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[moltonasty]

What I don't get, is that if it has touch screen, what happens when docked? I guess touch screen is for portable use only if it's there? Kinda weird..

 

[EatinOlives]

No touch makes it useless in pure tablet form.

Handheld only touch games should be possible. It's also an incentive for people to undock it and carry it around with them.

Huge fuck up if it isn't touch.

Looking at the tablet, absolutely nobody in the non-gaming world would ever doubt that it has touch. We're at the point in technology where a slab-shaped handheld piece of electronics covered with glass or clear plastic and a screen on one side is touch-enabled. It's not like it's costly either. My cheapo Amazon Kindle tablet I bought for $35 total has touch. There's no reason why this can't.

I imagine Nintendo's secrecy is due to there being some features or caveats to touch controls (e.g., only menus, apps, and web browser, or something) but they don't want to overcomplicate the reveal so they're sticking to the basics for now.

 

[Zarovitch]

I'm not a techy person so this is my question to someone who is in this thread.

Isn't it possible the dock could "over clock" the gpu, CPU and all that jazz in the tablet when placed to sufficiently "providing more power"?

It more like. Without the dock, cpu gpu are downclock to save batterie.

 

[KingJ2002]

"main" and "only" are two different things.. dock could still have extra functionality for the switch that they haven't commented on.

What is proving true is that the system will provide current gen graphics... may not be the best but it will be on par with base xbox one and ps4... and if the docking station does provide an extra bit of power... Nintendo could offer a standalone base station upgrade in the future to allow 4K support for gaming.

 

[Owari]

Having a tablet like decide with no touch would be ridiculous, even for Nintendo standards. Would any sane person design a handheld device that's going to run apps like Facebook or Netflix without some sort of touch based solution in place? If I'm just gonna watch a movie or browse the web on that thing, I don't want those controllers attached, and I don't want to have to have one of those joypads around to navigate. Is the device just going to be a brick when the pads aren't attached?

I don't buy it, not even Nintendo is that inane.

Not to mention on screen button opportunities missed by making it a regular screen.

 

[Jawbreaker]

As someone who has never done any serious gaming on a laptop, I do not know whether or not this post is sarcastic

That's not sarcasm.

 

[jmizzal]

It says "and providing power to the system" too

 

[Da-Kid]

It more like. Without the dock, cpu gpu are downclock to save batterie.

Yeah, same thing overall. I think this may be the case.

 

[R_thanatos]

When asked if the Nintendo Switch will have touchscreen support, Nintendo declined to comment.

That's not good news.

That's even stupid

 

[Kyrios]

This thing is going to be under $200. I can feel it.

If it is then guaranteed Day 1 for me then lol

 

[Durante]

What else did people think it was for?

These possibilities were thrown around

• Cooling the console better to introduce a higher-powered mode with higher clock speeds.
• Attaching an entire secondary GPU (preferably an AMD one I believe).

Of course, those of us familiar with Nintendo's MO were exceedingly doubtful of them introducing this type of complexity for "more power", which isn't something they care about in the first place. Especially the whole "GPU in the dock" idea always seemed absurd to me.

 

[Okami Haundo]

This. It's too big for just output and charging. Fuck, all you need is an HDMI cord and micro USB if it was just that. Something's fishy.

I see your suspicion and raise two counter points:

- A smaller dock would presumably be much lighter and therefore at the mercy of the HDMI/power cords plugged into it.
- A larger dock is more user friendly to place the console into. Children especially would mangle the heck out of a handheld that you just plug HDMI/power directly into on a regular basis.

 

[SynthFetish]

Well I don´t like the "charging up"-part. Constantly beeing charged up is not good for the battery afaik

Batteries are smarter now, smart phones and laptops, for example, have a chip that regulates the charge so it is not damaging the battery.
Nintendo wouldn't neglect something so common as a system to regulate battery health.

 

[Devilgunman]

"main" and "only" are two different things.. dock could still have extra functionality for the switch that they haven't commented on.

What is proving true is that the system will provide current gen graphics... may not be the best but it will be on par with base xbox one and ps4... and if the docking station does provide an extra bit of power... Nintendo could offer a standalone base station upgrade in the future to allow 4K support for gaming.

When did this happen? Am I missing something?

