Design
- Three form factors; handheld, console (docked) and tabletop
- Lots of accessories, which are at risk of being misplaced
In the Nintendo Switch box you get the main body of the console, complete with two detachable controller sides, a grip which enables you to combine these controller portions into a more traditional gamepad, two straps which can be attached to these sides to make them into two individual controllers, and a dock that allows you to plug the console into your television.
You also get a USB Type-C power cable (with a non-detachable power brick) and an HDMI cable for connecting the device to your TV.
If you think that sounds like a lot of accessories then you’d be right, and we suspect a lot of people are going to end up misplacing at least one or two of them after some months with the console.
We’ve taken to wrapping our Joy-Con straps around our Joy-Con grip just to keep everything together, but it would be great if there was some way of attaching them to the console so they don’t end up getting misplaced.
It’s a pretty novel (not to mention somewhat complicated) setup, so it’s worth delving into each of the different ways you can use the console.
Graphical performance
- Roughly equivalent to Wii U
- Not as good as PS4 or Xbox One
- Strength of Nintendo's art direction makes up for technical shortcomings
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, for example, runs at a resolution of 720p on the Wii U, while this is boosted to 900p on the Switch when docked and outputting to a Full HD screen (4K output is not supported).
On the surface this suggests the Switch has the graphical edge on the Wii U, but we experienced frequent frame rate drops when playing the game on our television.
Meanwhile, when played on the Switch’s own 720p screen, the game maintained a consistent frame rate.
We haven’t yet had a chance to play the Wii U version of the game, but these initial observations suggest that we’re looking at a new console with roughly equivalent power to Nintendo’s last-generation system.
Other launch games, such as 1-2 Switch and Just Dance 2017, don’t suffer from these same performance hiccups, although both are less graphically intensive than Breath of the Wild.
Nintendo has never been one to push the graphical envelope. Past games such as the Wii U’s Mario Kart 8 have certainly looked good, but this has been more as a result of their distinctive art style than the technical prowess of their graphics.
Thankfully this has tended to be a strong suit of Nintendo’s in the past.
The look of the games (in handheld mode at least) is also helped by the quality of the Switch’s screen. Although it’s only 720p resolution, the screen is bright and its colours are vibrant. It’s not up there with the best smartphones on the market, but it’s a step above Nintendo’s past handhelds.
We'll have to see what the Nintendo Switch achieves in the graphical department going forward, but we don’t expect this to be a console to rival the graphics of the PS4 and Xbox One.
The games we’ve seen look very good for handheld games, but as console games they don’t quite have the same fidelity of current-generation games on other consoles.
Battery life
- As low as 2.5 hours for graphically intensive games
- Enough for a commute, but longer journeys might prove problematic
- Ability to charge over USB allows use of portable battery packs
Much has been made of the Switch’s battery life, which Nintendo has claimed will last between 2.5 and 6 hours.
In our experience this claim has rung true. When actively playing Zelda we got around 2.5 hours, which was enough to cover our commute to and from work in a single day before we charged the Switch overnight.
If you’re looking to use the console for a longer period, such as on a flight, then this 2.5 hour battery life will be problematic. Charging over USB should allow you to make use of portable battery packs, but this is hardly ideal.
It’s difficult to compare this battery life to previous handheld consoles, as even on the Switch itself this battery life will vary massively between different games, but a recent rest-mode comparison put the Switch ahead of the Vita, PSP and 3DS, although it loses out to the DS and GameBoy Advance.
The bottom line is that this is a console that should be able to deal with your daily commute, but might struggle with longer journeys.
our verdict
We liked
When compared with the handheld consoles that have come before it, the Nintendo Switch blows them out of the water with its graphical quality, which comes close to the last generation of consoles.
This is helped by its impressive screen which is bright, crisp, and colorful.
Providing the console with a controller that also doubles as two individual controllers is a very neat inclusion, and should mean that you’re never unable to join a friend for a quick multiplayer game while you’re out and about.
The docking and undocking process is impressively seamless, with games that don’t even need to be paused before being plugged into a television.
We disliked
The phrase ‘jack of all trades and master of none’ may sound negative, but the impression the Nintendo Switch has left us with is that sometimes compromise is a necessary, good thing.
Yes there are better home consoles out there with controllers that can be good at doing just one thing, and yes there are handhelds out there that have better battery life and a more compact form-factor, but no other piece of gaming hardware has attempted the sheer amount of things as the Nintendo Switch and delivered so competently on so many of them.
The graphics aren’t the best around, but they’re good enough that they don’t feel dated. The controller isn’t the most comfortable, but it never feels outright difficult to use. The battery life isn’t the best, but its enough for daily use.
All of these have been born out of compromise and an attempt to make something that works in so many situations, and on that final point the Nintendo Switch is a great success.
What remains to be seen is if, in the years ahead, its games library can shape up to be something you’ll want to play both at home and on the go, and whether its online service can compete with the existing efforts from Sony and Microsoft.
If both of these play out well, then Nintendo will have found a compromise worth making.
0 commentaires: