Wii U

I don't really care about the size very much. It's nice if it doesn't fill up half of my backpack like the pizza calzone they call the PS3 phat, but it's not a deciding factor when i buy it.

From: WormBoi | #001
Does't this size limit the power of the components? Such as the amount the watts that can produced and space for ventilation of heat?

Nah, that shouldn't be a problem anymore. Let's assume that the U is built pretty much like the Wii in these aspects (power related to technology, price point, etc.). The Wii came out in the 2006 holiday season, so if the U comes out in the 2012 holyday season, that's 6 years in between. According to Moore's law, that means that it would be 8 times as "powerful" as the Wii with the same form factor and price tag of $250.

Moore's law is about transistors in a processor but has shown to be very accurate in most relevant aspects such as actualy processing power, memory, read/write speeds and so on.

Did people enjoy the Wii and now find the Wii U just as appealing because of the small size?

I don't think that's a huge point for most people although i heard that the Japanese care a lot about having sleek electronics (more than Westerners do).

I remember a post from Nintendo stating that their consoles wouldn't have internal HDDs because they risk damage from kids but making the console itself so portable wouldn't help deter kids from messing with it.

I wouldn't worry about damage. It's Nintendo we're talking about here. I guess a big reason why it won't have an internal HDD is because it only increases the price point for something that a lot of people won't use. People that care a lot about this stuff can always just buy an external HDD (or SSD for those that hate loading times). Besides, this is much more confortable. Just attach the thing to an external interface instead of having to open the system for that.
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3D screens.. how do they work? are they similar to magnets? PS: Please no replies from scientists.. you're always lyin, and gettin me pissed.
~ Mario64DStyle

Size does technically limit power, with less physical space to store components.
The thing to consider is that Nintendo is simply building it compactly, ala the Gamecube. Same technical class as it's competition, just built differently- even the Panasonic Q wasn't that much larger from the DVD drive alone.

But that doesn't mean that being smaller isn't a great practical advantage; the Gamecube and Wii are far easier to transport than either of their competitors. It's easy to downplay it before we know the specs, but the fact that you can throw everything you need to set up a Wii in a backpack has made my life easier on several occasions.
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The reign of the cloaks will never end. If giant shoes and puffy pants are eternal, then surely, those cloaks must be the same. Eternal. ~KMAnsem

Jackal posted...
I was concerned about over heating myself when I first saw the body of the Wii U. With the CPU and GPU, that could be a lot of heat. But I'm guessing they've worked it out.

Agreed. You would think if Nintendo was going to make it that unnecessarily small (not that being unnecessary equals being bad) they would have already worked out any overheating problems.
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"TC is this guy: http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumblarge_398/12421089776uDpsu.jpg" -chaomaster4000

I don't care about the size of any game console, as long as it fits in my drawer but even that's not a big deal either since they usually end up on my floor when I'm playing them. I won't be taking the things anywhere anyway so not a big deal. Just as long as they can survive if they're accidentally dropped or knocked I'm set.
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Respect isn't learned, it's earned.

Size ABSOLUTELY does limit power. There's a reason why high-end video cards have big dual-slot coolers, and gamers put big heatsink/fans on their CPUs.

Powerful computer components, running at high clockspeeds, produce a lot of heat. That requires large heatsinks, cooling fans, and plenty of ventilation to keep it cool.

So stop fooling yourself. There is definitely a tradeoff between how compact the system is and how powerful it can be.
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Nintendo stock price the day before WiiU was announced: 26510
Nintendo stock price today: 10340