Intrinsic said:
For me this is how I see it.
Its a hybrid because it can be used both as a home console and a portable and has everything out of the box to allow this.
Now if it didn`t have a dock and you had to buy a dock or cable seperately to make it work on a TV then I would call it exclusively a handheld.
Now if its hardware to run games was built into the dock and the dock had to be plugged in to the wall for it to work at all I would call it a home console.
So to me, what qualifies something as handheld or home console is where the hardware lies. If the device can work in its entirety without a TV or being plugged into a wall then its a portable. If it needs a TV and a wall plug then its a home console.
Another way to look at it; if you are in an empty house and want a gaming device, you walk into a store and spend $300 on a PS4, it will be useless to you when you get home because you still have to buy a TV. But that is all you will need to spend on the NS and you are good to go.
This is why I say the NS functions as a hybrid (something that can do both) but is designed from the ground up as a handheld. .One can say that its "home console" function is secondary since they are just a by product of secondary tech (dock) added to the box and since it will work in its entirety regardless of that added tech.
Its like a laptop. Laptops fall under the classification of Mobile PCs. No one calls them desktop PCs even though they can work and perform identically to a Desktop PC. We even have some laptops that are more powerful than desktop PCs but they are still not called desktops. I can take my laptop and plug it to my TV and even close the lid but still that does not make it a desktop even though its acting like one.
The reason for all this confusion is because there isn't an official name or classification for what kinda device the NS is. So naturally people will disagree on what it is since everyone is trying to shoehorn it into pre existing categories. I chose to look at it as a hybrid. Built like a handheld but designed to be both.
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