The two ideal gadget shapes are "game boy" and "flip phone", which is why the Nintendo DS line is the perfect shape

The two ideal gadget shapes are "game boy" and "flip phone", which is why the Nintendo DS line is the perfect shape
Hello, do you have opinions on the weird third option: UMPC?
Basically: hands go on the side, screen goes in the middle?
I'm on the fence whether a steamdeck or a switch count as a UMPC or not.
See, the 3DS also has the hands-on-side, screen-in-middle design, so they fall under a riff on "game boy" (Game Boy Advance, specifically) to me
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.
Also a valid hybrid, though I seem to recall the SP being too fragile for my liking (young-me always closed it very gently for fear of breaking the hinge or screen. No idea how justified that fear was)
i got the 3ds where you could swap out the (now impossible to find) faceplates. this is the kind of luxury gamers crave
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.