Something else to add to the discussion is that "power levels" get ambiguous when you compare the mid-gen refreshes of the 8th gen to the Series S.
Depending on metric of choice you'll get different answers: Image quality? The last gen refreshes tend to have higher native resolutions in cross-gen games than the Series S. Performance? Due to their slow CPU's, the Series S is able to outperform the last gen refreshes when it comes to average framerates and stability. Graphics quality? The Series S is capable of more modern features than the mid-gen refreshes.
This is important, because like the Series S, the Switch 2 (given the current speculation) is probably going to outperform the mid-gen refreshes in certain areas, but not others (definitely not image quality.)
I think with the Switch 2 we'll see soft images, slightly softer than what we see with the Series S, but in terms of performance and graphics features it'll outclass the mid-gen refreshes when docked.
So if we were to separate out these three "scores", it is likely going to be something like:
1. feature/graphics quality: Steam Deck < Mid-gen refreshes < ROG Ally < Switch 2* <~ Series S (Switch 2* might see more ray-tracing support than Series S, despite being a half GPU-tier worse in rasterization, due to the Nvidia chip)
2. image quality: Steam Deck < Rog Ally ~ Switch 2* handheld (although the image will look better on small screen) < PS4 < Switch 2 docked < Series S < 8th gen refreshes
3. performance (defined mostly by stability at target framerate): 8th gen refreshes < Steam Deck ~ Rog Ally ~ Switch 2 (docked and handheld) < Series S.
Then you have the PS5 and XBS X in a tier above all of these low-end platforms with mid-tier (~ RTX 3060; ~ RX 5700xt) gaming PC's.
Then above them you have two more tiers of gaming PC's which we could call: high-end (RTX 3070 and better; RX 6700 and better) and "enthusiast" (RTX 3090/4070ti and better; RX 6900 and better.)
*Note: when I say Switch 2 this is with the assumption it will have a T239 and would be roughly comparable or slightly better than an RTX 2050 25W.
Last edited by sc94597 - on 16 November 2023
