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Nintendo Switch | Hardware Review Thread

spekkeh

Banned
The Wii U/3DS menu is super sluggish, but I liked how playful it was. Seeing the Miis running to the plaza in Wii U, just the joy of finding someone in Streetpass in 3DS, or just looking at the row of Miis in Streetpass Plaza. It was something that feels like only Nintendo devices would have.

Switch's menu looks very slick and quick by comparison, at the expense of those fluff, if you might say so. Usability-wise it's definitely better, but I'm feeling nostalgic already. Have a rest, Nikki :(
Yeah I'm really sad Miiverse is out, that was something truly unique. The only online game community that was friendly and creative.
Then again the slowness of Wii U was awwfffuuul.
 

Wallach

Member
Great DF review. Probably the only really useful one I've seen so far.

Looking forward to getting my hands on it Friday.
 

MoonFrog

Member
Wonder if I'll have the desync issue with my setup, from all the circumstances given so far, it doesn't seem so. Regretting I didn't pre-order a pro controller, with all the grip complaints thrown in too.

Glad to hear the mostly favorable take to it as a handheld.

Surprised at the "cancel" or "glad I didn't pre-order" talk. The reviews seem to not be revealing any positives or negatives we hadn't already been hearing these past couple days (or months). Just in a more measured fashion than you see on boards.
 
My concern is that if it becomes a wide spread problem it will affect the overall success of the hardware, which will still affect me in the long term.

For me it was enough to wait until I am sure those problems are corrected. Still hope everyone enjoy's their launch systems and that the platform does really well. :)
 

Zedark

Member
According to DF, Zelda can be played just over 3 hours with brightness low (3 hours 5 minutes) or 50% (3 hours 3 minutes), volume 50% and wifi enabled. Seems pretty good.
 

RK128

Member
when do we see the game reviews

I know zelda is tomorrow, but the rest?

For 3WIREL we have reviews for Zelda & Bomberman launching tomorrow (Zelda) and Friday (Bomberman). I reviewed the other versions of Shovel Knight (Shovel of Hope Campaign) and had an interview with Yacht Club Games recently, but I don't know if we will be reviewing 'Specter of Torment' until I get access to the PlayStation versions (I own it on PS3/PS Vita).

While it doesn't fully cover the unique features of the Switch version, we did review Skylanders last Fall, so I don't see how the review will differ for the Switch release (outside of the instant-change ability due to no portal of power).
 

XandBosch

Member
But it's Nintendo's new home console, and as such, people will purchase it for that...

No, it's not. It's Nintendo's new console/handheld hybrid, and people can purchase it to use as a console if they want to, but that's most certainly not all it does.

I also have a hard time believing that people will exclusively use it one way - I don't believe it.
 

Oregano

Member
I play at my desk so probably won't have desync issues but I hope it's something they can fix passively for end users.
 

jett

D-Member
Can someone explain to me why don't the joycons use bluetooth? What's gonna happen if I don't keep the Switch dock directly in front of me?
 
I'm very happy with my intended setup.

PS4 - Exclusives, VR and big 3rd party games

Switch - Exclusives, indies and multiplayer games
 

Kuni

Member
Is the 12% thing a problem? I'm pretty sure battery's last longer if you don't let them fully cycle to 100

I was referencing this from Kotaku's review:

The console apparently drains some of its battery even when docked—I’ll put it in the dock at 100% charge, play for a while, and when I take it out, it’ll say it’s at 88% charge. My colleague Jason and some others I’ve talked to have reported the same thing. It never goes below 88%, and I don’t believe the battery can run out in the dock. Still odd and a little annoying.

https://kotaku.com/nintendo-switch-the-kotaku-review-1792776350
 
A lot of reviews seem to sort of be missing the point. They're treating it either like a handheld or a console, when in reality it's both. Docking points because it's not a powerful console doesn't make any sense to me, BECAUSE you can take it with you. Try bringing your PS4 with you in your backpack and playing it on the bus.

The reality is, this is a brand new type of system from one of the big three console manufacturers and reviewers don't know how to go about reviewing it. The proof is in the pudding every time you see them compare it to another device. The only device they should be comparing it to is the fuckin' Shield, and even that doesn't have anything remotely like Joy Cons or anything like that.

Reviewers don't have to review things from somebody else's perspective. It's a new console. If the handheld functionality isn't important or useful to the reviewer it's going to be de-emphasized. And there are readers who will feel similarly.

The ideal Switch use case seems to be playing it primarily on TV at home and popping it out for handheld stints on your commute, during lunch, when someone is using the TV, in bed,etc. Basically the appeal is never being far away from gaming time.

If it's not how you're going to game than your impression (or review) is going to be different.
 
No, it's not. It's Nintendo's new console/handheld hybrid, and people can purchase it to use as a console if they want to, but that's most certainly not all it does.

I also have a hard time believing that people will exclusively use it one way - I don't believe it.

Yo, home user right here.

99.9% of the time this thing will stay in the dock.

It's a home console for me. A terribly crippled home console in 2017, but that's where we are.

We had a big thread about that.
Think the conclusion was "where else could you put it"

- On the top of the screen
- On the back
- On the sides. It's not like people are leaving the joy cons attached while using it on the kickstand.

Any of those options would be better than where they have now put it because it's taken away that functionality.
 

random25

Member
Overall pretty positive reviews. Some of the stuff are nothing new, but I like what I'm hearing about the mechanicals of the Switch, like the latches and docking mechanisms being robust.

720p UI? That's interesting lol. Unless it will be jarring to see on TV, I don't see much issue with it.

