I saw a kid buying Blops2 for WiiU the other day and all I could think was man is he going to be disappointed when it finds out the online is dead 

Zelda and Mario did look very nice, but I don't think they look leaps and bounds ahead of Wii U's prettiest games. I'm gonna reserve judgement on Skyrim until we get confirmed direct feed footage of it running on actual hardware, for all we know, that could've been PS4/X1 gameplay.

And I was quite pleased to see a 3D Mario more akin to 64. It's the right direction for the series in my opinion, as today's gamers like their games to have a bit more scale, and I think there's a lot of pent-up fan demand for a true 64 sequel. If done right, could be a real system seller.

One thing pointed out in another thread is that Bethesda did say back in August that they would only really consider the NX (now the Switch) if it was around Xbox One in power.  So the fact they said that and are now voicing suport (keeping in mind they did not support the Wii U at all) is very encouraging.  

And what I like is this Mario looks to be taking notes from a lot of the 3D Marios.  I hope it keeps some of the best of all of them.  Having an old school 3D Mario but with power ups like 3D World that aren't super contextual would be fantastic imo.  

My concern is that the technology to fit an Xbox One worth of horsepower into a portable case like the one we saw in the Switch trailer just isn't there yet. You can pack in enough juice to surpass Wii U, but not by a massive amount.

And yeah, a 3D Mario that combines elements from various prior entries would be great, as long as it doesn't take its level design cues from 3D World.

Oh the tech is there.  Theoretically, the X1 could get you quite far with good cooling and customization.  With the Tegra X2, the possible performance is indeed at that Xbox One level.  But that assumes you can keep it cool and running efficiently.  Switch seems to have some cooling which makes me wonder what kind and how good.  It's really not a question of processor tech, more cost and also battery tech.  My concern is actually how much it will throttle when you unplug it cause you know it will have to.   But I think the cost one might be less than we think cause the Nvidia really needs a win for the Tegra brand after the Shields flopped, so I could see them giving Nintendo a sweeter deal than some would think.  We'll have to wait and see, but I'm optimistic.  

A 1.3 Teraflop GPU in a portable form factor would run too hot (no room for a fan or space to breathe) and drain the battery too fast. Even the new Xbox One Slim is several times the size of the Switch portable.

That's why I am concerned about the undocked performance.  When docked, I would not be surprised if the cooling is enhanced.  We also don't know if the portable has a fan or not.  It almost could, it's almost thick enough.  I've seen some pretty thin gaming laptops with good cooling.  The ASUS GL502 has ASUS's signature dual fan cooling in a .9 inch laptop (and that's .9 closed so more like .6 inch space for the fan).  Obviously laptops have more cubic space inside, but still, my point is a fan isn't out of the question.  The question is efficiency and whether it can maintain good cooling when unplugged.  Heat is the hurdle here, as in mobile it won't be able to use full power if the chip can't be kept cool efficiently.  Will be interesting to see.

A fan would add to the power problem though, as the battery, already being rapidly drained by the high-powered GPU, would have to expend even more energy to spin the fan.

And Nintendo has yet to confirm if the dock provides any performance boost.

Well whether it provides any performance enhancer is unknown, but I can almost guarantee you it will boost performance similar to how when you plug your laptop in the performance goes up.  Cause without the battery the worry about, the system can run on all cylinders constantly.  When unplugged, I am thinking it will throttle like a laptop does, slowing things down.

Could be interesting if the Switch had a feature where rather than just throtttle the power consumption and let the performance drop, it also throttled settings like resolution or even graphics settings.  Basically, switching the game to a "Switch Mobile Mode."  I would think they would need to work with developers to put such a mode in games but it might be worth it to have a seamless transition that keeps acceptable performance levels.

And of course, I want to know if it is possible to plug the Switch into some form of power supply while in mobile mode.  if so, then for long term uses like airplane rides, it could work even with limited battery potential.