Just wondering about this, we know from comments from Iwata that the Wii U has a power draw of about 30-35w while running a game. 

It's also speculated/likely both the CPU and GPU for the Wii U are manufactured on the 40nm process. 

It looks like about half the entire Wii U casing is the disc drive: 

If you axe the disc drive and shrink the chipset to say the 22nm manufacturing process (talking about maybe a couple of years down the line), would integrating the Wii U chipset right into the controller be possible? Tech heads? What say you? 

The iPad 3 consumes about 10.3 watts when running Infinity Blade, if Nintendo can get their power consumption down to 10-15w (factoring in the screen as well), a portable Wii U should be possible in theory, no? 

No more handhelds PLEASE!! Ask the VITA she knows better.

We might see a "Wii U Gamepad like handheld" in the 3DS's successor.

Tho were talking about 2016-2017 here.

Except it wouldn't be like the Vita. 

It would have a TV output (wireless mostly likey) so it could still function as a home console, direct ability to run full PS3/360 level engines, and Nintendo franchises. 

The wii u is not more portable because they have the 3ds. No point in shooting themselves in the foot. But the next handheld they make will have hd.

3DS would be 4 years old, probably more than that before this would be feasible, this would be more like a tablet too.

Completely different size category, completely different price category.

3DS as well is not selling as well as the DS did in the Western markets too and even trending a bit below in Japan too, even though "well below the DS" is still decent.

If they added actual tablet functionality (Android or a comparable App market) something like that could be an actual "3rd pillar" for Nintendo in the future. Don't think making it just a portable Wii U would be a good idea, though. It seems like a fairly feasible idea, though.

Sure, If they discontinue the 3DS and bring this new portable to the market 3 years from now they could do it, tablets would have catched up to the WiiU by then so Nintendo might aswel release something similar.

I still see this as primarily a home use device, just something you can pick up and move around the house, with a 1280x720 resolution display (much superior to the current Wii U).

Something that on the road maybe gives you 4-5 hours of battery life. 

It would be more of a Wii U revision, but one that simply gets rid of the console box entirely, but we're talking something that would be more in the range of $299.99 w/64GB of storage.