By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo Discussion - New Nintendo Patent For Portable NX (?)

Miyamotoo said:
TheWPCTraveler said:

Potential problems:

- Multitasking support. 2GB RAM means 1GB available to devs, a la Wii U. Increase it by one gigabyte further and then we'll talk.

- Physical controls. That'll not only make the bezels truly massive, that'll also limit space available.

- Processor: Let me guess, that's from MediaTek? Listen, I doubt that it actually runs at that speed for battery life, and I also doubt it's not one of those big.LITTLE processors where there are four cores that run fast and four cores that run slow for battery life optimization. And, well, GPU? CPU is only one part of the chipset.

Even if all eight cores ran at the same time, I doubt that devs will really he able to optimize for the hardware. That and HEAT PROBLEMS.

- Margins: Xiaomi makes cash off a hardware ecosystem, accessories and such, as far as I know. Nintendo doesn't, as such they'll probably need great margins on their hardware.

-We are talking about gaming handheld here. 3DS has 128MB RAM, Vita 512MB, Wii U 2GB RAM. 2GB of RAM is more than enough for gaming handheld.

-Offcourse that will have physical controls, I dont see any problem with that.

-Probably runs at that speed if there is need for that speed. I dont think Nintendo will use Octa Core at 2GHz for handheld but point is that's pretty impressive CPU for price of phone.

 

Nintendo always had good profit on hardware itself (till this gen), not to mention consoles accessories. My point is that pretty strong hardwar i available for only $150 so Nintedo could make also solid handheld for similar price. But Nintendo will probably go for 4 cores around 1.5GHz, 2GB Ram, 540-720p display..


Keep in mind that's a phone. Meaning a large chunk of its hardware budget is going to the baseband processor (the "cellular phone" part of the device). 

That's something Nintendo obviously won't need. Likely they don't need a 1080P screen either. Or 13MP cameras. 

I think Nintendo could demolish the hardware specs on that device, but yeah the rate at which mobile components are dropping in price is really something. 



Around the Network

Why is this NX or portable? It looks like something more along the lines of a Wii U controller.



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

twintail said:
Miyamotoo said:
About pontentional NX handheld power, this phone has IPS, 5.5", 1080p display, Octa-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53, 2GB RAM, 13 MP and 5 MP cameras, 3060 mAh battery, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS...all that for only around $150 price tag!
http://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_redmi_note_2-6992.php

Nintendo today can make killer handheld for around $150 price.

 

You still need to take into account the addition of physical buttons which will not only increase costs but take up space on the device , so getting something like that phone will be rather difficult. Likewise, unless Nintendo decides to just copy the DS/ 3DS or WiiU pad design, overall structure manufacturing will be more expensive than say this phone which doesnt look that much different to the other phones Xiaomi have made.

Still have to include things like adding physical media slot to the device (unless it wont have), and im sure Xiaomi can get their stuff at cheaper prices by being a Chinese company in the first place.

Plus some other things, I dont think you can use a phone as a gauge for a dedicated handheld device. 

Case in point, the 3DS released in 2011 at $250. In 2010 the HTC Evo 4G was $200 and it had lik 4 x the RAM among other better stats (someone can correct me if I am wrong here).

 

Of Course it will ad costs of physical buttons and sticks and space, but at end handheld could cost less than this phone because it doesn't need one 13MP rear and 5MP front cameras, doesnt need GPS, doesnt need call function, LTE, doesnt need 1080p display, doesnt need Octa-core 2GHz CPU..

I think I can use phone as gauge for dedicated handheld device because of hardware, display, CPU, RAM, battery...Nintendo will probably use lots of those things that are use on phones on handheld.

HTC Evo 4G was $200 but on 2 year contract. Specs of this phone are basically specs of flagship models from 2013. that had price around $600.



twintail said:
Miyamotoo said:
About pontentional NX handheld power, this phone has IPS, 5.5", 1080p display, Octa-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53, 2GB RAM, 13 MP and 5 MP cameras, 3060 mAh battery, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS...all that for only around $150 price tag!
http://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_redmi_note_2-6992.php

Nintendo today can make killer handheld for around $150 price.

 

You still need to take into account the addition of physical buttons which will not only increase costs but take up space on the device , so getting something like that phone will be rather difficult. Likewise, unless Nintendo decides to just copy the DS/ 3DS or WiiU pad design, overall structure manufacturing will be more expensive than say this phone which doesnt look that much different to the other phones Xiaomi have made.

Still have to include things like adding physical media slot to the device (unless it wont have), and im sure Xiaomi can get their stuff at cheaper prices by being a Chinese company in the first place.

Plus some other things, I dont think you can use a phone as a gauge for a dedicated handheld device. 

Case in point, the 3DS released in 2011 at $250. In 2010 the HTC Evo 4G was $200 and it had lik 4 x the RAM among other better stats (someone can correct me if I am wrong here).

 

Plastic buttons cost pennies ... it's not like they're some rare component. 

The phone form factor actually likely costs more, Nintendo uses cheap ass plastic, phones often times use higher end plastic, glass, and metals. 

