oldpuck
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It'll be interesting to see how they pull this off. Microsoft has had some smart ideas with their hardware, and have managed to just pull defeat from the jaws of victory every time.Please be a “hybrid” - docking should be part of the pitch for these handheld devices.
My thinking would be that a "Series S in the hand" would be a pretty compelling experience, and technically pretty doable. If they manage to keep the CPU and RAM identical, but cut the GPU in half, they could sell it to devs as "Yes, it's technically a third profile to support, but all you gotta do is halve the resolution, and you're good to go. Testing and support will be minimal."
Supporting a "true" docked mode might create a "neither fish nor foul" situation. It's not powerful enough to deliver a true Series S experience, but it's different enough from the handheld profile that it's yet another round of testing to get it supported.
Or they go a totally different route and it's not "Series" hardware at all, but a sideline, with its own specs, and its own store. MS gets all their exclusives on their, but third party support is totally optional, and it's a totally bespoke device with no attachment to the base Series architecture.
I know what route I'd choose - the cut in half Series S, where I think, with some very careful engineering (getting GDDR6 into a handheld, woof) you could deliver a device that outperforms Steam Deck, has access to the full Xbox library, and MS could afford to sell at cost, undercutting the Z1 based handhelds, but still priced high enough that one game sell nets profit.
We'll see what they try, but I'm for the first time in a long time interested in MS hardware