I can't see why HDR contrast would be a bad thing for a handheld aside from the battery issues but luminosity doesn't need to be the focus, HDR is so much more than that. I suppose as long as they have an OLED screen, that'll do the same job.  

Digital Foundry is one of the least bias outlets out there.

If you cared to read, I acknowledged that.

Correct. They do.
And going from 12GB of Ram to 16GB of Ram is an irrelevant issue in regards to price, because it's only a few dollars, but the benefits are huge.

I never claimed that an M.2 drive runs hotter or cooler than a SD card running at 100MB/s, but like I alluded to prior, M.2 drives are not drives you throw into your pocket because they are naked PCB's prone to things like static, bending and other forces.

Heat isn't the issue like you originally claimed however.

And "slots" themselves can be passively cooled anyway, which M.2 drives are often happy with.

I never claimed I had an idea on costings outside of the Ram example I outlined earlier.
I literally agreed with you multiple times that we have no idea on actual costs as the hardware has not been released.

But like I argued prior, it also doesn't matter.

I am a consumer... And as a consumer we should ALWAYS demand more and better hardware from these multi-billion dollar companies, to argue otherwise is anti-consumer.

Apple is exclusive to Apple.

Qualcomm however is another story... The issue there though isn't the CPU capability, but the GPU capability, AMD in the mid-range is still in another league in terms of capability.
In saying that... AMD is adopting ARM and rolling out chips based on it, which could be a lucrative option for the next Xbox or Playstation.
https://siliconangle.com/2023/10/23/nvidia-amd-reportedly-developing-arm-based-pc-processors/

But x86 isn't being dropped, far from it. Zen5 and Zen6 are coming which should bring with it tangible improvements to performance per watt.

I would argue Unreal Engines TSR offers the better option currently.

XESS has made massive gains... And FSR is still... Well. FSR.
But these technologies are still in their infancy relatively, give them a few more years and it will look even more interesting.

The idea is to roll it into the pipelines, AMD is already setting itself up with that by going VLIW2 in a ways, again.
Keep in mind that GPU's have already had low-precision floating point and integer support for over a decade at this point, so technically all GPU's can be "A.I" chips.

The other option is to include a small, discreet NPU engine on a graphics chip that doesn't require firing up the rest of the GPU to activate, but still have the real A.I hardware baked into the pipelines.

I would rather not go down that path as I don't like the idea of an NPU engine eating into silicon space that could be used for more Ray Tracing or Shader cores, but it's one way to get a handle on the power side of the equation.

It's a good idea to watch the PC space as that is where the innovation is occurring on this front, with A.I being the hot buzz word, Intel and AMD rolling out A.I capabilities in their CPU's, we are in for an interesting few years.

And honestly, I don't think it's going to fizzle out like with the 3D fad, it's being baked into hardware and software at every level.

Potentially yes.

However in Microsoft's case, they have kept everything fairly high-level so the hardware is less relevant, they can use binary translation for compatibility... Which will come at the cost of power and performance, but the improved hardware should make up that difference.

I mean we have had Intel Atom x86 tablets running Android and were able to run ARM compiled software just fine before.

Give or take. Yes.

I have OG Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Xbox Series titles all on the one device, well over 2,000 titles.

Same issue I have on PC and Playstation 5 though, but the Playstation 5 to a lesser extent as I don't have it loaded with PS1, PS2 and PS3 titles.

My Switch Library is probably the smallest, but I still need a larger SD Card, 2tb SD Cards aren't common yet, hopefully they enter the market before Nintendo Switches it's online services off.

I have everything installed and updated, I don't like wasting my time installing/updating games.

Don't ever use an SD card for cold storage, it uses NAND which is prone to bit-flipping and thus can lose it's data.

I just think, the switch and switch 2, being as limited as they are, HDR (at the very least in handheld mode) is a waste.

Better and wider colour gamut, and contrast, is a good thing..... the upsides of HDR.
The higher brightness (in areas) can allow for much more lifelike and believable scenes.

However its slightly more demanding on the gpu (HDR tonemapping), and on the screen (monitor/tv) it usually uses more power than a screen without.
*edit:  They keep makeing advances in technology.... a few years ago, there was a bigger differnce between HDR use and not for powerconsumption, than today.

Even Oled vs LED.... at the same brightness levels, consume more power.
However the visual upgrade haveing richer darks, has might be worth that trade off.

I just think, the switch and switch 2, being as limited as they are, HDR (at the very least in handheld mode) is a waste.
The same way I would say Raytraceing on the Switch, in handheld mode, would be stupid as well.... its got a 15watt target it needs to fit into.... and raytraceing is too demanding to be spending limited wattage budget on it.

I tested the animated main menu of Ori 2 on my Steam Deck OLED with various settings.

