Update:

Occasional Nintendo Life contributor Liam Robertson has passed us some information from a source that has access to prototype hardware for the 'NX'. They've advised that the images 'aren't legit', and we're certainly inclined to have faith in that source. Of course, as is the nature with rumours they are all to be taken with a grain of salt.

Original Article:

The apparent 'leaks' of the Nintendo NX have stepped up a notch again, with Reddit once again to the fore. What we have are two images that closely resembles the unit supposedly leaked late last week, except this time the unit is in black and the images are of a far higher quality.

As you can see below, once again it's a close follow of a free-form screen patent from late 2015; that could be considered a red flag. Final products don't always match up so closely to patent illustrations; the patent in question was for hardware with a screen that goes beyond the control nubs, with shoulder inputs and various touch / motion inputs.

NX rumour.jpg
NX rumour2.jpg

'Perkele37' was the poster on Reddit, and said the following along with the images.

  • Only the upper 'nubs' of the sticks move. The bottom part is static (kind of like the circle pad, but it moves along the bottom 'sphere'.
  • The rollers on the top feel and look pretty much identical to a mouse scroll-wheel. Though I do don't believe this will be the final design.[sic]
  • Haptic feedback is feels like Apples 'taptic' engine.[sic] Not like regular rumble.
  • 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom

We were very unsure of the original leak, but with quality images and the general environment here we're less sure of writing them off. The relation to the patent and some mutterings around the web suggest that the images do portray what some believe to be the general focus of the NX hardware. On the flipside this could be a real product that's not actually a Nintendo development kit or prototype; it could be a controller / handset from another manufacturer that's being posed as the NX.

There's no definitive proof, but there's certainly a sense online that the leaked images of this controller as NX hardware could be gaining credibility.

What do you think, could this be the real deal?

[source reddit.com]