Blocking ads removes funding from us!
Researching and writing articles takes a lot of time. Operating our infrastructure costs money.
All of this is funded with advertising revenue.
We don't like advertising either - that's why we avoid annoying banners and pop-ups.
Please give us a chance and deactivate your adblocker!
Alternatively, you can support us here voluntarily.

Follow us:


Nintendo Switch: My review

Nintendo Switch
PICTURED: CURVED
(Post picture: © 2017 CURVED)

Since the release of the Nintendo Switch, I kept thinking about buying this console. I've always liked the concept very much, but I also had a few points of criticism. Now I was able to borrow a Switch from a friend for a week to see if I liked the console and if my criticisms came true. My experience report.

The console

The console itself is a tablet made of plastic, with a display and a kickstand on the back. Okay, it's not that simple after all. On the right and left are the metal rails that serve as holders for the Joy Cons. I will come to the latter later. On the bottom there is only the USB C port for charging the console and for connecting to the television.

There's a little more than a single connector on the top. In addition to a power button and a volume control, the slot for the game cards and a headphone jack made it there.

In addition to two fans, a kickstand was installed on the back, with which the console should be able to be set up. But this has some disadvantages. If the console placed on the table with the kickstand becomes empty while playing, it cannot be recharged since the charging connection is covered by the ground. Apropos underground: this should be as stable as possible, otherwise the console can fly over very easily. From this one can almost conclude that the whole thing was not processed properly. And yes, this is exactly the case here. But what the kickstand does quite well is protect the space for the microSD card. It's right below it.

This is what the switch looks like in handheld mode (Image: © 2017 digitaltrends.com)

On the front is the six-inch touchscreen. This dissolves in 720p. That may sound like little at first, but I never felt the need for a sharper display. The only stupid thing here is that the touchscreen turns into a mirror when exposed to sunlight.

The input options

JoyCons

The ability to control the Switch with the Joy Cons is probably the best known. But what are the joy cons actually? These are the two controller sticks that you attach to the right and left of the switch using the metal rails mentioned earlier. Despite the small size, there are all the buttons that are also on the Pro controllers there. This means that in addition to the ABXY buttons, you also get the directional arrows, two joysticks and four shoulder buttons. I've often heard that many people complain that the ABXY buttons are located directly above a control stick and that it's uncomfortable to play because you always have to reach over the stick.

I couldn't understand that at all. In my opinion, I was always able to comfortably play the games that were available to me with the Joy Cons. Maybe it depends on the size of your hand, whether you can cope with this arrangement of buttons or not.

These are the Joy Cons (Image: © 2017 curved.de)

The Joy Cons then have a decisive advantage over that Pro controllers. You can use them in many different ways. First of all, you can mount the two controllers on the right and left of the switch and get a handheld to take with you. Should you Pro If you don't like controllers, you can put the Joy Cons in the supplied Joy Con Grip and play like with a kind of controller.

Unfortunately, this is not the most pleasant combination, as the distance to the other Joy Con is quite small. For Mario Kart, two players can each grab one of the two controllers and use it to navigate through the game in landscape mode. For my part, I often only took the Joy Cons in one hand and placed the Switch on a table. This gave me more freedom and was not tied to the Joy Con Grip.

I also noticed two more annoying flaws. The first thing I noticed was that the L shoulder button was no longer working properly. When I borrowed the console, I was justified in saying that it fell down exactly on this button. The second thing that struck me was that the Joy Cons in the holder directly on the switch already wobble quite a bit, which suggests that processing was saved at this point.

Pro Controller

The Pro Controller is more intended for use at home as soon as you use the switch on your own television. It looks quite similar to the XBOX and PS4 controllers. From my point of view, however, it was much more comfortable to hold than the ones just mentioned. You get the same range of buttons as with the Joy Cons. In addition to the ABXY buttons, there are four shoulder buttons, the directional arrows and two control sticks. I was able to reach all the keys just fine and they all always responded quickly and precisely.

I never had to charge the controller. But if that is the case, you can recharge it with a USB C cable that is included with the controller itself. Charging via a charging station, as is possible with the Dualshock controllers of the PS4, would definitely have been a great thing here.

Here you can see the switch with the Pro Controller (Image: © 2017 curved.de)

Specs

The Nintendo Switch is powered by an nVidia Tegra Proprocessor and the associated GPU. This Prozessor was also used in the Shield gaming tablet by the company itself. When navigating through the menus, the console also ran very smoothly and without a single stutter. When playing in Zelda, I only noticed very small dropouts every now and then, both on the switch itself and on the TV, which didn't really bother me and that. I had the prejudice that the switch with the 1080p resolution, which the console basically uses on TV can output will not cope. Luckily I was wrong about that.

