The iPad Mini starts at $500. And the iPad—wow—it's $350 for real. It has 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM. The Switch 2 has 256GB and 12GB. It also has controllers. On paper the iPad seems to be a better value. However, in 6 years the Switch 2 will probably still be receiving updates and new games, but the iPad will be unsupported and barely able to load a web page with its 6GB of memory. Also the Switch 2 has Mario Kart which I personally think is a big deal.
Regardless I don't think a $225 price was ever realistic. Today a new Switch console costs $300. In today's dollars, the launch price of a Switch is $393, and that'll be $396 come June. The Switch 2 hardware is way better; a bigger screen, more pixels, higher refresh rate, more memory and storage, faster processor, better battery life, and a more sophisticated and convenient joycon connection.
Edit: also I would never cross-shop between the iPad and Switch 2. But I might between the Switch 2 and Steam Deck. For $400 the Steam Deck offers 16GB of memory and the same storage space. But it doesn't have detachable and easily-replaced controllers. It also doesn't have Mario Kart, good ray tracing, or good DLSS.
Do schools let kids install their own apps on their Chromebooks? Would parents let them play games on it? I don't think I would be a fan of my kid using a school device to play games. Then games come to mind just by opening your homework device. I may be an oddity though. I probably wouldn't enroll my kid in a school that doesn't have old-fashioned textbooks, at least for some subjects.
I use iPad because that is a common touchstone for an "offensively overpriced product, but at least it's made out of pretty nice materials and can do just about everything, instead of being a locked-down plastic kid's toy"
Also if I had pointed out the PS5 launched at $399 I would have sounded like a blind fanboy, even though I never bought/don't want a PS5. Then you have to go into a whole thing about PS5 having way better specs and way more storage despite being almost 5 years old (for the 1% of people who actually care enough about specs to only buy the best), Xbox Series X having even better specs (but nobody bought it), Sony raising prices on old garbage that nobody should buy, the offensively priced PS5 pro, differences between console vs portable gaming.
But none of it matters - because Nintendo promised their first party games are going to cost $90, so I'm never going to buy it.
It's the principal of it. I wish I could say I had real self-control, but this is coming from somebody who has money and who semi-regularly impulse buys $450 on electronic devices I don't even take out of the box more than once - although usually those are microphones. I have no self control but, for this, I am making a rare exception.
It would be nice, at least, If I could understand who this is even supposed to be for, though. Adults with disposable cash have high end phones, and would expect better than toy-grade materials in a portable at this price. Kids might not care, but they also don't have $500.
Although you do make a good point: The Switch never got a price drop. Ever.
Arguably it got a de facto price hike with the OLED version getting manufacturing priority during the supply chain crisis.
And as for chromebook games - there's a reason why the chrome OS version of minecraft is "Minecraft education edition", and that's only partly because chrome OS apps are near-universally unoptimized garbage-tier ports of android apps (or usually the literal android app, which ends up not working without a touchscreen). Chrome OS has almost zero real dev support, but Microsoft was so scared of chromebooks that Windows 11 is essentially a Chrome OS ripoff. Like 70 million kids got these things overnight, and they barely have a functional first-party YouTube App.
Besides, kids know how to get around parental controls, its never hard. Life finds a way. Limitations are where creativity is supposed to thrive - At least, that's what devs for playdate probably kept telling themselves.
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