I'm a PC bro who wants to buy either a PSP or PSVita for handheld emulation. I know the PSP is a safe bet for that...

I'm a PC bro who wants to buy either a PSP or PSVita for handheld emulation. I know the PSP is a safe bet for that, but I really like the feel of the vita. Which one has more potential, and which one should I invest in?

PSP.
I have an activated PS Vita but I don't know whether that's that easy to accomplish anymore.

vita is the same as the psp but can also play vita games ( around 0)
if you buy a vita it has to be 3.6 or lower

For modding, PSP. Emulation is going to be restricted to like nes and arcadey shit

Those Vita's can't play the new games right?

If you can get a vita that's firmware 3.60 or lower go for that, otherwise psp

Don't expect much out of emulation from either of them. PSP's too old and Vita's too unoptimized.

correct, but vita has no games so it doesn't matter

The main thing I plan to play on these are PS1 games. Mostly RPGs and Survival Horror stuff.

Vita just falls back on its old PSP hardware for emulating PS1 games, with comparable compatibility and performance.

vita has two sticks

I bought this grip off Amazon recently, hasn't got here yet but I think the vita would easily win for ps1 with the grip. Reviews say it feels like a controller with it.

Either one is fine for PS1 emulation. Vita has a few more controller options since you can L2 and R2 with the back touchscreen. If the game requires those button it will be quite annoying to play with the PSP. The Vita sticks are also vastly superior to the PSP nipple.

Vita sticks are still pretty shitty compared to e.g. 3DS circle pad.
The dpad is where it's at. It's the best dpad I've used since the GBA SP.

I don't agree with this opinion. The 3DS circle pad is an abomination.

Have you used the 1000&2000? My 1000 sticks honestly are kinda disappointing, relatively speaking they're good, for mobile, but they feel like an anolog stick with only 8-12 true directions. I with it had better accuracy.

Vita sticks are so tiny, they're smooth and convex so your thumb slips off easily. I find the 3DS to be more comfortable and more precise.

They're both poor analog sticks but I don't like the restricted feeling of the 3DS and it becomes quite uncomfortable the longer I play. The Vita stick feels closer to a traditional analog stick but it's still pretty awkward because of the size.

Get a PSP 2000 or 3000 and get a memory stick duo to memory stick micro memory card for it.
Vita emulation is pretty much on par with PSP emulation since nobody cares to take the time or effort to code any emulators for it.

So PSVita can do everything the PSP does emulation and homebrew wise? Is it like the Wii U was when you hacked it, how it ran the homebrew through the wii channel?

Almost. A small number of homebrews don't work under the Vita's PSP mode, because it's missing the Media Engine coprocessor. So snes9xtyl_mecm won't work, you have to use the alternate snes9x_cm build or a Vita-mode emulator. Same for Daedalusx64,

Most stuff will work fine. Some stuff actually seems to run faster on the Vita.

That's good to know. It plays PSP games well right?

Yep, it's just as good as a PSP in that regard. Adrenaline is a fully featured PSP CFW for your Vita.

You don't need Vita activation anymore. Vita has some options for remote play from PC if you care.
If any Vita games interest you, it's probably not that much more expensive than a good condition PSP. If not, it doesn't offer any better emulation.

Why would you need emulation on your PSP 1k~3k if there are shit loads of games to play?

more games is never a bad thing

Well that's true.