4 ms·

One clear trend in mobile devices since the GBA times is the increase in screen sizes. The Switch's screen is just so much bigger than the GBA's. You also see t

by gxd 2y ago

One clear trend in mobile devices since the GBA times is the increase in screen sizes. The Switch's screen is just so much bigger than the GBA's. You also see that on phones, with popular models approaching if not exceeding 7" which used to be reserved to small tablets. Where do we stop? Don't get me wrong, I like the bigger screens, but portability is suffering and most pockets no longer fit today's "portable" devices.

dagmx 2y ago
While screen sizes have increased since the game boy era, device sizes have not if you’re comparing to phones which are the true successor to that kind of casual gaming. The average mobile phone is smaller than most generations of game boy. Additionally, unless you’re purposefully buying phablets or only used the mini/micro/sp, device sizes on phones hasn’t been increasing significantly over the last decade. In most cases, it’s the bezels getting smaller and screen sizes growing to be a larger part of the same device size. Here are a smattering of measurements in millimetres. By volume, modern phones are way smaller. The biggest change is they’re longer in one dimension, but still very comparable. . Original Gameboy 148mm (height) x 90mm (width) x 32mm (depth) Gameboy advance 81mm x 140mm x23mm Pixel 9 152.8 x 72 x 8.5 mm Gameboy mini 101.5 x 52.5 x 15.5 mm Gameboy advance SP 82x23x84 Gameboy Micro 101 x 50 x 17.2 iPhone 16 147.6 × 71.6 × 7.8 mm Taking the pixel vs the advance for volume, the Pixel is only 35% of the GBA, or if you take by area, ignoring depth, Pixel is 96% of the size of the GBA. If your pockets could fit a GBA, they certainly can fit a standard mobile phone.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- cubefox 2y ago
  Interesting comparison. Though I believe he was comparing GBA to Switch, not GBA to phones. Phones just exhibit a similar trend (older phones were smaller than current ones).
  - gxd 2y ago
    Correct. Phones are getting bigger (but thinner) compared to older phones while portable consoles are getting bigger compared to older consoles.
    - dagmx 2y ago
      That’s only true if you consider all portable consoles in the same category. There’s always been a market for the large portable console, also with the promise of docking. It’s just that compute was difficult to achieve until recently, and the market for the small end has been eaten by phones, and so they only make the larger end now. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_handheld_game_consoles?wprov=sfti1# https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_handheld_game_consoles...
      - cubefox 2y ago
        I think the main problem with large handheld consoles in the past was that large or high resolution LCD screens were quite expensive for a long time. And everyone overestimated how much people valued the console being pocket sized.
    - cubefox 2y ago
      And I believe the Switch successor will be larger still. So the trend hasn't stopped yet.
  - dagmx 2y ago
    Well, they compared both. But realistically, there’s always been three categories to personal compute and gaming. For lack of better words, mobile, portable and home use. Mobile was the gameboy and now the mobile phone. Portable back then was the game gear and sega nomad. Today it’s the switch, steamdeck, and for a while the PSP and PS Vita. These provide cut down versions of home console games or better fidelity than truly mobile. Home use being permanently plugged in like the SNES/N64. It’s not that the small handhelds have gotten bigger, it’s just that they’ve stopped making stuff in that smallest category. The fact is that mobile phones have taken over that mobile market completely. There’s no space to compete so that market is dead for game console makers. This has been the trajectory for decades now.
sylens 2y ago
I think the assumption is that everyone is carrying a bag now anyway. When the GBA came out, most people were still not carrying mobile phones so you had a pocket free besides wallet and keys
- dagmx 2y ago
  Idk where you live, but bags are not any more common in my experience than in the 90s. The more likely reality is that gamers have different expectations today. The kinds of games you’d play on everything prior to the 3DS are things you’d play on mobile phones now. That leaves the middle area of more high fidelity games, with better ergonomics and closer to home consoles. That’s what the Switch , the PSP and Vita and 3DS occupy. They can’t compete anymore in the absolute mobile end of gaming space , so moved into the space in between. That requires larger devices to provide the experience gamers want that they can’t get on the average phone till recently.
- ekianjo 2y ago
  The untold story is that most modern portable gaming happens at home.
  - musicale 2y ago
    I see lots of people playing smartphone and tablet games, usually at max volume, on public transit, in stores, at dining locations, and in many other public spaces. Mostly anti-social gaming and/or child sedation, though I saw multiple players playing the same online game once. But I think you are on to something, and not just that kids (or adults) don't go outside or interact with friends as much as they did in the past. It's just very enjoyable and comfortable to curl up with a portable game system at home, much as one could with a good book (if we still read books.)
    - ekianjo 2y ago
      Oh yes, there is portable gaming happening outside, that's for sure. My point is that's a minority of the actual portable gaming. People typically have more free time at home, and there is less of a barrier to play games when not in public, and less distractions. Anyway, that's just a hunch, I don't really have numbers to support that claim.
__loam 2y ago
The screens had to get bigger to accommodate the unification of all platforms. It's great for game devs that you can ship something and port it to every platform with almost no effort.
- jgalt212 2y ago
  When I was a kid there was a market for 9 inch TVs.
  - musicale 2y ago
    We call them iPads and smartphones now.
  - __loam 2y ago
    We had a 5 inch screen that snapped onto the back of the GameCube.
VyseofArcadia 2y ago
The max size I want a gaming device is probably that of the 3DS XL. Anything bigger than that definitely won't fit in my pocket. So screen size, what I really want is as big a screen as you can fit on a device that size without making it uncomfortable.
- musicale 2y ago
  Nintendo handhelds from GB to New 3DS XL were mostly very pocketable (except for 2DS.) I am still a fan of the 3DS XL form factor, and the dual screen clamshell design. DS and GBA SP also had great clamshell form factors. 3DS was also fun to carry around for streetpasses. But I really like the Switch in handheld mode, and I actually want a bigger screen since for me it's more of a baggable rather than a pocketable, and many games have tiny text or UI elements sized for docked/TV mode rather than handheld mode.
  - VyseofArcadia 2y ago
    I don't mind the existence of baggable handhelds. I own both a Switch and a Steam Deck, and the Steam Deck won't even fit in the oversized pockets of cargo shorts. But I wish there were room in the market for both baggables and pocketables[0]. I'd 100% buy a scaled-down Steam Deck that is roughly 3DS XL-sized.[1] [0] For a while Nintendo was claiming that the Switch wasn't their new portable console, it was just a console that happened to be portable. There would still be a successor to the 3DS at some point. I guess you could argue that's the Switch Lite, but I still feel a little betrayed to not get a smaller next-gen handheld. [1] I'm aware there's a flourishing market of mostly Chinese arm64 devices running Android and loaded with emulators for every system you could imagine. But I want an x86 device to play my existing GoG and Steam games.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - musicale 2y ago
      I'd almost forgotten about the Switch Lite. It is like a slightly larger PSVita (14mm wider, 6mm taller, and 1mm thinner than a PCH-2000). https://www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/vita-revisited-playstation-vita-was-the-original-switch-lite-and-it-deserves-a-comeback/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/vita-revisited-playstation-...
bitwize 2y ago
The Switch is a different class of device than the GBA or DS: a hybrid console, intended for use on the go or as a home console almost equally well. Part of the problem is that the people who grew up with Game Boy type devices have shitty eyes now, and squinting at a little 2" screen is getting uncomfortable.
- musicale 2y ago
  Switch probably doesn't help since many games size their text and UI for docked mode and display on a large TV screen.