HDR off, (1280x800, 60 fps/Hz, graphics: high, no dynamic resolution):

• minimal display brightness: 11.9 watts (looks better than HDR on with minimal brightness)
• half display brightness: 12.1 watts
• full display brightness: 12.4 watts (up to 600 nits)

HDR on, (1280x800, 60 fps/Hz, graphics: high, no dynamic resolution):

• minimal display brightness: 12.5 watts
• half display brightness: 12.7 watts (looks much better than HDR off with full brightness)
• full display brightness: 13.3 watts (up to 1000 nits)

HDR off, (1280x800, 90 fps/Hz, graphics: high, no dynamic resolution):

• minimal display brightness: 17.5 watts (looks better than HDR on with minimal brightness)
• half display brightness: 17.7 watts
• full display brightness: 18.0 watts (up to 600 nits)

HDR on, (1280x800, 90 fps/Hz, graphics: high, no dynamic resolution):

• minimal display brightness: 20.1 watts
• half display brightness: 20.3 watts (looks much better than HDR off with full brightness)
• full display brightness: 20.8 watts (up to 1000 nits)

HDR off, (1280x800, 45 fps / 90 Hz, graphics: high, no dynamic resolution):

• minimal display brightness: 10.0 watts (looks better than HDR on with minimal brightness)
• half display brightness:  10.1 watts
• full display brightness: 10.5 watts (up to 600 nits)

HDR on, (1280x800, 45 fps / 90 Hz, graphics: high, no dynamic resolution):

• minimal display brightness: 10.5 watts
• half display brightness: 10.7 watts (looks much better than HDR off with full brightness)
• full display brightness: 11.2 watts (up to 1000 nits)

So in the 10 - 13 watts tests, HDR only adds 0.5 - 0.9 watts, depending on the display brightness.
In the results of 17 watts and above, HDR adds 2.6 - 2.8 watts... that probably includes the higher fan speed for cooling.

Then you just re-download the game if your SD Card has an issue, it's not that big of a deal. You should be able to keep your save files on the main storage.

You should be able to keep your save files on the main storage.

I've used SD Cards with the Switch and even prior to that for years and have never had a problem.

This isn't just an issue for Switch 2, for PS5/XBox most people are already not keeping all their games actually downloaded all at once on their internal storage. 

It's simply the reality of an industry that's going all digital, you keep the games you play most on board, delete stuff you don't play as much in the moment, if you want to revisit those games you can always put it on cold storage or back up or redownload it. 

The important thing for Switch 2 is the main storage is large enough to handle any single kind of game, that way the publisher can port to the system and be assured a player if they really want to can play the digital only version of the game without needing an add-on SD Card or whatever. 

But I get your point.  Based on rumors/leaks, the Deck 2 and Ally 2 will outclass the S2 with ease..  but neither of them will have Nintendo S2 1st party games.

I never realised it took more graphics power. Maybe they can personalise the screen to look similar like some TV's that have that fake HDR dynamic preset, have to assume they'll use OLED also. 

If Nintendo and Nvidia are going to use 4nm, it would be wise for them to adopt Lovelace as is rather than go through the trouble and port the Samsung Ampere to tsmc.

Downloading a Terabytes worth of data is not a 5 minute job.

Or via Cloud... If it wasn't hidden behind a pay wall.

Anecdotal evidence is only evidence for anecdotes.
In short... Your argument here is completely irrelevant.

The electrical charge stored in NAND's cells discharge over time. This is a blatant fact, we are beholden to the laws of Physics, your anecdote cannot erase this fundamental fact.

Factors that accelerate the issue are: How often it's used/recharged, current wear rate, temperature it's stored at, silicon quality, geometry transistor size and more.

There is a reason -why- data centers don't use NAND Flash to store data for archival purposes, it's extremely unreliable... Anyone who argues otherwise literally has no idea.

It's also the reason why consoles like the WiiU will brick themselves if you don't use them.
https://www.techpowerup.com/305736/long-term-nintendo-wii-u-owners-experiencing-bricked-systems

Playstation 5 and Xbox Series has the option of augmenting their storage with non-NAND options.

I was a PC gamer living in the digital-only world years before consoles went digital.

It's convenient having a wide-array of titles installed and updated and ready to play.

Again... I don't have the time nor care factor to install and update a title because I feel like playing it on a whim, that crap can take hours... I've literally turned my console off and jumped on my PC because of that inconvenience.

No. It's important to hold multiple large games. Not singular.

It's a portable device first and foremost, cellular data tends to be relatively expensive compared to other options, you aren't going to uninstall a 100GB+ game and download another 100GB+ game to play on the bus.

Not an issue if you can have both installed.

You haven't been paying attention then. PC has been getting Switch exclusives... And sometimes even before release date on Switch.
Legalities are a little bit meh, but they are available.. And run and look better.

It does. It's why Microsoft increased the clockrates on the Xbox One S over the base Xbox One.

Honestly, I am okay with Ampere, it's capable with the features like Ray Tracing.
I just want more Ram to let the current hypothetical ampere-based GPU breathe.

And going Ampere would certainly be a cost-cutting measure as it's not the latest and greatest nVidia has to offer, so Nintendo likely got a good deal on the SoC's.