As for games, with a few indies chiming in at launch or near launch, it further improves the launch lineup. Nothing really big, but still adds some move value to the system.

Basically the only thing we need to know more are the ones coming after the patch, like the e-shop and online network.
 
I don't think Nintendo cares, they get money either way.

Personally, I think it's pretty silly, but people can use their shit however they want. I stopped being blown away by graphics a long time ago. As long as Nintendo keeps putting out great art and delivering solid performance (they release a lot of 60fps games) I'll be happy to put them on the big screen.
I too am a pretty "gamey" gamer for lack of a better term and have seen jumps in graphics since the pong days. But playing Horizon today on a good 1080p set is incredible and I indeed was "blown away" when I saw it in 4K. This downplaying of graphics is really weird. I'm a competent SF player, could probably beat most of the Nintendo loyal in Smash brothers one on one lol, play Devil May Cry on the hardest difficulties etc...but I still appreciate amazing visuals, animations etc...they greatly add to the user experience.
 
Wow the DF review was very thorough and presented all the details really well. Well, I'm gonna wait for Nintendo to impress me but right now, at least everything is decent.
 

Xdrive05

Member
Finally something useful.

Contrast is nice!
I won't play this thing in bright sunlight, so brightness isn't very important imo.

I wonder if they plan to raise clockspeeds later on, because the cooling solution ist clearly overkill for the current heatdissipation.

I think this is extremely likely, especially in docked mode. They already gave a +25% bump option for portable node. I don't see them designing such a cooling solution without planning to up it at some point.

The counter argument would be that the gpu Switch is based on will tend to throttle down to about Switch clock speeds in other devices. However I don't believe those devices have such cooling capabilities, which may let docked Switch gain a good chunk more. All speculation at this point, but I wouldn't be surprised if they bump docked performance.
 

XandBosch

Member
Reviewers don't have to review things from somebody else's perspective. It's a new console. If the handheld functionality isn't important or useful to the reviewer it's going to be de-emphasized. And there are readers who will feel similarly.

The ideal Switch use case seems to be playing it primarily on TV at home and popping it out for handheld stints on your commute, during lunch, when someone is using the TV, in bed,etc. Basically the appeal is never being far away from gaming time.

If it's not how you're going to game than your impression (or review) is going to be different.

It's not "somebody else's perspective", it would be an unbiased perspective based on the selling point of the system. The bolded part of your post is how it should be reviewed. Reviewing it as a home console is ridiculous, because that's not what it is. It'd be like reviewing a smart TV and it's capability to stream Netflix and use a browser, not reviewing the picture quality at all because you don't care about that.

Doesn't make any sense.
 

BumRush

Member
No, it's not. It's Nintendo's new console/handheld hybrid, and people can purchase it to use as a console if they want to, but that's most certainly not all it does.

I also have a hard time believing that people will exclusively use it one way - I don't believe it.

Does Nintendo have a different new home console? No.

So, for folks that want a home console, this is THE option.
 

Magypsy

Member
If they don't address it with the D1 patch it would still be too late considering how easy this would be. It's true that it doesn't change your enjoyment of games, but a 720p UI is really not something that we should consider acceptable these days, especially when it's so well designed.

You are right in that it should not be considered acceptable in 2017.

Maybe it has to do with lowering the OS RAM usage? It's all in 2D anyway, that means they either need to store different resolutions of all the assets, downscale in handheld mode, or upscale in docked mode. Guess they chose the last one, at least for now.

I dunno, how many complex assets are there really in the main menu? It's mostly text, lines and some glyphs, right? The games' images are more detailed, but they still don't seem like large assets.
 

butman

Member
Interesting but i'm going to make my choice if i will get it or not by Christmas.
One thing is the Hardware but the other half is the Software line-up.
 
A lot of reviews seem to sort of be missing the point. They're treating it either like a handheld or a console, when in reality it's both. Docking points because it's not a powerful console doesn't make any sense to me, BECAUSE you can take it with you. Try bringing your PS4 with you in your backpack and playing it on the bus.

The reality is, this is a brand new type of system from one of the big three console manufacturers and reviewers don't know how to go about reviewing it. The proof is in the pudding every time you see them compare it to another device. The only device they should be comparing it to is the fuckin' Shield, and even that doesn't have anything remotely like Joy Cons or anything like that.

I can see people being upset that it is a jack of all trades/master of none kind of thing: underpowered as a console, clunky/poor battery life as handheld.

Personally I am cool with this as I don't buy Nintendo systems for hardware power, but I think it is at least worth noting in reviews.
 
Nothing I didn't already know or expect, but good to see nonetheless. Nothing's stopping the hype train for me now but I do hope Nintendo takes note of the issues raised and addresses them at some point after launch. This thing has potential and I'd love to see them capitalize!
 

phanphare

Banned
According to DF, Zelda can be played just over 3 hours with brightness low (3 hours 5 minutes) or 50% (3 hours 5 minutes), volume 50% and wifi enabled. Seems pretty good.

that sounds pretty damn good. wonder what turning off wifi would do to that.

I remember the OG 3DS I had to play on lower brightness, 3D off, wifi off, and lower volume to get 3 hours
 

Goodlife

Member
- On the top of the screen
- On the back
- On the sides. It's not like people are leaving the joy cons attached while using it on the kickstand.

Any of those options would be better than where they have now put it because it's taken away that functionality.

Top of the screen is where the vent is and would mean docking the switch upside down.

On the back, would be more difficult to dock, wouldn't just be a case of sliding it in the the dock.

Sides. You couldn't dock your switch with the joycons attached then though?
 
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