Originally Posted by metalslimer

It will honestly probably cost them more to produce that screen than a 720p screen by 2016. The only reason the 3DS is even 240p is because they went with the shitty 3D screen and luckily since that tech seems to have reached a dead end and I don't know any company that is still invested in glassless 3d portable screen they will have to choose an at worst qHD screen.

Oh man, I certainly hope so. I did wonder about that, but Nintendo always seem to find a way to defy my tech expectations in a bad way.

Originally Posted by Kageshinzo

I've really basically given up on Nintendo putting out cutting-edge hardware tech. I think they just want to make the cheapest hardware they can that will still be capable of the games they want to put out. I personally think this may just be Nintendo being cautious and not wanting to spend more than they have to. Unlike Microsoft and Sony, video gaming is their bread and butter. If they miscalculate (spending too much on HW and then have it end up tanking) they will take the brunt of the loss, without any other buffer to fall back on. This whole Wii U thing may be hurting them more than what we think.

Yeah, I think you're right. They need to keep costings as low as possible for their target market and fortunately for them, the games they excel at mesh well with low-end hardware. I can see why it makes good business sense for them, it just bums me out as a tech-orientated consumer that predominantly enjoys handhelds. That said, the Vita shows that I'm in a tiny minority and Nintendo certainly shouldn't worry about serving my needs.

Originally Posted by GhostTrick

Which would be a great idea performance wise. Because I'm tired of all that "1080p screen or bust" on screens that are less than 5 inch. If PS4/Xbox One can't even do perfect 1080p, why should we expect handhelds to do so ? You need high res on big screen for obvious reason. But on smaller screen ? You're just wasting precious ressources you could use for a better framerate or better effects, and you have no difficulty of maintaining native res.

If the next Nintendo handheld can't exceed the visual delights of Killzone: Mercenaries at launch, that'll suck. You don't need to immediately leap to 1080p. Nothing bums me out more than seeing a new device outperformed by devices 5-6 years older.

You need a decent res on handheld screens because otherwise you end up with the 3DS, where jaggies are fucking everywhere and text is painful to read. A nice high PPI makes everything look better.