Ladies and gents, meet Smart Boy, the Game Boy-inspired smartphone. Designed by Pierre Cerveau, it has everything a Nintendo lover could dream of giving a phone, from power-saving 8-bit mode to a ‘Game Bat’ controller that basically turns the thing into a DS. I might actually cry because this beautiful phone will probably never be made.
Probably a bit too retro for most, but if Nintendo made this, I would be all over it.
That looks incredibly… fragile.
And, Nintendo handhelds certainly aren’t known for being fragile.
Well, some are and some aren’t. Any of their “lite” models are usually pretty fragile. I have to hold the lid on my old DS lite in place when it’s open because the very first time I opened it, it broke. That’s really common from what I’ve read on the net. I doubt the 3DS lites are any better.
Looks like another designer running rampant with CAD again…
The author of this piece would be all over it, not knowing what the performance was like, how good the camera was, how good the battery life is, etc. But hey it looks soooooooooooo cool!!!
This right here, ladies and gentlemen, is why I can’t hardly find a decent phone anymore. Make it with a ‘sexy’ glass back and nobody gives a shit if you have to charge the battery by 3pm with a $700 phone.
HTC Evo3D, 1740 mAh battery, medium usage, no 3G, no Wifi, custom 4.0.3, 3 to 4 days up and running. Problem ?
Kind of odd how the expansion slot is drawn to contain a camera or a battery or a memory card.
If someone is using a 13MP camera, won’t they need the memory card and extended battery at the same time?
And just what other devices and card readers is that memory card compatible with? Why not just use SD?
And yes, the Game Bat connector looks really fragile.
I think the idea is to invoke the classic GameBoy design (And, well, current 3DS, also), of having a game cart slide in.
There was even a cart that had a camera, actually.
But, no, if it also has internal memory and an internal battery, it wouldn’t need the extended battery/memory card at the same time as the camera.
Who’s to say that the camera cart wouldn’t also have both more memory and a battery in addition to the camera? Having one doesn’t mean the others are impossible. Like the OP said, a camera would NEED more power and storage.
You make different carts with different options rather than one cart to accomodate different users. Rather than force everyone to buy a cart with camera+battery+memory, some folks will want just a battery since they don’t want their kid having a camera, and without the camera, the memory isn’t really needed, but the battery is for long car rides.
Believe it or not, many companies will survive just fine without making a smartphone.