 

[Cheeseman Battitude]

This thing is going to be under $200. I can feel it.

I don't think so. $200 is currently £163 which feels a bit too cheap for what is probably going to be one of the most powerful gaming tablets around, comes with two (small) controllers and a docking station.

 

[Weebos]

As someone who has never done any serious gaming on a laptop, I do not know whether or not this post is sarcastic

It's not.

 

[Dark Cloud]

Nintendo made the right move. The dock had to be simple to keep it cheap.

This thing is guaranteed $199 I feel.

 

[NotLiquid]

This isn't necessarily too big of a deal since they can probably scale down a lot of relatively powerful technology into the portable unit itself (and its pretty sizable to boot). It might not reach the current gen twins, let alone their successors, but I expect the hardware will run well on TV. The screen and portable experience, as well as the way they're maintained, seem to imply as much with the whole downclocking theory.

 

[m_shortpants]

So it just going to be upscaling to 1080 ?

Or will it down sample when not docked?

Or just be locked to 720m

 

[Boney]

So basically it's a psp go. It's a lot tidier I guess.

 

[Retrobox]

Welp, let's hope that Nintendo with the Switch isn't literally out of touch, amiright?

 

[lenovox1]

As someone who has never done any serious gaming on a laptop, I do not know whether or not this post is sarcastic

It was a rhetorical question. It wasn't sarcastic.

But, yes, Windows provides different "power plans."

Tablet mode would be like "Power Saver" and docked mode would be like "High Performance" modes on PCs.

 

[jmizzal]

That's not good news.

That's even stupid

It will have touch screen, its prob multitouch something Nintendo systems never had, so they want to announce that when they give up all features

 

[Ataru]

I was really hoping the tablet could video stream to the dock. I actually LIKE dual-screen support, even if it's optional... I don't want my maps and GUI on the main screen.

It's also nice for certain multiplayer games, so each player can have their own private screen. Plus, without it, you can't have any sort of backwards compatibility with Wii-U games.

What's odd though, is you don't see any sort of on-screen map during the Splatoon footage, so there might be something Nintendo isn't telling us yet...

 

[Hockeymac18]

No comment on touch reads like no touch to me.

Or it just means that games don't have any touch capabilities (to maintain compatibility between "console" mode and "mobile" mode).

I'd be very surprised if the screen itself wasn't touch, mainly for getting around the menu and selecting things...or maybe in some select applications that are designed for "mobile" mode.

 

[lenovox1]

So it just going to be upscaling to 1080 ?

Or will it down sample when not docked?

Or just be locked to 720m

For developers that choose to do so, there will likely be two separate resolutions you can develop games for. The device would then do what Windows has been doing for decades and go from one resolution to another based on context.

 

[MaDKaT]

Or we could just believe what Nintendo are openly saying.

Yep, but that certainly doesn't seem to be dissuading discussion about more.

 

[btrboyev]

Third time saying this, but you have no idea how disappointed I am with this hardware. Looks super weak.

 

[hohoXD123]

It will have touch screen, its prob multitouch something Nintendo systems never had, so they want to announce that when they give up all features

In a world where multitouch smartphones and tablets have become ubiquitous, releasing a tablet-like device and holding off on announcing its multitouch capabilities as a surprise seems a bit silly.

 

[DragonSworne]

I bet when not docked the system runs in a lower mode to conserve battery power than when it is docked.

That would explain why Zelda looked like it was at a lower frame rate than when it was docked.

 

[Father_Brain]

Or it just means that games don't have any touch capabilities (to maintain compatibility between "console" mode and "mobile" mode).

I'd be very surprised if the screen itself wasn't touch, mainly for getting around the menu and selecting things...or maybe in some select applications that are designed for "mobile" mode.

https://twitter.com/LaurakBuzz/status/789130195055804416

Rumor is that the touchscreen is there, but all games are required to be playable in dock mode when the screen is inaccessible. So don't expect too many straight ports of mobile games.

 

[MCN]

Third time saying this, but you have no idea how disappointed I am with this hardware. Looks super weak.

We know. You keep saying. You don't need to keep saying.

 

[OCD Guy]

Third time saying this, but you have no idea how disappointed I am with this hardware. Looks super weak.

I'm surprised people were expecting powerful hardware.

