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Soundwave on 17 September 2015
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spemanig said:
Soundwave said:

There's no way of really knowing right now. Besides what exactly is wrong with that layout? I think it's the most functional and probably the most practical. 

Having to have two screens just so you can have a touch panel is incredibly inefficient today, it costs more money, takes up size in the unit (so you have less heat dissipation for your chipset), makes the system heavier, and eats battery life even in games where it does practically nothing. 


It doesn't have two screens and it doesn't have enough buttons to offer BC with the N3DS, DS, or play NX games since the console will need to have a controller with a screen and have enough buttons to play Wii U, and all VC games. A single screen handheld, or console, is 100% not happening. There's no way of really knowing if you're thick and blind.

We've gone over this already. The two screens are important for more than just the touch panel, and it most definitely is not inefficient. It's important for BC, cross compatibility, a more efficient HUD, and better inventory management, and a less ubstruction to the gameplay because you aren't constantly blocking the primary screen with your fingers. It's still cheap, two screens are still small enough to be portable and comfortable, the system will be more than light enough, and the battery life is more than adequate. Pros vastly outweigh the cons.

The cost of a second touch panel is not immaterial, touch panels + LCDs are hands down the most expensive components in a handheld, and they don't come for free, removing the second panel can be the difference between the main processor being far more powerful or having double the RAM. 

If Nintendo wants a Wii U level handheld, and I think that is what indeed they are going for, then there are thermal/heat concerns to worry about too, even Apple can't put the Apple A8X processor into the iPad Mini just yet because it runs too hot, so having that space freed up from the second touch panel for heat disperation and/or a much larger battery (which in turn allows for a much more powerful chip) would definitely be vital. 

This concept (not exactly like this, but the general idea) of a twist screen DS that uses one large touch panel

Could work. Maybe not exactly like that, but there's probably a way to get the display to swivel or even be repositioned by the user vertically. It would save Nintendo money that could be put back into having a better chipset/more RAM/better battery. There's a reason why the 2DS has a single panel display ... because it's cheaper.