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Hey guys it’s Greg with Apple Explained and today we’re going to unbox and review
the Nintendo Switch. It’s a compelling piece of technology that I absolutely love and I
thought you guys might enjoy getting a closer look. Also, all the products and accessories
mentioned in this video can be found in the description.
So the Nintendo Switch is a hybrid gaming console that can be played on the big screen
at home or on the go in handheld mode. This flexibility makes it one of the most convenient
gaming systems I’ve ever seen.
The Nintendo Switch launched on March 3rd, 2017 for $299.99 and it’s available in two
colors: Neon and Gray. Although special Super Mario Odyssey and Splatoon editions of the
console have also been released. Prices for these special edition consoles are always
changing so check the links in the description to see what they’re currently going for.
Now I bought the gray version which I find more sleek and stealthy than the eye-catching
neon, but both colors look great. The outside of the box features some photos of the Switch
being used docked and in handheld mode and the bottom of the box shows us what’s included
inside, along with other detailed information that I can’t read since I did buy this unit
while overseas in Japan. Which means, yes, this console is region-free.
I should point out that Nintendo didn’t seal this box shut with any tape, shrink wrap,
or adhesive. Instead they used seriated cardboard with a two-tab enclosure to make sure the
box stays securely shut, which it does.
Once we lift the tab we see quick start instructions where it shows us how to power on the console
and connect the Joy-Con so it’s ready to go out of the box. And of course all this
text will be in English if your Switch is purchased in an English-speaking country.
After lifting the lid we find two gray Joy-Con and the 6.2” Switch console itself which
is strikingly small at first glance. It slides right out of its plastic protective bag and
we’ll take a closer look at this console in just a moment. The Joy-Cons are also in
small plastic bags and they fall right out.
Under the cardboard tray we find all kinds of accessories including a black Nintendo-branded
HDMI cable so you can connect the Switch to your TV out of the box. We also get a power
supply using a USB-C connector which gives the Switch some interesting capabilities like
using your MacBook as a power supply. But it does take a while for the Switch to charge,
whether it’s connected to the wall or otherwise.
Also included is the Joy-Con grip, which basically turns the joy-con into a more traditional-style
gaming controller. Each joy-con just slides into place with a very satisfying click and
overall it’s a comfortable controller with a nice full grip even for larger hands.
Along with the joy-con grip are the joy-con straps. These can only be attached when using
the joy-con individually like in two player mode or playing by yourself with a joy-con
in each hand. They slide onto the sides and give you a nice wrist strap with a clasp to
keep it in place so they don’t fly out of your hands. Although the strap is a bit too
short for me while holding it sideways in two player mode. There is a small locking
mechanism at the bottom of the strap so be sure it’s unlocked before removing or else
it could be damaged. The attachments also extend the L & R buttons for a more comfortable
grip but the buttons are pretty mushy and take a while to get used to.
And finally, along with some paperwork, we get the dock which is wrapped in bubble wrap
and plastic. Now this is what you’ll use to connect the Switch to your TV and it’s
a fairly simple accessory. It’s made of plastic and is surprisingly light. There’s
a door around back for hiding all the cable management which includes connections for
the USB-C adapter, your standard USB type-A, and HDMI out. There’s also two more USB
ports on the side of the dock for connecting and charging accessories like the Pro Controller,
or the Joy-Con charging grip. Which are both sold separately, and you can find links to
those accessories in the description for more information.
So what makes this system so unique is the Joy-Con controller design. Each has their
own internal rechargeable battery and radios, they also have an advanced vibration motor
that enables what Nintendo calls HD Rumble. Now the right joy-con does have a couple features
that the left does not. First is an NFC reader so you can tap Amiibo, and second is an infrared
camera that it uses for motion capture. Now if you look at the side of the joy-con you’ll
see four LED indicators and a pairing button. And this is just telling us the current pairing
status of the joy-con. If you peak underneath the track you might see some electrical connectors
which allow the joy-con to charge and pair when attached to the console.
These can be used independently, attached to accessories, or attached to the console
itself. This allows for three different gaming styles: Handheld portable mode, the standard
TV console mode, and a Wii-style mode where you can use motion controls.
Now the console itself is basically a 6.2” tablet with a capacitive touch screen rather
than the resistive touch screen found on the 3DS. The display is surprisingly sharp and
colorful despite the 720p resolution. But keep in mind that I’m coming from the low-res
3DS display. Now some have criticized the Switch for not supporting 1080p in handheld
mode but I suspect that may have caused issues with battery life, speed, and overheating.
Also, this is an LCD display with In Plane Switching which means we get consistent brightness
and color accuracy even while viewing at an angle. And like the 3DS, the display is plastic
rather than glass which makes it more durable and shatter-resistant but is prone to scratches
so something like the amFilm Tempered Glass Screen Protector might be a good idea.
