Could they be pushing Haptic Feedback? Some off topic observations ahead, (bare with me you may find something here you didnt know before or maybe not, but its an insight in how intricate Nintendo have been in the past) but one things for sure, alleged being aesthetically reminiscent of the Super Famicom, it will somehow feature 'The Four Nintendo Colours' red, yellow, blue and green, as the Super Famicom and every home console since, N64 controllers featured this tradition, as did the GC, which had 64 holes on either side making 128 (bit) i believe the GC used a gekko cpu, a flipper gpu (project dolphin) and used splash memory, within the build of the console, the memory situated at the bottom of the cubed shaped hardware, then the flipper, then the gekko, (japanese for moon?) painting a picture of a dolphin breaking the surface of the waves in the moonlight.
Also the Wii carried the mark in its power button indicator, red for standby, green for powered, yellow online, and the blue diskslot light. (which flashes in sync with the morning call of a japanese bird when you have an update.
The 3DS breaks the rule in being the first handheld (may have to double check my GB Micro) to feature the colours, though (like Wii) you dont see them all unless you open the 3DS, and turn on the wifi, power light blue, wifi yellow, 3D slider green, turn on the camera mode for the reddish pink glow of the Super Famicom/NES power light.
Forget speculation, this information concrete, it might not be much but just remember you heard it here first.