The 3DS had a large cost because of the 3D screen that was new technology for that time and Nintendo overcharged by $50 hoping that people would go crazy over the gimmick and fork over money hand over fist. My guess is its production cost was more like $185 or so for that time, so they were making a fat profit at $250, but had to take a loss once they dropped it to $169.99. 



twintail said:
Miyamotoo said:

Of Course it will ad costs of physical buttons and sticks and space, but at end handheld could cost less than this phone because it doesn't need one 13MP rear and 5MP front cameras, doesnt need GPS, doesnt need call function, LTE, doesnt need 1080p display, doesnt need Octa-core 2GHz CPU..

I think I can use phone as gauge for dedicated handheld device because of hardware, display, CPU, RAM, battery...Nintendo will probably use lots of those things that are use on phones on handheld.

HTC Evo 4G was $200 but on 2 year contract. Specs of this phone are basically specs of flagship models from 2013. that had price around $600.

 

Soundwave said:

Plastic buttons cost pennies ... it's not like they're some rare component. 

The phone form factor actually likely costs more, Nintendo uses cheap ass plastic, phones often times use higher end plastic, glass, and metals. 

The 3DS had a large cost because of the 3D screen that was new technology for that time and Nintendo overcharged by $50 hoping that people would go crazy over the gimmick and fork over money hand over fist. My guess is its production cost was more like $185 or so for that time, so they were making a fat profit at $250, but had to take a loss once they dropped it to $169.99. 

 

The issue is that you arent taking into account the context of how Xiami can actually sell their phones at those prices, whereas every other smartphone provider cannot afford such low prices.

Its all very well to assume that you can use phones as gauge, but when the only example you can actually cite is but one single company, then your argument begins to fall short.  One of the major reasons why that Xiaomi phone is so cheap is because they sell the phones through their own webstore, and only through their webstore. That is a ton of different costs they can offset because they dont need to bother with staff management, distribution , retailer costs etc. They also dont do traditional marketting and instead just rely on social media. Another chunk of money that does not need to be weighted into the final pricing of the device.

Is Nintendo only going to sell the NX via their own online distribtuion? Of course not. Tons of added costs there that will be factored into its price.

is Nintendo going to not bother doing any marketing only rely on social media? Of course not. Again, tons of added costs. 

 

There are lots of things that go into determining the final price of a product. Thinking you can just look at 1 given product (and an anamoly at that) and assume that the price of different parts is all that determines the price of a product, means you are missing the bigger picture. 

OK, this phone is extreme example, but you have more examples with similar specs in price range of $150-200, and big difference is that are not charging brand name like Samsung, LG, Sony, HTC...

Big difrence is that gaming handheld doesnt need half of those things (13MP rear and 5MP front cameras, GPS, call function, LTE, 1080p display, Octa-core 2GHz CPU..).

Nintendo certainly will not use majority of specs of this phone, but my point is when company can make such beast for $150 price and again to have profit, Nintendo certanly can make handheld with weaker hardware (probably Quad-core 1GHz-1.5GHz, 2GB Ram, 540p-720p display...) with similar price point and to have profit.



Around the Network
twintail said:
Miyamotoo said:

Of Course it will ad costs of physical buttons and sticks and space, but at end handheld could cost less than this phone because it doesn't need one 13MP rear and 5MP front cameras, doesnt need GPS, doesnt need call function, LTE, doesnt need 1080p display, doesnt need Octa-core 2GHz CPU..

I think I can use phone as gauge for dedicated handheld device because of hardware, display, CPU, RAM, battery...Nintendo will probably use lots of those things that are use on phones on handheld.

HTC Evo 4G was $200 but on 2 year contract. Specs of this phone are basically specs of flagship models from 2013. that had price around $600.

 

Soundwave said:

Plastic buttons cost pennies ... it's not like they're some rare component. 

The phone form factor actually likely costs more, Nintendo uses cheap ass plastic, phones often times use higher end plastic, glass, and metals. 

The 3DS had a large cost because of the 3D screen that was new technology for that time and Nintendo overcharged by $50 hoping that people would go crazy over the gimmick and fork over money hand over fist. My guess is its production cost was more like $185 or so for that time, so they were making a fat profit at $250, but had to take a loss once they dropped it to $169.99. 

 

The issue is that you arent taking into account the context of how Xiami can actually sell their phones at those prices, whereas every other smartphone provider cannot afford such low prices.

Its all very well to assume that you can use phones as gauge, but when the only example you can actually cite is but one single company, then your argument begins to fall short.  One of the major reasons why that Xiaomi phone is so cheap is because they sell the phones through their own webstore, and only through their webstore. That is a ton of different costs they can offset because they dont need to bother with staff management, distribution , retailer costs etc. They also dont do traditional marketting and instead just rely on social media. Another chunk of money that does not need to be weighted into the final pricing of the device.

Is Nintendo only going to sell the NX via their own online distribtuion? Of course not. Tons of added costs there that will be factored into its price.

is Nintendo going to not bother doing any marketing only rely on social media? Of course not. Again, tons of added costs. 

