Features

Opinion: Forget the iPhone X - Nintendo's Switch is a more viable portable gaming champ

Apple's flipped a Switch

Opinion: Forget the iPhone X - Nintendo's Switch is a more viable portable gaming champ
|

It used to be that buying a smartphone was the easiest and most cost-efficient way to indulge in a spot of portable gaming. Why spend the best part of £200 on a handheld when the mobile phone that already sits in your pocket plays host to some brilliant and affordable games of its own?

Indeed, the sheer polygon-pushing power of your average smartphone overtook what the likes of the Nintendo 3DS and the PS Vita could offer (from a technical standpoint at least) years ago.

But two things have happened in the past year or so that have made me start to question that whole cost equation. Namely: the arrival of the Nintendo Switch and the recent arrival of the iPhone X.

From X to why?

Apple's new flagship smartphone, which will nominally launch at the end of October, is set to cost £1000 / $1000. This is pretty much double what a flagship smartphone (including Apple's own iPhone range) used to cost.

The iPhone X is unlikely to be an outlier. Samsung's recently launched Galaxy Note 8 costs about the same, and rumour has it that Google's next Pixel XL will be in the same ballpark. Make no mistake, £1000 phones are the new normal.

Think about that for a second. For £1000 you can buy both a PS4 Pro and an Xbox One X, with enough change left over for a couple of games for each. Alternatively, you could buy a gaming PC that outperforms both of those 4K-ready consoles.

I'm using home gaming machines as a comparison here because no direct portable gaming comparison really exists. Which is ridiculous when you consider what the Nintendo Switch has brought to the table.

Nintendo gives us the feels

Here is a system that might be built on ageing tablet technology, but which has been optimised to the point that it can produce genuine console-quality games. Indeed, it can seamlessly output its games to your TV without any fuss or drop in quality - and it offers console-level physical controls as standard.

Is there anything on iOS that beats The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 2, or ARMS for sheer technical brilliance? If so, I haven't seen it.

Is there anything on iOS that beats those two games on gameplay depth or faultlessly tactile controls? Again, I'd have to say no.

More instructively, I've been playing the Switch release of The Binding of Isaac a lot just lately. Held next to the fun-but-flawed iOS version... well, there really is no way in which the iOS version is fit for comparison. Except when it comes to the price of the game.

But mentioning the matter of price merely brings us to the main point in the Switch's favour: Nintendo's console costs £280. This means that the iPhone X costs three-and-a-half times more money.

Apples and oranges

Of course, when you come down to it this is a case of apples and oranges. The iPhone X is a multi-functional portable computer that can handle all your communication, photographic, internet, and media playing needs.

The Nintendo Switch, meanwhile, doesn't even have a web browser or a Netflix app. It's a pure, single-purpose gaming device.

But I'm not arguing that this is an either/or scenario. Preceding the arrival of the £1000 phone have been a whole bunch of excellent Android phones that do most of what the iPhone X can do - perhaps not as well, but well enough - for £200 or less.

And yes, that includes games. The Google Play Store may not be quite as well stocked as the App Store when it comes to the latest and greatest titles, but it's hardly lacking.

Indeed, you don't even need to miss out on the mobile gaming front. You can pick up a brand-new iPhone 6S for £300 to £350 from online retailers, which will still play everything on the App Store just fine.

Time to make the Switch

The point is that you can buy a Switch for all your portable gaming needs AND a really good smartphone for everything else - and it could cost you less than half the price of an iPhone X to do so.

We like the look of the iPhone X. It's almost certainly going to be the best gaming smartphone on the market with its big beautiful display, super-fast processor and access to the App Store.

But for committed gamers, there's a new map to portable gaming happiness out there - and X doesn't mark the spot.

Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.