![]() ![]() If you hated the Wii U's sluggish menus, the Switch's are a full 180. On the software side, what a difference from five years ago. Affixing the dock to whatever you've set it on (with Velcro, say, or a two-sided adhesive) might not be a silly idea. The bad is that if you're playing with the cable attached and accidentally tug on or trip over it, the Switch and dock are coming off the shelf because they weigh so little. The good news is that the Pro controller runs for about 40 hours per charge. While I admire its ergonomics, the cable comes up short at about 4 feet. I've been playing a lot with the Pro controller ( sold separately for $69), which connects to the dock via USB-C (the Joy-Cons can be attached to a Grip included with the Switch that approximates a gamepad, but the Pro controller feels miles better). My only concern is with the dock's ability to stay in place on a shelf. The dock's rear HDMI, power and USB 3.0 connections are protected by a cable-management panel, and you get two more USB 2.0 ports along the left exterior. Hopefully Nintendo's expected launch day patch addresses this.ĭropping the Switch back in its dock is both effortless and click-less, a process that uses gravity and nothing more. It's a potential pain point if your play schedule doesn't include breathers for the system to gulp down electricity. But there seems to be a glitch when it's charging through the dock, where it gets to the high 80s or low 90s, then stops. When running off a wall outlet with the USB-C power adapter plugged directly into the Switch, it charges even faster. I was able to charge the Switch on the go while playing Breath of the Wild hitched to my minivan's AC outlet, regaining about 1% of charge every 5 minutes. Add a roomy battery pack and the idea that you might be able to play upcoming games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or Splatoon 2 for the better part of a working day, AC power-free and nonstop, is nothing short of astonishing. In practice, the fact that I've managed to get about 3 hours out of a game as hungry as Breath of the Wild is impressive. Read more: We tied 1-2-Switch, Nintendo's party game for its new consoleīattery life may seem unexceptional at 2.5 to 6 hours rated, but it's in line with what you'd expect from a smartphone or Nintendo's own 3DS. They've been inadvertently tossed, smashed together by two people throwing "air punches" who weren't standing far enough apart, and torqued on in ways I'm certain would have threatened lesser remotes. I have yet to drop the Switch (Nintendo cautions against it), but I've certainly abused the Joy-Cons, which have yet to complain. That you can drag the Joy-Cons over hill and dale, to say nothing of the Switch itself, raises the question of how durable all these moving parts are. ![]() Read more: Here's every Nintendo Switch launch title If your hands get tired in this mode, you can slide the Joy-Cons up and off (a tiny release button behind each lets them disengage), prop the Switch on a flat surface with its rear kickstand, then continue playing wirelessly, your hands free to roam like creatures loosed from cages. ![]() At roughly the same weight as an iPad mini (about 300 grams), it's compact enough to make playing games comfy. You simply pull the rectangular slate-bookended by a pair of motion control sticks capable of advanced haptic feedback Nintendo calls Joy-Cons-from its U-shaped dock, and presto, it's a handheld.Īs a handheld, the Switch feels respectably rigid and durable, an unostentatious but beautiful carbon-black slate that's like a blue collar version of an Apple product. There are no bending limbs or hidden robot heads lurking beneath its vivid capacitive multitouch 720p screen or beveled matte-finish plastic housing. It is on one level simply what it claims to be: a respectably powerful $299 TV games console you can buy on March 3 that also transforms into a handheld gaming powerhouse. The most important thing to know about Nintendo Switch is, drum roll please, that there's surprisingly little to know at this point. ![]()
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