Well the Wii U has a price of $300 and is 5-6 years older than the NX.
The Wii U Gamepad is IIRC $150, making the actual Wii U console $150
Now lets say that the actual NX console is $150, probably $200 to account for a new controller (without a screen)
This means that the NX will use the same priced hardware as the Wii U, however 5 years newer and for $200
This won't be overly significant, we will be lucky for it to be as powerful as the PS4 and you can bet there's no way they're going to have 8gb or RAM.
Nintendo have struggled with long development times on the Wii U due to the higher graphics, so not only would they not want to use a high spec console but it would be detrimental to the fans by making them wait even longer for games than we have had to this generation.
I think it is fantastic to have such a cheap console, because really all I use nintendo systems for is to play first party titles, so it's not worth it to spend so much on a system that I will only be playing several games on.