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Soundwave on 06 February 2015
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curl-6 said:
Soundwave said:

1280x720 screen should be cheaper than dirt next time out. If Nintendo drops 3D, that will save them a lot in cost, battery life, and processing power that 3D eats up.

If the GPU is designed to be in the ballpark of a Wii U, which certainly would be possible by 2016, then you want a decent screen on the thing.

A sub HD screen in 2016 when even $150 tablets will have HD displays will just be laughable, Nintendo can't live on their own island any more. Maybe when the more expensive PSP was the only competition, sure that worked, but in today's world flooded with tablets and smart devices, consumers, even kids know a cheap quality display when they see one.

Isn't feeding a 720p screen with Wii U quality graphics going to draw quite a bit of power by handheld standards, though, and lead to a lowered battery life?

Though I suppose falling short of HD will cost them the marketing opportunity to name it the "HDS". :P


Not really IMO. You have to remember things like the iPad run at a resolution much higher than 1080p (forget about 720p) and run decent looking games at that resolution to boot. 

By late 2016, Nintendo should be able to get a chip better than the Apple A8 that's in modern iPhones/iPads fairly easily. 

Just because the screen is 1280x720, doesn't neccessarily mean every game has to run at that resolution either. Say a port of Zelda U might run at 960x540 on the handheld, whereas something simpler like say a 2D Kirby game (for example) could run at 1280x720. '

It's also why 3D likely will get cut though ... axing 3D means the screen is cheaper, requires much less back light (so better battery life), and less processing power to render images in 3D. Maybe they could release a 3D version later on when costs decrease but I think it's important they get about Wii U level processing power in the first version of their next handheld. 

I also don't think DS/Wii or will be anywhere in the brand/naming next time out. Probably one unified name/brand that they can share between devices.