I kinda wonder if the console NX might be portable itself too, much like the PSOne mini could be hooked up to an LCD screen or the PC Engine LT was.
Today that concept is far more feasible especially if they're using mobile components just scaled up and you have no disc drive.
If there's a LCD screen "terminal" described in some patents, perhaps you can connect the console right to it and then use it like a small gaming laptop (or perhaps the form factor is more like the Wii U tablet).
Nintendo has seemed to be obsessed with for years in making a console somewhat portable. The GameCube had a handle so it could be moved around and carried to other houses/rooms. The Wii U obviously tries to be a quasi-portable, so maybe the console NX finally just becomes a full on portable. The handheld variant would be different because it would be smaller/cheaper/more pocket friendly (thus occupying the role of the more traditional 3DS successor).
Iwata also said in the design stage of the Wii U they experimented with having the console chipset actually inside the controller so it would effectively be fully portable, but it likely wasn't possible to do that back then. Now that you have 14/16nm mobile chips that are quite powerful, that suddenly becomes a possible idea. It could even have an internal power supply that's rechargable.
There has to be something more to this, so maybe that's it. Nintendo does love to revisit past ideas or things they weren't able to do in the past due to technology constraints.