by gxd 2y ago

dagmx 2y ago

While screen sizes have increased since the game boy era, device sizes have not if you’re comparing to phones which are the true successor to that kind of casual gaming. The average mobile phone is smaller than most generations of game boy. Additionally, unless you’re purposefully buying phablets or only used the mini/micro/sp, device sizes on phones hasn’t been increasing significantly over the last decade. In most cases, it’s the bezels getting smaller and screen sizes growing to be a larger part of the same device size. Here are a smattering of measurements in millimetres. By volume, modern phones are way smaller. The biggest change is they’re longer in one dimension, but still very comparable. . Original Gameboy 148mm (height) x 90mm (width) x 32mm (depth) Gameboy advance 81mm x 140mm x23mm Pixel 9 152.8 x 72 x 8.5 mm Gameboy mini 101.5 x 52.5 x 15.5 mm Gameboy advance SP 82x23x84 Gameboy Micro 101 x 50 x 17.2 iPhone 16 147.6 × 71.6 × 7.8 mm Taking the pixel vs the advance for volume, the Pixel is only 35% of the GBA, or if you take by area, ignoring depth, Pixel is 96% of the size of the GBA. If your pockets could fit a GBA, they certainly can fit a standard mobile phone.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
cubefox 2y ago
Interesting comparison. Though I believe he was comparing GBA to Switch, not GBA to phones. Phones just exhibit a similar trend (older phones were smaller than current ones).
- gxd 2y ago
  Correct. Phones are getting bigger (but thinner) compared to older phones while portable consoles are getting bigger compared to older consoles.
  - dagmx 2y ago
    That’s only true if you consider all portable consoles in the same category. There’s always been a market for the large portable console, also with the promise of docking. It’s just that compute was difficult to achieve until recently, and the market for the small end has been eaten by phones, and so they only make the larger end now. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_handheld_game_consoles?wprov=sfti1# https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_handheld_game_consoles...
    - cubefox 2y ago
      I think the main problem with large handheld consoles in the past was that large or high resolution LCD screens were quite expensive for a long time. And everyone overestimated how much people valued the console being pocket sized.
  - cubefox 2y ago
    And I believe the Switch successor will be larger still. So the trend hasn't stopped yet.
- dagmx 2y ago
  Well, they compared both. But realistically, there’s always been three categories to personal compute and gaming. For lack of better words, mobile, portable and home use. Mobile was the gameboy and now the mobile phone. Portable back then was the game gear and sega nomad. Today it’s the switch, steamdeck, and for a while the PSP and PS Vita. These provide cut down versions of home console games or better fidelity than truly mobile. Home use being permanently plugged in like the SNES/N64. It’s not that the small handhelds have gotten bigger, it’s just that they’ve stopped making stuff in that smallest category. The fact is that mobile phones have taken over that mobile market completely. There’s no space to compete so that market is dead for game console makers. This has been the trajectory for decades now.

