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in reply to @grace's post:

Hmm, I can buy that! I guess in my head I was thinking "game boy" as "portrait slab, controls below, display above". Which means to me, an iPod is a game boy.

But tbh that's more like a non-flip flip phone, and if the GBA is a game boy, then I totally agree that the switch is a game boy, and a umpc is a game boy with a lot of buttons.

That being said, with what I said originally, is the game boy advance SP a flip phone or a game boy then?

Honestly, I think the main thing that makes something "a game boy" to me is having a D-pad and, yeah, some kind of slab shape. It's not enough to have buttons, you have to have some kind of Weird, Purpose-Built Control. So a D-pad, an analog stick/joystick, thumbwheel, or crank are all gameboycore. The GBA SP's hinge makes it flip phone core (though my memory is of the hinge feeling flimsy? I remember always closing it very carefully for fear of breaking the hinge or screen. that makes it lose points), and it is, of course, also a Game Boy.

Hard agree, but I actually think there's something to using both at the same time, rather than as one unit; "Game boy" for portable gaming/laptop needs (when taking Steam-Deck/Switch style devices into consideration), flip phone for ideal one-handed communication device, but slide in a third, separate device that contains all the other usages of the smart phone that get culled from the flip phone:

The Forearm Computer. Mayhaps not in an ideal form at conception, but IMO could form the holy trinity of ideal personal gadgets! Thinking less 'Pip-boy' with the ache-inducing arm hold, more 'wrist-gem from ARK/etc' but with a screen - much bigger than a smart-watch tho.