I consider the last console to be the Gamecube. The way I see it, Microsoft and Sony have never sold consoles. The PlayStation and Xbox home platforms, are computer entertainment and productivity devices. PlayStation's mobile products have been mobile comunications, entertainemt, and productvity devices. Since the DS and Wii, even Nintendo platforms have went on to become multimedia hubs.

With that said, here is the question I have, Are smartphones = pcs?

In Japan yes. Everywhere else...

The Famicom (NES) and Super Famicom (SNES) had broader multimedia functionality in Japan too. 

The point wasn't to include smartphones into handhelds, the point was to either include all devices that people game on in the discussion about who is the "king" in a gaming market, or seperate all of them in the normally used groups (and no vgchartz is not the only place that makes this distinction, other places do it too and when console makers talk about console marketshare they are also making the distinction between handheld and console) of dedicated handhelds, consoles (+ PC) and smart devices. But the person that I had this discussion with wanted to desperately make Nintendo the king of the japanese gaming market (in a reply to someone clearly talking about consoles), so he decided that handhelds and consoles had to be put together, but that smartphones didn't count.

So this whole thing had nothing to with "Sony-fans being defensive".

Well, I meant power cable and transformator (power brick). Some older handhelds didn't use that, but instead changeable batteries. And actually no technical reason is barring home consoles from living without power supply. You build one with an akkumulator like an laptop. If your wife wants to watch a movie on the main rooms TV, you could pause your game, unplug the console and plug it into the sleeping room TV to game on. That would be technically possible. The only reason we don't see such features is that manufacturers don't see it bringing much sales.

What's funny is the fixation on TV in some posts. What if PS5 only uses Playstation VR and doesn't plug into TV, is it a console any longer? Even a PS4 that is never used with the TV but only with VR, is it still a console based on the definition of plugability to the TV?

When I say "make phone calls," I really mean, "make direct communication across someone who's contact information has been mutually recieved." Phone calls, text messages, IMs, emails, video calls, etc. That is what people buy smartphones for. Everything else is mearly icing. If Apples next iPhone game with a free controller periferal and better games, but removed the ability to send any emails or text, their phone business would be over.

Then am I...

...A handheld?

Well, you still don't see my point. If you say handhelds aren't consoles, but differentiate between handhelds and smartphones (as you seemingly do), nothing changes if you say handhelds are also consoles. The differentiation to smartphones still works. It just doesn't matter. So bringing up smartphones is just not helpful at all. If we discuss if handhelds are consoles too it doesn't change anything in the relation of smartphones to the two. If you say smartphones aren't counted as consoles ONLY because they don't plug into a TV, then you currently demand that VGC has on the main site iphones and android next to 3DS and Vita.

And to your discussion with one Nintendo fan - you said before: "I've seen it argued a couple times by Nintendo fans". So you make this a Nintendo-Sony issue while in reality it is only a Kurt issue (assuming your Nintendo fan is called Kurt). You shouldn't have brought up Nintendo and Sony at all (as you shouldn't have brought up smartphones). This type of generalization is made fun of in this comic: https://xkcd.com/385/

That's pretty silly. If anything, call them "smart consoles." They're still consoles. Their primary funtions are still playing video games. It's silly not to consider them consoles just because they can do more than just play video games.

And yeah, smartphones are PCs.

Wait, I'm sorry. Smartphones are = PCs.

Yes, but we normally use the term "console" for homeconsoles.