It was never going to be the equivalent of the Scorpio. Nintendo have also made it clear they're not interested in the spec wars.

Are you not looking forward to the games?

The Wii U was weak but games looked good enough, most ran at 60fps and more importantly were fun to play. I'm not a Nintendo apologist, my dream would be a balls out console but I've accepted it won't happen.

Although as a portable it's pretty impressive.

 

[what-ok]

Any details left out of today's teaser is the real gimmick. Sure there is reason that the full reveal didn't happen yet.

 

[Skittzo0413]

This thing is going to be under $200. I can feel it.

Mhm you and I agree there. At that price this thing will sell gangbusters.

 

[Plinko]

That would be something. I wonder what R&D on this thing is. It's a screen with an NVIDIA chip and a dock. Doesn't look like that much research went into it and if they have a good deal with NVIDIA it should be cheap to manufacture.

Keep in mind:

1) 720p screens aren't that expensive
2) Cartridges mean no optical disc drive, reducing cost
3) Controllers probably use that patent with the unique input scheme, meaning internals in the controller won't be expensive
4) The deal Nintendo got with Nvidia was reportedly insanely slanted in Nintendo's behavior--even rumored to be Nvidia either breaking even or even losing money (this news was included in the breaking of the Nvidia story by Semi-Accurate, which many brushed off but now is obviously true)
5) Multiple rumors (most recent being MCV) stating Nintendo was going for a surprisingly low entry price

I'm not seeing where this cost is going to be expensive.

 

[Yautja_Warrior]

If it has a touch screen, I can't see it being a major feature, as you can't use it when its docked for TV use.

For that reason, I don't think it will have a touch screen to keep cost down.

 

[10k]

Thanks to casey_contra

Booooooo

 

[Ataru]

Third time saying this, but you have no idea how disappointed I am with this hardware. Looks super weak.

It looks surprisingly powerful, for a hand-held.

 

[Stumpokapow]

And now we get to analyze this line for months.


Sounds like they lower the CPU speed in portable mode, which makes sense. So ostensibly, yes, better performance when plugged in.

You could easily infer that based on leaks and I'm not saying that's wrong, but "provides power to" pretty clearly is intended to refer to AC power, not horsepower.

 

[mario_O]

Reggie:"we will have to be more clear in presenting NX than we did with WiiU"
Are tjey kidding right? why the hell can't they say if that's a touch screen or not(which would be so awful) also still no date for a full reveal with details about specs, battery, OS, online etc...Come on Nintendo what's the point of that?

Yeah, this pre-view ad was to show the 'casuals' clearly what's the new gimmick. Probably scared of the marketing mistakes with the WiiU. But I think it has left some people unsatisfied; the new gimmick isn't that innovative or mind blowing. And the hardcore crowd already knew what it was. They need a full reveal asap.

 

[GustyGardens]

What they're saying is true, but that doesn't mean the dock doesn't do more than output to the TV and charge the device. I mean, there are USB ports on the side of the thing, so it obviously does more than those two things. Does it add more juice to the system? Who knows, but 5 months isn't that long of a wait.

 

[what-ok]

It looks surprisingly powerful, for a hand-held.

"Portable Console" I kid.

 

[spons]

Even if it has a touch screen it doesn't seem important for gameplay. Maybe for some basic web browsing, but otherwise it's a non-feature.

And that sounds good to me.

 

[mrklaw]

Dock is big probably just to protect the screen from bumps when you're using it as a 'home' console, and to help to be easy to slide in/out vs carefully lining up on a shallow dock like the annoying iPhone Lightning dock or vita charging dock

 

[ronaldthump]

No rumoured extra graphical grunt from the base unit is disappointing. The idea that it's a mobile chip would make pretty much everything running on it, the worst version of everygame (I can imagine the digital foundry breakdowns now)

 

[WiiRevolution1]

Um, as a gandheld only player I really really hope you can charge the Switch without the dock. I must play while charging!

 

[Horsefly]

So can I buy more docking stations for other screens in the house?

 

[lenovox1]

Third time saying this, but you have no idea how disappointed I am with this hardware. Looks super weak.

That's premature, but okay.

 

[Jackpot]

So the "console" is the tablet.

You can cram as much power as you want into it but when your dimensions are limited to the size of a portable screen there's only so much you can do.