And it runs fine on the handled mode, that's not disappointing.
It not running in docked mode as well as in handheld mode is more that enough to call it disappointing.
It goes against the very concept of the switch. Nintendo sells it as an hybrid that allows you to seamlessly transion from the tv to the switch sreen, and back to the tv, and you're paying for that (300$/330€, definitely not the price of a "handheld").
Nintendo doesn't need to directly say
"i promise, games are going to run the same one way or the other". When you see an ad where someone is playing on the tv, then suddenly picks up the switch and continues playing on the go, people are naturally going to assume that you're going to be playing the same game, running as it was running before changing modes (gameplay at least, and that includes the framerate). Isn't that part of what that scene is implying?
-
"You see, if you have to go, you can continue playing same as you were doing just now on the tv, but on the switch!" tv -> switch
(this being a framerate upgrade right now)
or the other way around
-
"you're already home? enjoy the same game you were playing on the switch just now, but on the tv!" switch -> tv
(this being a framerate downgrade righ now)
I would certainly expect to have the same experience (in both modes). You can't tell me that the system is super versatile and then add
"but for best results, use it this way".
Finally, nintendo not prioritizing framerate over resolution (if that ends up being the case) makes absolute no sense to me. If they really wanted to up the resolution in docked mode, they would need to make sure that the hardware allowed them to make the change while maintaining the gameplay intact. It's that, or simply passing the image from the handheld to the tv, with the original resolution intanct. It's one or the other, but you don't go in between (especially if you're nintendo and you always put a lot of care on stable frame rates).
We'll see how this plays out.