I miss handheld consoles
I never really had a "proper" smartphone until last year. My last "good smartphone" was a Nokia E95 (I miss that design and clicky keys) more than 10 years ago, and since then I only bought low-to-mid-range smartphones because I never used them for anything except finding where I am and talking via text with other people. Now, having a top-of-the-line smartphone, I realize why so many executives, some years ago, thought the handheld console market was dead and everything was going to be smartphones and tablets. And I mean, it makes sense: these things are crazy powerful nowadays, the battery can provide a whole afternoon of playing, they are all convenient, and are in everyone's pocket. It's great.
Except the good ones are expensive as hell. And after a few years, their performance is not the same. And it's impossible to fix any hardware issues (except repairing the screen or changing the battery). And after their support is dropped, you are left with a very expensive paperweight.
Playing on a smartphone has been great for me because I can just pick it up, fire a game, and play a couple of minutes between jobs, something I can't do on my desktop or laptop. But this only makes sense if you can afford to be a part of the target market, otherwise, you are left behind. And I'm fully aware that I can be left behind in just a few years.
In Brazil, a Nintendo Switch costs 1/5 of the latest iPhone Pro. That's already expensive (more than a month's minimum wage), but not impossibly out of reach. And even though I like Apple products (I hate their corporate side, but I like that I don't have to troubleshoot random issues every 2-3 days), I would never be able to afford an iPhone (or the latest Samsung, or whatever) if I was still living in Brazil. Worse yet, I don't know what are Apple's plans in 5 or 10 years. Whatever I'm playing now might not be available by then anymore. But a Nintendo Switch will always run its games, the same way my trusty Game Boy still runs its cartridges 30 years later.
More than that, I miss having a dedicated portable device for gaming1. They were ergonomic (sometimes) and their battery lasted long enough for a good gaming session (sometimes).
Anyway, I don't really have a point to make, I guess. I think what Sony did to the Vita was criminal (I'm very salty about that, I really liked the Vita), the Switch works ok as a handheld but it's not great, and people who think smartphones or handheld PCs (?!) are the future are out of their mind or are just very rich.
I'm one of those weirdos who likes having dedicated devices for different things. I still have a working iPod 120GB, and still want to go back to using it. But first, I need to find the hard drive with my MP3 collection.↩