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Well the screens and screen resolution on it still aren't very good, and I've heard that the previous incarnations of the DS are pretty lackluster in terms of specs, so I'm sure you can understand why I assumed that
The DS wasn't that bad, considering the technology, and the fact that it was running two screens at once. The only problem was that the PSP was designed with technology that was rather advanced; although, you can tell that the DS was on-par with at least some of the PSP games by it's later years. I've only seen a video of one such game, but it is rather good looking.
And the resolution isn't
that bad, would it be good to have better? Sure; but something has to give; you either sacrifice the battery life(Would you rather a screen that can render 1024 x 768 with 12 minutes of battery life; or 400 x 260 with an effective display of 800 x 260 with 3-5 hours battery life? Consider that the Vita has
the exact same battery life, with it only having to render one larger screen.), the resolution, or one of the screens... And honestly, I'd give up the resolution faster than the touch screen, especially after playing KI:U. =/
And yes, I say the screens aren't very good. I've tried the 3ds out, and as compared to the android devices I use and love, the colors are undersaturated, the resolution is sub-par, the 3d looks like its underwater, and the actual size of the screens is super small.
Could the colours be better? Sure. Is the size of the screen kinda small? Sure; you can tell it better with the DS games in native mode compared to the original models. But; again; something has to give. Your phones use one screen, or even one large screen with one that's effectively simply an advanced trackpad. Ultimately, it's a case of 'drastically different audiences'; as half the power is
required by the phones, for the sophisticated features it pulls off; they're more like mini-computers than anything else. It's not really fair to compare something built strictly for gaming, to something initially intended for being a multi-media phone, where you can multitask a call with music or so, with it being built more like a computer in recent years.
Could it use higher specs? Sure; no-one would complain. However, you have to consider that to power that thing, you have to either have a battery that sticks out the back of the
handheld console(Emphasis will be explained shortly), and causing it to just look awkward... Or... You have to just generally make the entire console bigger; causing it to not fit in your pocket, which apparently some people dislike happening, judging by how the controller-like Circle Pad Pro is disliked for it's size.
It's a big game of something's gotta give; do you want to sacrifice size? Do you want to sacrifice battery life, and have it die the moment it's unplugged from the wall? Do you want it to sacrifice it's namesake like half the naysayers of the 3DS?(Aka, remove the 3D, which is one of it's big selling points over the Vita, which is still not doing well at all.) It's not a phone, and that's the thing that's basically causing it's lack in power. It does things differently, and unlike the phone industry, which releases a HUGE revision each year, handhelds are built to last. I never thought about this connection before; but it's like the console and PC connection. On one hand, you have PCs, which get rapidly upgraded every year, sometimes every 6 months or less(Sometimes taking even less time to release a new revision than one of Capcom's fighting games, which is a feat). On the other hand, you have consoles; released every 4 to 6 years, but making massive jumps from time to time, either in graphics, or just under-the-hood things, or even controls. Even between consoles themselves, that difference is great, which is noticeable this gen, because of the Wii's focus on motion controls, and the PS360 going 'oh, hey, why don't we go THIS LARGE A POWER GAP! BWAHAHAHA WE'LL BE UNSTOPPAB- ... Wait; what!? How is that 'baby console' outselling US!?!?!?'... The only problem with the graphics stuff, is that there's only so far you can go, and eventually the only thing that can be upgraded, is different shaders, and other things that are done with every revision.
To get to my point here; just as handhelds are counterparts to the consoles, phones could now be called, interestingly enough, a counterpart to PCs in that same way. With Apple's mass rush to never fail to get at least one new iPhone model out the door each year, to every other company trying to one-up each other with new models each other month, the phone industry has been a forced-progression realm, with each year
needing to have new systems, otherwise everything will be outdated. However, in the gaming industry, no-one's insane enough to even think of doing that. You might call out Nintendo, or Sony, since they do release revisions, however... They only release them every two years or so, and they're simply to address complaints that have been brought up before(Like the bad backlight for the original DS being updated to have multiple, and brighter, lighting options, or internalizing a Camera in the DSi, or making the screens HUGE in the DSiXL.); whereas they still keep the MAJOR revisions for every 6-8 years, allowing huge jumps like the 3DS and PSVita.
Go try out an Evo 3D, a One X, or a galaxy nexus, and you'll start laughing at your 3ds too
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In retrospect, those entire last two paragraphs should've been in response to this, but oh well. =P Basically, comparing an iPhone or Android phone to a 3DS or Vita is like comparing a 2000-something resolution(I forget the correct resolution for that, apologies) 8gig RAM 4 Terra Hard Drive to a PS360 or the Wii U; it might sound plausible in the initial mulling over of the thought; but it's absurd when you actually stop to consider different factors.
Though, one thing I have to question is how both Sony and Nintendo managed to get such fail batteries, when cell phones can last longer with better screens. 0_o That's going off my limited knowledge of smart phones, though, so they might have just as fail batteries for their capabilities. xD