sylens 2y ago

I think the assumption is that everyone is carrying a bag now anyway. When the GBA came out, most people were still not carrying mobile phones so you had a pocket free besides wallet and keys

dagmx 2y ago
Idk where you live, but bags are not any more common in my experience than in the 90s. The more likely reality is that gamers have different expectations today. The kinds of games you’d play on everything prior to the 3DS are things you’d play on mobile phones now. That leaves the middle area of more high fidelity games, with better ergonomics and closer to home consoles. That’s what the Switch , the PSP and Vita and 3DS occupy. They can’t compete anymore in the absolute mobile end of gaming space , so moved into the space in between. That requires larger devices to provide the experience gamers want that they can’t get on the average phone till recently.
ekianjo 2y ago
The untold story is that most modern portable gaming happens at home.
- musicale 2y ago
  I see lots of people playing smartphone and tablet games, usually at max volume, on public transit, in stores, at dining locations, and in many other public spaces. Mostly anti-social gaming and/or child sedation, though I saw multiple players playing the same online game once. But I think you are on to something, and not just that kids (or adults) don't go outside or interact with friends as much as they did in the past. It's just very enjoyable and comfortable to curl up with a portable game system at home, much as one could with a good book (if we still read books.)
  - ekianjo 2y ago
    Oh yes, there is portable gaming happening outside, that's for sure. My point is that's a minority of the actual portable gaming. People typically have more free time at home, and there is less of a barrier to play games when not in public, and less distractions. Anyway, that's just a hunch, I don't really have numbers to support that claim.

__loam 2y ago

The screens had to get bigger to accommodate the unification of all platforms. It's great for game devs that you can ship something and port it to every platform with almost no effort.

jgalt212 2y ago
When I was a kid there was a market for 9 inch TVs.
- musicale 2y ago
  We call them iPads and smartphones now.
- __loam 2y ago
  We had a 5 inch screen that snapped onto the back of the GameCube.

VyseofArcadia 2y ago

The max size I want a gaming device is probably that of the 3DS XL. Anything bigger than that definitely won't fit in my pocket. So screen size, what I really want is as big a screen as you can fit on a device that size without making it uncomfortable.

musicale 2y ago
Nintendo handhelds from GB to New 3DS XL were mostly very pocketable (except for 2DS.) I am still a fan of the 3DS XL form factor, and the dual screen clamshell design. DS and GBA SP also had great clamshell form factors. 3DS was also fun to carry around for streetpasses. But I really like the Switch in handheld mode, and I actually want a bigger screen since for me it's more of a baggable rather than a pocketable, and many games have tiny text or UI elements sized for docked/TV mode rather than handheld mode.
- VyseofArcadia 2y ago
  I don't mind the existence of baggable handhelds. I own both a Switch and a Steam Deck, and the Steam Deck won't even fit in the oversized pockets of cargo shorts. But I wish there were room in the market for both baggables and pocketables[0]. I'd 100% buy a scaled-down Steam Deck that is roughly 3DS XL-sized.[1] [0] For a while Nintendo was claiming that the Switch wasn't their new portable console, it was just a console that happened to be portable. There would still be a successor to the 3DS at some point. I guess you could argue that's the Switch Lite, but I still feel a little betrayed to not get a smaller next-gen handheld. [1] I'm aware there's a flourishing market of mostly Chinese arm64 devices running Android and loaded with emulators for every system you could imagine. But I want an x86 device to play my existing GoG and Steam games.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - musicale 2y ago
    I'd almost forgotten about the Switch Lite. It is like a slightly larger PSVita (14mm wider, 6mm taller, and 1mm thinner than a PCH-2000). https://www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/vita-revisited-playstation-vita-was-the-original-switch-lite-and-it-deserves-a-comeback/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/vita-revisited-playstation-...

bitwize 2y ago

The Switch is a different class of device than the GBA or DS: a hybrid console, intended for use on the go or as a home console almost equally well. Part of the problem is that the people who grew up with Game Boy type devices have shitty eyes now, and squinting at a little 2" screen is getting uncomfortable.

musicale 2y ago
Switch probably doesn't help since many games size their text and UI for docked mode and display on a large TV screen.