 

There are lots of things that go into determining the final price of a product. Thinking you can just look at 1 given product (and an anamoly at that) and assume that the price of different parts is all that determines the price of a product, means you are missing the bigger picture. 


The prices of mobile tech are plummeting because of the rapid improvement/intense competetion of the smartphone/tablet business. A 1280x720 display used to be pretty nice and high end ... today it's the bottom of the barrell. RAM is cheap. Even the cutting edge processors are cheap.

The display is going to be the main cost of any portable device, if Nintendo can save costs there, plus not needing any of the phone/GPS/baseband processors), or high end cameras, that and things like metal/gorilla glass are the chief cost components of a smartphone/tablet. 

I see 8-inch tablets with higher resolution displays that even better GPUs than the Vita, with more RAM, and a higher capacity battery for cheaper than a New 3DS XL. 



A tablet with buttons and amiibo readers... insteresting



twintail said:
Miyamotoo said:

OK, this phone is extreme example, but you have more examples with similar specs in price range of $150-200, and big difference is that are not charging brand name like Samsung, LG, Sony, HTC...

Big difrence is that gaming handheld doesnt need half of those things (13MP rear and 5MP front cameras, GPS, call function, LTE, 1080p display, Octa-core 2GHz CPU..).

Nintendo certainly will not use majority of specs of this phone, but my point is when company can make such beast for $150 price and again to have profit, Nintendo certanly can make handheld with weaker hardware (probably Quad-core 1GHz-1.5GHz, 2GB Ram, 540p-720p display...) with similar price point and to have profit.

 

Are there many other phones similar to this? Because I have a hard time beliving there are any that are overall good quality. 

But thy can profit because of how little money they have to spend outside of manufacturing the phone. These external costs pile up for other companies and have a direct effect on the price of their products. 

Nintendo is not going to ignore the various avenues available to sell their product. Nor are they not going to spend money on a marketing campaign to advertise the product. These costs will affect the price of the handheld. 

Yes, maybe the NX doesnt need those sort of specs, but we have no idea what Nintendo wants out of the device. Maybe they do indeed want a 13MP camera. 

At the end of the day, even if its lower specs parts the yare going for it really depends on what kind of deal they get for them. And distribution and marketting  will play a part in what they finally sell at. Its not just about the parts. Its about the entire sell. and that is what determines the price point they go for. 

If they want to handheld to be popular they need affordable price in era of dirty cheap phones that can play games for free.

Nintendo will certainly not make expensive, or very strong handheld beacuse there is no need for that.



I'm kind of the opposite mind.

If the handheld is weak in terms of specs ... people are going to scoff at buying it to play $40 games.

If you want to sell $40 portable games in today's market they better damn well be very high end games in the era of free smartphone games.

I think they need to go upmarket, not with a cheapo handheld. This is a narrow view of thinking.

If cheap handhelds were the answer here, why is the 2DS and cheaper regular 3DS models floundering more or less and not giving the 3DS the boost that it needs sales wise?

Also the unified platform thing doesn't work if the handheld can't run any of the super-awesome console games without having to be completely remade basically because the power gap is so large. That's not a unified platform. That's the same shitty situation they're in now.



twintail said:
Miyamotoo said:
twintail said:
Miyamotoo said:

OK, this phone is extreme example, but you have more examples with similar specs in price range of $150-200, and big difference is that are not charging brand name like Samsung, LG, Sony, HTC...

Big difrence is that gaming handheld doesnt need half of those things (13MP rear and 5MP front cameras, GPS, call function, LTE, 1080p display, Octa-core 2GHz CPU..).

Nintendo certainly will not use majority of specs of this phone, but my point is when company can make such beast for $150 price and again to have profit, Nintendo certanly can make handheld with weaker hardware (probably Quad-core 1GHz-1.5GHz, 2GB Ram, 540p-720p display...) with similar price point and to have profit.

 

Are there many other phones similar to this? Because I have a hard time beliving there are any that are overall good quality. 

But thy can profit because of how little money they have to spend outside of manufacturing the phone. These external costs pile up for other companies and have a direct effect on the price of their products. 

Nintendo is not going to ignore the various avenues available to sell their product. Nor are they not going to spend money on a marketing campaign to advertise the product. These costs will affect the price of the handheld. 

Yes, maybe the NX doesnt need those sort of specs, but we have no idea what Nintendo wants out of the device. Maybe they do indeed want a 13MP camera. 

At the end of the day, even if its lower specs parts the yare going for it really depends on what kind of deal they get for them. And distribution and marketting  will play a part in what they finally sell at. Its not just about the parts. Its about the entire sell. and that is what determines the price point they go for. 

If they want to handheld to be popular they need affordable price in era of dirty cheap phones that can play games for free.

Nintendo will certainly not make expensive, or very strong handheld beacuse there is no need for that.

 

THey also need their handheld to not be poor in terms of specs. 

Depends on what you mean when you say poor. Vita hardware today is not strong but it's more than enuf for great looking games.