-use port (for USB data communication, DC IN, Audio [Stereo Out / Mono In], Serial data communication), headset jack (Stereo mini jack) (for Audio [Stereo Out / Mono In]), accessory port
• Power: Built-In Lithium-ion Battery: DC3.7V 2200mA, AC adaptor: DC 5V
• Operating environment temperature: 5℃～35℃
• Supported AV content format: Music - MP3 MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer 3, MP4 (MPEG-4 AAC), WAVE (Linear PCM). Videos - MPEG-4 Simple Profile (AAC), H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High/Main/Baseline Profile (AAC). Photos - JPEG (Exif 2.2.1), TIFF, BMP, GIF, PNG

The system will ship with a USB cable, AC adaptor and power chord. 4, 8, 16 and 32GB memory cards will be available separately.