The brand is already devalued in regards to home consoles. They'll never sell if they retail in the same ballpark as PS4 or Xbox One (even with third party support).
They need to position themselves as a powerful but cheap alternative for the masses..and as a good value second console for core gamers.
I agree 100%. But I think that means a $250 price point, like the Wii, not $150-200 for a home console/hybrid. If they have to go that cheap, then it's pretty stupid to bother making hardware period. There only real justification for doing so is that they tend to sell their hardware at decent profit margins, unlike Sony and MS. If they can't make decent money from console hardware anymore, then they need to drop it ands focus on portable and mobile, maybe their own battle.net like PC ecosystem etc.
Why would the docking station give processing power?
You can just either shut down cores, or underclock the tegra for handheld mode (battery efficient) & 540/720p display. When powered through the dock, it goes back to normal operation @ 1080p. All with the same processor. Adding processing power to the dock + X1 would make things a lot more expensive than just having latest tech like X2 that would be 1) more powerful, 2) much better 16nm finfet process, 3) lower TDP, 4) less heat.
People are just saying it will get a boost up to 1080p etc. when docked. It doesn't matter whether that's just the dock providing more power and cooling to allow the processors in the screen unit to over clock, some extra processing power in the dock or both is irrelevant and can only be speculated about. No one being reasonable is expecting the dock to be super powerful and provide a gigantic boost on part with PS4 or anything.
But they need to get it running games on TV that look noticeably better than Wii U or it will be a non-starter to the western big screen gaming crowd. Unless this truly is just the 3DS successor and they have a true console up their sleeve too. But that seems unlikely at this point.
No it isn't. All rumours and "paper" specs lead to a concoction of mobile and handheld gaming on a device that doesn't cater to home console owners (read PS4/XB1). The fact that it outputs video to your TV doesn't help that.
And let's be honest a large part of Nintendo fans were expecting the NX to be on par with current gen consoles from Sony/MS.
First, the vast majority not PS4/XB1 gamers don't give a shit about Nintendo and wouldn't buy a Nintendo console even if on par with their current platform(s). They don't want to play Nintendo's "kiddy" games as evidenced by the lack of those types of games, shit sales for games like Rayman on those platforms etc. Conversely, a lot of Nintendo diehards don't like those platforms as they don't like realistic graphic styles and "dude bro" games.
Once you get out of the hardcore on sites like this, there's just not a huge amount of overlap in gamers who love CoD, GTA, Halo, Uncharted etc. and those who love Mario, Pokemon et al.
Second, anyone expecting a super powered Nintendo consoled were fooling themselves. There's no market for that. People aren't paying $400+ for Nintendo hardware. Especially mid generation when gamers that will pay that for a console already have one or more consoles in their home.
Nintendo's only chance at hardware relevancy is finding a way to sell enough machines to their base of current and lapsed fans (true fans, not the Wii Sports/Brain Age crowd--people that grew up with Mario, Zelda et al) and future gamers that can play all their games. Their games sell with high attach rates at full price for longer than games on the competition. They can make huge profits with a smaller base than Sony or MS need.