Who would buy that? Screen is too small to be of great utility for gaming, cellphones have awful battery life for gaming, controllers wouldn't be as nice to bind to such a device while sticking it in a pocket, and it directly brings it into competition with Apple and Android phone vendors.
I love gaming as much as anyone else, but that makes a lot less sense than what Nintendo is currently doing. The Switch isn't a pocket-sized console, and doesn't pretend to be. It is big and powerful enough to drive a TV-based experience, while being portable enough for trips/public transit.
You need to look at how Nintendo makes games - they start with the device then build the story around that. Not the other way round, i.e making a story then looking at building it for the device. That is why the specs don't really matter or have ever mattered. Historically we've always heard spec complaints but a device user doesn't really talk as much about them (or even aware of them). At least compared to Playstation or Xbox.
I have an iPhone 6S and my battery life when 3D gaming is about smack in the middle of the Switch's range. Admittedly the Switch is presumably going to run better graphics, but still -- its battery life is about the same as cellphone battery life.
The video says the switch, depending on conditions has a battery life between 2.5 and 6.5 hours. That doesn't sound particularly better than a cellphone.
$300 for a tablet, chromecast device + bluetooth controllers that all integrate nicely is a pretty good deal.
Gaming on mobile phones with controllers is a pretty janky affair right now. Poor quality controllers and iffy compatibility are the norm. Getting your display remoted to the TV is also well in the "doesn't always work" territory.
game machines often have dedicated hardware made specifically for running games on otherwise slow hardware. Also things like extremely thin OSes with almost-real-time guarantees about the speed at which things will run.
The screen is also much larger than a Phone screen, more like an iPad. So now you're selling an iPad accessory, locked to Apple's store and architectuaral decisions.
Not to mention that selling it themselves like this while controlling software distribution lets them subsidize the cost of the machine with software sales
It would be quite a challenge to get Skyrim working on a phone, I imagine.
Whose phone would it be when you are playing at the living room with all your friends?
Wanna put the phone on airplane mode so noone can interrupt when you are playing? Or want to have the owner of the phone take the phone away for calls when you are playing with the other guys?
And anybody wants to show their notification on the TV?
Do you really consider any of these things serious problems?
Phone functionality could turn off in "game mode". As far as the owner of the device "taking it away" to use it while it's being played...how is this a device issue?
