I personally think it's better to have the option of having your own choice of what to use as storage.
Well of course you do. Nintendo did it so you think it's the best thing to do.
If, instead, they'd announced they were releasing the machine with a reasonable amount of storage you would be telling us how that was the right thing to do.
A base model with a small drive makes sense. A premium model with a reasonable amount of space makes sense. Nintendo eschewed that logic, though, and made a base model with a small drive and a premium model with a small drive.
The 32gb model makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
And as I've already mentioned there's no limit to the size or speed of the drive either.
Of course there's a limit to the speed - they've opted to go with USB2.
It's just like last gen when they gave the wii an SD slot - which was limited to SD and wouldn't take SDHC. They had a proper brain fart there.
I'd much rather pay £299.99 for a U with 32GB of on-board flash than £399.99 or more for one with a 500GB internal drive that's twice the size and twice as loud.
a) I'd much rather pay £200 than £300. Because the bundle's worth about £200.
b) Why not save yourself £70 and get the base model instead, then?
[heh - I see Kieron beat me to that point while I was typing]c) And how on earth do you come to the conclusion that using a 500gb 2.5" drive instead of a 32gb flash drive would add a hundred quid to the machine?! It'd add about £30, not £100 (based on 32gb flash drives being about £10 and 500gb portable drives approx £40. I've seen models of both retailing for around those prices. Nintendo could presumably get them a lot cheaper - the real price increase of putting a 500gb drive in instead of a 32gb one is probably closer to £20, but I'll round it up to £30.) Also, the drive would not double the size of the console, nor make it noisy. I use portable drives every day - they're small, generate no heat, are completely inaudible even if running non-stop for hours, and have perfectly adequate transfer speeds.
Mind you, even if Nintendo managed to release a console with the same spec as the 720 with a 3TB hard drive and people would still find something to complain about lol
Yes they would. I'll even tell you what it is they'd complain about. It'd be the price - because Nintendo would be asking for two hundred quid more than Microsoft would.
Look at it this way. Since the 360's release in 2005 we've effectively now been asked the question:
do you want to wait 7 years for something that's twice as powerful - and costs £300; or
do you want to wait 8 years for something that's eight times as powerful - and costs £400?
If there was any sense in the world nobody would go with option a. There's a lot of idiots, though, with more money than sense; and there's a lot of parents under pressure to get the latest toys, so the U will sell - despite all rationale.