But Sony fans were very adamant that portable gaming was dead? What gives?

A portable with ps4 power and play all ps4 games in 2019 that cost 400$? Nope, a handheld like that will cost 500$ at least or even more. Nintendo also have 1 franchises that guarantees to be system seller: Pokemon

For mobile chipsets, yes, for full blown X86? No, were still stuck on 14nm with Zen and coffee lake. And we have been stuck on 14nm for three years by now. By the time cannonlake releases late next year it will be four years before the first 10nm chip is even on the market. This is far from being pretty much the standart. I was serious when I said 4-6 nm isn't even on any roadmap yet. There's absolutely no reason to expect them next year. We'll probably see 7nm in about five years.

As for your banchmarks. Firstly, thank you! Secondly, again the A10X is a 2017 chip going up against a 2015 chip. It has a more modern architechture and a die shrink. It should be better than Tegra. As for the X2, I'd expect NVIDIA to optimize the chip for gaming for Nintendo, as it is more geared towards machine learning and AI right now, but its hard to say. Overall, yeah Sony could get a mobile chipset toghether for a hybrid PS5, but it would sit between PS4 and PS4pro powerwise and I don't think that's a good look in Sonys marketposition.

We agree that Apple designs impressive chips though! ;) I'd love to see a strong Ipad pro next year, mostly because I'd be able to take my work on the go much more efficiently.

No. Unless you want a $500 portable ps4 in 3 years that is a good bit larger than the switch making it not very portable and has about two hours battery life. Sony is out of portables. Nintendo has and always will dominate the portable market.

I don't think they would release PS4 portable even if they want in next 3 years, form factor, heating and power, and battery life are all huge problems currently for potential PS4 portable.

I don't get it either. I have treid to ask this question a couple of different ways, and have seen multiple others make an attempt as well. For some reason it always breaks down to Sony splitting their resources between two platforms, and not having the ability to support a new portable.

Why people can't wrap their head around a PS4 Portable, that shares all resources with every other PS4 model is beyond me. In theory, it uses the same 7nm APU that will eventually be made for the PS4 Super Slim, it runs the same OS, and runs the same software and apps as any other PS4. It would cost Sony next to nothing in R&D, and as you said, even if it only reaches Vita like numbers it would be a successful product.

Again as you said, it is needed in Japan, especially if Sony wants to hold strong relations with 3rd parties. 

Here we go again... mobile chips still have to get a lot faster to deliver the performance of a PS4 or Xbox One, especially in the GPU department.

The PS4 is comparable to the performance of a Geforce GTX 760 or Radeon HD 7870... and these are 3 - 4 times faster than a docked android shield console or an iPhone 8/8S/X.... and these benchmarks are best case scenarios for mobile devices before their performance gets throttled down after a few minutes.

Handheld and home console games are depending on constant performance over hours, so take these 136 - 150 fps (depending on the A11-model) with a big grain of salt.

Also the advantage of the A10X and A11 over the Tegra X1 is less than you think in modern games. Where the Apple SoCs shine are aged GPU-benchmarks with OpenGL ES 2.0 (T-Rex + Ice Storm) which can't represent the demands of a modern graphics engine. As you can see below the Nvidia Shield TV catches up to the iPad Pro in the much more demanding SlingShot-benchmark, which uses OpenGL ES 3.1... the also demanding Car Chase benchmark is unfortunately not supported by iOS devices.

I really hope that a proper multi-OS Vulkan benchmark (iOS, Android, Windows, Linux) gets added to 3D Mark or GFX Bench soon.

https://gfxbench.com/compare.jsp?benchmark=gfx40&did1=26084812&os1=Android&api1=gl&hwtype1=GPU&hwname1=NVIDIA%28R%29+Tegra%28R%29+X1&did2=6091&os2=Linux&api2=gl&hwtype2=dGPU&hwname2=NVIDIA+GeForce+GTX+760&did3=22324593&os3=Linux&api3=gl&hwtype3=dGPU&hwname3=AMD+Radeon+HD+7870+GHz+Edition&did4=54321051&os4=iOS&api4=gl&hwtype4=GPU&hwname4=Apple+Inc.+Apple+A11+GPU&D5=Apple+iPad+Pro+%2810.5-inch%29

I think it would be really risky for Sony to start directly combating Nintendo again in the portable space.  They did that once and they did not meet expectations.  On the other hand, they have been battling Microsoft heavily the last few generations and have been winning by more and more.  I think they should continue to fight for that crown as there will always be a market for the top of the line graphic power.  It also gives them a good head start on the VR market which they are also making hefty gains. 

However, I will say that this entire thread reads like one of those pre-era threads just prior to some big announcement that proves everyone wrong.  I wouldn't completely write off any decision.  Sony has always presented knee-jerk reactions to Nintendo's successes in the past.  If they wanted to ever combat Nintendo in the portable space head on, this is the time to enter, however I think it would wiser to do what they are doing with their market and allow natural progression to lead them to a portable space later on.  Perhaps through a standalone headgear that unifies the VR market in ways no other company could another generation or two down the line.  As successful as Sony is though, they are just as guilty as other companies of not capitalizing on opportunities and preemptively making ill fated decisions, so who knows. Sure wish I could predict the future.  ;)

Hell I hope the PS4 has psp and vita BC. Sony really should have their own virtual console equivalent with psp, Vita, ps1 and ps2 games by now 

I agree, even if PS3 games can't be emulated on the PS4, there is no excuse for the lack of BC for the digital versions of PS1, PS2, PSP and Vita games already bought.