Tom's, this is becoming downright terrible. The third mention of the 3DS in a row in the news, and it's once again a "Nintendo is doomed because of smartphones!" spiel. It's stuff like this why you, sadly, have a reputation for being hit-and-miss outside of your in-depth reviews.
As others have pointed out, you're in error on the RAM amount: it has 4 gigabits, not gigabytes. It would be best to correct this.
Now, as for the substantive part of the article itself, it strikes of a lack of historical knowledge to predict that smartphones spell doom for handheld consoles. Just like laptops never replaced the desktop, and game-playing MP3 players, which have been around for years, never even dented handhelds, smartphones won't really harm handhelds. After all, the iPhone's been out for what, over 3 years, and the sales of the DS and PSP seemed to show no indication of it harming them, now did they?
Smartphones are not gaming devices: they cost way too much for just gaming, and are inferior. Issues of the input ALONE aside, the fact is that smartphones are LEAGUES away from the trendline for portable power: sure, they may look snazzy compared to the 5-6 year-old DS and PSP, but then again, a modern smartphone looks snazzy compared to a 1990s PC, and smartphones aren't exactly threatening the PC, now are they? Anyone who remembers preview screenshots from the 3DS and NGP can TELL there's a huge difference.
It's also worth noting that the Optimus 3D is using a hardware platform that is NOT all that great for video: the much-lauded "OMAP4" is not really a new CPU anymore than the Apple A4. It's just a system-on-a-chip design that crams different, off-the-shelf designs onto a single piece of silicon. In the case of the OMAP-4440 used for the Optimus 3D, it's a dual-core ARM-corext A9 CPU at 1 GHz; the A9 basically just a dual-core version of the A8 that's been so familiar in things like the iPhone and most Android phones. Similarly, PowerVR has an effective monopoly on smartphone graphics, and this is no exception: the GPU is a SGX-540, an incremental upgrade over the ubiquitous 530-series GPUs.
Overall, this power is only a bit more than the newer AppleTV (which uses the Apple A4 pairing) which was shown to NOT be capable of handling 1080p decoding. Hence, I have my doubts that the Optimus3D will be able to either. All actual claims were based on the CHIP, and that was with the chip running significantly faster than here, and also without specifying what quality/bitrate limitations there were. (which would undoubtedly be rather harsh) And besides, it's not like it matters: the phone's screen is limited to 800x480.
[citation][nom]EnFoRceR22[/nom]Do you have any refference for proof?[/citation]
Here's your proof it's 512MB. There are no phones with 4GB of RAM: it would require more than two chips, which currently is the maximum number supported by any mobile memory interface. Smartphones currently come with typically 128, 256, or 512MB, by using one or two 128 or 256MB chips.
Also, common sense could apply here, even as rare as such is when overflooded with fanboy emotions ready to jump on something to brag/hate about: phones cap out at 512MB right now, so why the heck would there be a SUDDEN jump to 8 times as much? There'd be no marketable value in there: it'd require extra programming to use, and wind up being no more beneficial than, say, 1GB.
So perhaps next time try not to jump on a bandwagon with your "NINTENDO'S GOING DOWN!!1" sayings without bothering to do the research first.
[citation][nom]EnFoRceR22[/nom]your high right? I didnt see anything in here being anti nintendo[/citation]
Actually, there is... It's mostly a combination of this article, COMBINED with a bunch over the past few days where Tom's has been consistently predicting that smartphones would cause doom for Nintendo (and Sony to a lesser degree) for a while now, such as with
this ill-informed article, as well as
this concurrence with John Carmack's own ill-informed beliefs. So that's three times in a row that Tom's has expressed a distinct opinion that Nintendo's handheld market is doomed due to smartphones.
Since anyone who has a decent amount of understanding of markets and/or hardware engineering knows that this is utter BS, and Tom's has has this pointed out to them repeatedly, it's quite understandable for it to be exasperating to see Tom's blithely run with that poorly-thought-out assumption.
[citation][nom]EnFoRceR22[/nom]btw contract price which almost everyone would get anyways is $199 $50 less then a ds.[/citation]
Contract price is not comparable to a console... Getting a contract price requires signing up for an over-priced rip-off contract for typically 2+ years, that'll run you >$1,000US in the end. And guess what? You don't need to sign a contract for a 3DS. (or Sony NGP) That will certainly weigh in on the value: the contract-price for a phone is only really significant for those that aren't already tied to a service.
[citation][nom]EnFoRceR22[/nom]with everyone else imo having better games and not kiddy games[/citation]
Oh, you mean how everyone's playing
Farmville on their phones? And of course, kiddie games like the exclusives
Metal Gear Solid 3D,
Resident Evil: Revelations, or
Ninja Gaiden 3D? That's kinda laughable, given that every single mainline title from those (at least since the 90s) have all been rated M, no exceptions. (similarly, a lot of other M- and T-rated titles are getting ports, with these making up a large portion of the 3DS' launch library)
So yeah, in spite the fact that the bulk of mobile phone games consist of stuff like
Farmville,
Bejeweled, and other hyper-casual games, it's going to take Nintendo down, right? Think things through better next time: if a portable is going to have "serious" games and threaten Nintendo, it's going to be Sony. Since the PSP eked out a mere 1/4 market share vs. the DS, I think that Nintendo isn't in dire danger.
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