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Festive portable deals take off from Xbox Ally, Nintendo, PlayStation and Evercade

This page started for black Friday but has moved on as the deals come and go. I will update across the festive sales, as new portable hardware deals appear. I won't hype them as "pocket change" or "fire sale" like some sites, because that's bollocks.  December deals :  Evercade has 30% off various hardware, depending on the store, check the blog for details .  PlayStation Portal is currently £20 off on Amazon UK  (another £10 off for refurbs)  Update: Valve has jumped in with 20% off the Steam Deck LCD 256GB model (down to £279 in the UK) Update: Xbox Ally has various deals (pretty short-lived, but likely getting cut again for the post Christmas sale).  Update: PlayStation Portal has £20 off the range, bringing the white and black models down to £179, and 30th Anniversary Edition to £189. (Look out for another 5% off at checkout!)  First up is  Evercade offering a clutch of offers on hardware and games on Amazon and across other stores in Europ...

Mini-LED screens would brighten up the Switch 2's day

Despite bullshit headlines like "Nintendo Switch Pro Alleged Secret Weapon Could Challenge PS5, Xbox Series X" there's good reason to hope that a second-generation Switch could ship with a decent display technology like mini-LED (not micro-LED) to make more of a consumer and user impression. 


Given that Nintendo isn't a hardware whore when it comes to console features, there's no guarantee that they will. But, if Mini-LED is affordable, and Nintendo want to make waves beyond a processor and GPU uptick, Mini-LED is making a big noise in screen tech, with Apple products supposedly getting in on the act for a 2021 iPad

Mini LEDs improve on current screens by using thousands of individual tiny backlights rather than a few lamps around the edge of the screen. These create zones that can be individually tuned for a better-looking display and output, offering higher contrast ratios and brightness, better black tones, are more power efficient for better battery life and are inorganic so shouldn't fade like an OLED, although my 8 year old Vita still makes the Switch look crappy...


A better screen gives Nintendo's marketing bunnies something to shout about while Sony and Microsoft wave their GHz and silly storage ideas around, but won't have much of an effect on people who buy Nintendo for the games. And as long as it doesn't push the cost up too much (pretty sure they'll stick with a cheaper LED version option), Nintendo gets to stay relevant, maybe with 4K output from the dock, and a few other gimmicks. 

The source for all this gossip comes from Taiwan and the Economic Daily News suggesting that Innolux Corporation and Nintendo are partnering to obtain the screens, to break away from its current Japanese suppliers (which are likely more expensive), ready for a spring 2021 launch, four years after the original Switch hit.

Currently playing on my Vita/PS3/PS4/PS5


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