Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire put some of the series' biggest advancements right in your pocket (preview)

The Pokédex is feeling a lot more like a smartphone these days.

The device began as a straightforward encyclopedia of sorts during the early Red and Blue age of the Pokémon franchise. Each new generation of releases has added new features to the Pokédex. While Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are upcoming remakes of the Game Boy Advance-generation games, they may be taking the broadest step toward smoothing out a decade’s worth of tedium with the latest Pokédex applications. I recently spent an hour with Alpha Sapphire’s preview version at a Nintendo event, and it felt more like a legitimate Pokemon trainer and hunter than ever before.