Well. Nomad was a console converted to a handheld that could dock with a TV like the original Genesis. Same hardware.

IMO, the key thing about the Switch, and by extension the entire concept of "Hybrid" platforms, is that they can be played as a handheld or connected to a TV using JUST what is what is sold in the base package. In the Switch's case, that is the Docking unit, though this means that the Switch Lite is a pure Handheld.

The PSP could connect to televisions via video output, but to my knowledge, that required extra equipment not included with the hardware. In contrast, the Sega Nomad DID come with the wires necessary to connect to TV's, and thus can be considered an early Hybrid platform.

This is largely arbitrary, but so are things like the distinction between generations or genres.

So if internal hardware is what differentiates a home console and a portable, then that would mean the Switch is a handheld being ARM based.

Fine with me just saying Nomad is just a Genesis with batteries so the hardware dates back to when it was just a console.

At some point in future, PS5 will be able to have a portable factor, just like every console that couldnt be made as handheld during their time in market

I mean technically you could play Game Boy games on the TV for ages too (since 1994). You can play smartphone games on your TV too. I mean if you want to call those consoles too, it's just a matter of semantics at some point.

When I think of a console experience, what I feel the PSP was missing is partially the lack of convenience of not being sold as such (the cable for the TV not included), but also primarily that it doesn't come with a controller. By controller I mean something at least somewhat ergonomic for its time.

There's only a handheld experience when controlling the PSP.
Due to the form factor and the one "analogue stick" (which was more like a nub) not being something you'd expect from a console experience in that era.

If Switch wasn't sold with the dock, and it didn't come with the thing that lets you connect the joycons into a controller, I wouldn't consider it a console. Switch Light was such a product, and I consider that variant only a handheld.

No matter the conclusion or opinion on the matter, it's certainly gonna be a blast to circle back to this debate each couple of months the closer the Switch gets to that 1st selling console place.

Switch is a hybrid that accomplishes both handheld and home console duties with different power profiles to accomplish those.

The debate over this is silly and always been, so is the debate over which generation it should be attributed to lol

The Switch is a handheld and a home console, I'm not sure what doctrine you'd be referring to suggest otherwise. But please link me to the documents, I can link to the official documentation which refers to Switch as a home console. 

Speaking of your phone, nothing about your phone is designed as a "home console", a specific term designated to dedicated gaming machines which are played at home and connected to TV.

Nothing from your mobile makers suggest it to primarily used as a gaming device connected to the TV. Simply having USB c support does not suffice. The sooner you guys accept that these terms are made up and dictated by the literally makers of the devices & industry norms, the sooner you'll accept that Nintendo labelling their system a "home console" and designing it around this use, means more than anyone saying "but it has a screen" lol I'm sorry...

There is literally a disclaimer for switch lite that only Switch games with portable play will work, meaning the base machine has allocations exclusively to docked play. PS Vita TV uses a mobile chip but that doesn't make it handheld. So many non mobile devices uses mobile chips including desktop PCs.

Yet everything from the form factor (joycons), different power profiles, the inclusion of a dock, HDMI to HMDI cable and intended use show Switched is intended to function as both. The insistence that a device cannot be both is an arbitrary line, outlined by who? 

The Switch Lite doesn't work with the dock either but that doesn't invalidate all the other switches that do.

Well someone else in this thread was saying they connected a controller to their (TV connected) PSP go and used it as their console for some time. To me, that is a genuine match for functionality when compared to the switch. I just can't agree that we should disregard/invalidate a function because it didn't come with the stuff needed inside the box. That's like saying, if you sell a car that can transform into a boat, but the boat transformation button is sold separately, you just disregard that it has that feature. See how that logic is flawed?