With the console 32GB of internal memory is available for, for example, scores and entire games from the eShop. The memory can also be expanded using a microSD card. Bluetooth 4.1 was installed for the connection with the controllers and WLAN can be used for game downloads or the like.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any precise information about the battery. All I can say is that it was enough for the week I had the Switch. I even came across the trip from Graz to Vienna and back again. Both trips took about two hours.

The range of games

As far as the range of games is concerned, I was pretty disappointed when Nintendo was released. On the one hand, there wasn't a single Super Mario game at the time and I could count the number of game games that were already available for purchase on my two hands. Also, from my point of view, Nintendo is charging quite a bit of money for these games.

The prices haven't really changed until today, but at least a little more games are available. And with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Mario Odyssey there are two pretty great Super Mario titles, at least what you hear should be pretty funny.

In my week with the Switch, I had three games to play. The first was Fast RMX. And that rather disappointed me. Basically you only race with different space gliders. Such games are also available for Android, some of which are even more fun and free. The game currently costs around 20 euros - that's okay.

Here you can see Zelda on TV (Image: © 2017 curved.de)

I was also able to play Splatoon 2. And that was a lot more fun for me. The concept of this game is just fun and time-wasting. In any case, an hour or two was lost during this week in this game. I spent by far the most time in Zelda. This game also fascinated me the most. The game mechanics, the story and the open world are just perfect. You should definitely check out the gameprohave beer.

The gaming experience

As for the gaming experience, Nintendo did a great job. In my opinion, that could have been the most important point in the development.

As everyone knows for sure, the console can be used as a simple handheld or via the TV dock on the television. It's really handy that you can continue playing where you left off at home on the go. The change from handheld mode to television mode and vice versa was always pretty quick for me. The only thing that bothered me was that fonts are not upscaled in TV mode and therefore they can be really small from time to time, especially in Zelda.

It is also practical that you can switch between many possible uses of the controller. So the name Switch fits the console pretty well.

Conclusion: will I buy it now?

No, I will not. Even if the decision was very difficult for me. And that's for a few reasons. First of all, I just think the prices are way too expensive. The switch alone costs a little over 300 euros. But then you still have no game, no protective bag or none Pro controllers. Then everything comes on top of that. On top of that, there are titles that are quite unnecessary in my opinion, such as Fast RMX. So you end up with a bill of 400 euros pretty quickly.

And things like that Pro From my point of view, controllers are an indispensable accessory that should not be missing. Only one of them costs 70 to 80 euros again. Then I'm still dissatisfied with the joy cons. The Switch that I was allowed to use had been in service since it went on sale and the Joy Cons were no longer working as they should and are no longer firmly attached to the Switch. Another 60 euros, which I may have to pay after half a year? As great as the console is, no thanks. All in all, it's not worth it to me, because experience shows that Nintendo consoles are uninteresting for me after half a year anyway and end up turned off and unused in the corner.

It all sounded a bit harsh, but I don't only have criticisms. I also had a lot of fun using the Switch. The concept behind it still fascinates me as it did on the day of the performance. With that, Nintendo has simply outdone itself again. I am excited to see what we will see next from the company.

"Thanks Dominik for letting me borrow your switch for the week!"

Recommendations for you

>> The best Amazon deals <

General note on "Column"

This article is an author's column. This does not have to be the opinion of TechnikNews represent and reflect. The article may contain the personal opinion of the respective author - thus, unlike news, this article may not be objective. Nevertheless researched to the best of our knowledge. May contain links to partner sites.

David Haydl

David lives in Graz and has been there for around half a decade TechnikNews, also editor-in-chief for some time. He regularly provides the site with news, test reports and the like TechnikNews Weekly, which was his idea to launch. He likes to spend his free time outdoors, listening to a lot of music (and clearly too loud) and some podcasts on all kinds of topics, and also likes to go running. He enjoys the time that remains with his charming girlfriend or in front of the TV.

David has already written 1245 articles and left 116 comments.

Development | Facebook | Twitter | Insta | Snap | PayPal coffee donation | MacBook Pro 14" (early 2023) | iPhone 15 Pro Max
notification settings
notifications about
guest
Your name, which will be shown publicly.
We will not publish your email address.

4 Comments
latest
oldest Best
Inline feedback
View all comments
Tom

Fast RMX costs 19 euros. There are a variety of games out there, just because you only had three available doesn't mean there are only these.

Otherwise good impression of the device.

Markus Killinger

Nonsense. At the time of release, there were certainly more games available than could be counted on one hand.

Even if there are very few games available, the Switch is a very good console that offers some advantages. But otherwise a good article.

Cookie Consent with Real Cookie Banner