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Soundwave on 14 February 2017
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Miyamotoo said:
Peh said:
I have my share of doubts that Nintendo will release something like that. First, a smaller form factor will need also smaller Joy-Cons, which are already pretty small for most people.
We cannot determine how full of tech the device is, but making the already expensive HD Rumble even smaller, will only increase the cost.
Same goes probably for the display with a higher ppi, unless they reduce the resolution which all the games has to be also adjusted to it, meaning larger text and HUD.
A smaller device will come with a smaller battery. So, by having the same specs, the portable fun time will decrease.

So, making it smaller and cheaper will probably not be possible.
But, the current Switch is already open for a price cut.

They have lost a possibility, for instance, they can easily release Switch "Mini" without Joy Cons, or whitout some HD Rumble, or built in Joy Cons, in order to have more affordable price point.

Display isn't problem in any case, having 5-5.5" with 720p resolution is very easy to imagine, I dont think there would be problem with text or HUD.

Smaller device would come with smaller battery, and smaller screen uses much more less battery than bigger, and they can certainly cut some staffs because device wouldnt run in docked mode like regular Switch.

On the contrary, making Switch smaller and cheaper just for handheld gaming is very possible, and actually almost certain thing that Nintendo will do.

Going with a lower battery really doesn't save that much. The difference between say a 2500 MaH battery and a 4800 MaH battery is like maybe $3-$4 of savings at a manufacturing level. 

Ditching the Joycons would save them money, but I don't think Nintendo will be willing to do that, it may also cause compatibility problems, like what about games that use custom Joycons? Or motion control? Or the IR camera? 

3DS - 2DS didn't make games unplayable, such a revision would however. 

What's the point really anyway? The plastic HDMI dock is dirt cheap, and even if they're dumb enough to not be able to figure out how to make an HDMI dock cheap, they could just figure out a cheaper way, or just the USB-C to HDMI cable. Simple, cheap.