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Doctor_MG on 07 October 2025
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Pemalite said:

With all due respect. Whether you are exhausted or not is not my concern.

If the only "exhaustive argument" that you have for the Switch not being a pure portable device is "Nintendo Marketing says otherwise" then you just don't have an argument. It's that simple. Literally that simple.
...Marketing has a history of not being factual.

The Switch and Switch 2 are designed as portable devices fire and foremost.

The Switch Lite for example literally removes support for the USB-C dock and HDMI passthrough. - Is that still a hybrid or fixed home console in your eyes?

So here is where you are tripping up.

You are not including the big picture here.
I am not purely focused on a single chip. I am focused on the entire concept and all it's internal components... The Mega drive didn't have an internal battery, it didn't have a built in display, it didn't have controllers built into the form factor... It didn't use mobile optimized internal components like low powered ram.

As for Home Consoles vs Arcade cabinets.
Arcade cabinets are fixed devices and some arcade cabinets actually used console hardware for their games or a derivative of such... Sega's NAOMI and Triforce hardware were based on the Sega Dreamcast console for example.

As for the Zilog Z80 processor... You are correct that it was used in home consoles and mobile devices.
...But you are also only half right.

The Zilog Z80 processor that was in mobile devices used an enhanced CMOS process optimized for power consumption.

It's like the mobile Core i7 being based on the desktop Core i7, it's power optimized employing extra features like extra power gating to completely shut-off idle parts of the chip (I.E. Chunks of cache, entire CPU cores etc') and various C-states to reduce voltage, amperage and frequency.
And sometimes made on a different power-optimized fabrication process.


"You are not including the big picture here.

I am not purely focused on a single chip. I am focused on the entire concept and all it's internal components..."

No you aren't, you specifically emphasize portable design and functionality (screen, battery, controllers "built in", etc) without consideration (or, rather, you excuse consideration) for home console functionality (separate controllers from the console, connection of additional controllers, HDMI out, multiple accounts, etc.). The entire concept IS a hybrid device. That is what it was designed to be. It HAS to use mobile components and have mobile features to accomplish that task otherwise it wouldn't have the ability to be hybrid. It ALSO has features of traditional home consoles. But it hits neither perfectly because of the nature of the console. 

Marketing is a factor in what we consider a product to be, and I don't know why you consider this to be null and void. 

You state the Switch was designed first and foremost to be a portable console, but do you KNOW that? Or is that your assumption based on the fact it can also be portable? Because everything Nintendo has stated about the design of the Switch is that they decided to make a console that is both a home console and a portable console very early on. In fact, originally they were working with the framework that it would be a home console, but wondered if they made it small enough could it also be portable. 

To me it seems you essentially fundamentally disagree with the idea that a hybrid game console can be created, and you suggest consoles can essentially only be one of two categories: stationary or mobile. Because even if the dock had additional hardware, you'd still have the same elements you claim to make it a portable (screen, battery, mobile chipset, etc). If that's true, then the rest of this conversation is pointless, because we have to at least be able to agree something can exist in order to have a discussion.