There are only two types of people who should buy Nintendo's new $200 Switch Lite

When I was a kid, my parents bought me my very own Nintendo console — a Game Boy Color — as a reward for undergoing a difficult dental operation. I fell in love with it instantly.

It's easy to create a bond with portable devices; just ask anyone with a smartphone. We hold them in our hands, put them right up to our faces, and they offer us distractions, entertainment, and more. While most young kids probably don't (and shouldn't) have smartphones, the Nintendo Switch Lite can fill that void in terms of having a portable device to love and cherish.

The Nintendo Switch Lite has several advantages over the original Switch, especially for kids: It's smaller and lighter, thus more portable. It offers more battery life, so you can play for longer periods of time. There are fewer moving parts, so there's no flimsy kickstand to possibly break and you can't remove the handheld controllers. And it comes in playful, adorable colors that make it feel approachable, like you want to reach out and touch it.

Of course, there's also the games themselves. The Nintendo Switch Lite can only play Switch games that support handheld mode, but that's the vast majority of titles, so people who spend $100 less on their consoles shouldn't be missing out on much.

The Nintendo Switch's main gimmick is its ability to switch between different modes of play: as a handheld device, on a tabletop device, or on your TV.

The Nintendo Switch Lite can only be played in handheld mode. (It probably shouldn't have "Switch" in its name, to be honest.)

So, yes, you can save $100 and buy a Switch Lite instead of a traditional Switch, but you'd be missing out on several crucial features:

• The ability to play Switch games on your television
• The ability to play Switch games on a tabletop
• The ability to remove your controllers from the Switch so you can give one to a friend for multiplayer experiences
• The ability to play Nintendo Switch games that don't support handheld mode
• The ability to use the Switch's HD Rumble feature, which can make games feel more visceral
• The ability to use one of your Switch controllers as an IR Motion Camera
• You're also getting a smaller screen compared to the original Switch.

In my opinion, these trade-offs are not worth the $100 difference. Even if you think you're going to play this console in handheld mode most of the time, you should still buy the original Switch — just in case you feel like playing on your TV, or with friends, on occasion.

I've owned a Switch since March 2017 and I almost exclusively play the console in TV mode, even though I love handheld mode when I'm traveling. Being able to switch between these various modes, in my opinion, is the console's main appeal. Removing that crucial feature makes the Nintendo Switch Lite an appealing handheld device, but it's a completely different value proposition compared to the original Switch.

The Nintendo Switch Lite makes sense for young kids, who will love any portable console they get to keep, and for parents who want to save some money and limit where their kids can play, but everyone else should buy the original Switch. For an extra $100, you're getting way more than the Switch Lite, including the flexibility to play games however you want.

Nintendo Switch Lite goes on sale September 20.