The display is also pretty reflective due to the air gap between the LCD panel and plastic
cover so it may become frustrating to play outdoors on a sunny day. You may also find
that fingerprints are harder to wipe off compared to your iPhone or iPad display, and that’s
because there isn’t an oleophobic coating to repel the natural oils from your skin.
Beneath the display you’ll find Nvidia’s custom Tegra processor along with 32GB of
built-in storage which you can expand up to 2TB by using the SD card slot that's hidden
behind the kickstand.
Now the kickstand only seems to work reliably on hard, flat surfaces and it pops off quite
easily which makes the feature feel a little like an afterthought.
Along the left and right sides you’ll find rails for attaching the joy-con and Nintendo
definitely did not cut any corners here. The all metal rails feature 5 screw reinforcements
and appear to be quite durable. So I wouldn’t worry about these wearing out during the device’s
lifetime.
On the bottom you’ll find the USB-C port with holes on either side that act as guides
when placing the Switch into its dock. And I should mention that the Switch can be charged
on it’s own, without the dock.
On top we have a slightly recessed power button to prevent accidental presses along with a
volume rocker. Also along the top is an air exhaust vent, where the fan pushes warm air
out, and this works in tandem with the air intake vent located on the back. The fan doesn’t
seem to run much in handheld mode so the system stays nice and quiet. But it will kick on
while docked since that’s when the Switch outputs 1080p.
On top you’ll also find a headphone jack and the game card slot. Now I don’t have
any game cards since I downloaded my games through the eShop. But the game cards are
about the size of a standard SD card and are sold in comically large packaging without
any manuals or promotional material.
The benefit of buying physical game cards is that they can be used between different
Switch consoles whereas a digital game can only be played on the device used to purchase
it. But carrying around and misplacing game cards has always been an inconvenience for
me on the 3DS, so I’m happier with digital downloads.
Finally, the two notches on the front of the device are stereo speakers which sit inside
the bezel, and they produce some impressive, full sound for their size.
Now battery life on this device varies widely. Nintendo says the Switch should get about
5 hours on a single charge but this number can be anywhere from two and a half to 6 hours
depending on the graphics requirements of the game. The battery itself is 4,310 Milliamp
hours which isn’t that much bigger than a standard 3,500 milliamp hour smartphone
battery.
So we’ve talked about using the Switch in handheld mode, but what about connecting it
to your TV? Well that’s where the dock comes in. All it needs is AC power from an outlet
and an HDMI connection to your TV and the switch is ready to be docked. Just drop the
console into the slot, and the connection is made automatically. If the Switch is powered
on, then what’s displayed on the small screen will be transferred to the big screen seamlessly.
It’ll even power on the TV if you have that configured.
So once it’s docked you can remove the joy-con and continue using the console from a distance
right on your TV.
This also works in reverse, just reconnect the joy-con and undock the console, then you’re
back in handheld mode right where you left off. This is an incredible feature that really
separates the Switch from other consoles on the market.
To power this off or put it into sleep mode all you have to do it press the power button
and it switches off everything.
Now playing games on a higher resolution big screen looks much better compared to the smaller
720p display, but you may experience some minor frame drops from time to time.
So just to show what it’s like to use the device, one of the cool things here is that
when you attach the joy-con you get a sound effect and a little animation along the edge
of the display that corresponds to the color of the joy-con. Here it’s just gray but
if you have the Neon Switch it’ll be blue on the left and red on the right. The purpose
of the sound effect and animation is to let you know that the joy-con is fully connected
to the console. To remove the joy-con just press and hold the little button on the back
and slide it right out.
To wake the device you can press the power or home button and to unlock, you have to
press any one of these buttons three times. And some of these buttons have unique sounds
so let’s listen to that…
Now getting into the system you’ll notice that the interface is pretty simple. The main
launch screen has all of your games laid out and if you have a game that you’re currently
playing in the background it’ll always appear first in the list with that “playing”
notification at the bottom. You can select with “A” or tap on the game to bring it
forward and then you can press the home button to go back home and send the game into the
background.
Notice how a single tap on something only highlights it in blue, and doesn’t launch
the element right away. This means double tapping is something you’ll do a lot if
you aren’t using the joy-con controls. So if I double tap here I can access my account
information including play activity and my friend list. We have the battery percentage,
wifi indicator as well as the current time.
We also have options down here for news relating to the Nintendo Switch, then we can go back
and we also have an eShop here where we can buy games. This is where you log in with your
account to download digital versions of games directly to your console. And you can hear
the sound the store makes as it loads which is actually quite pleasant.
So after logging in we can see recent releases, games that’re on sale, bestsellers, and
games coming soon. There’s also a page to enter download codes if you purchased a digital
game from a retail store. I should mention that pricing is identical whether you buy
the physical or digital version of a game, and digital games can take up quite a bit
of space so if you go that route I recommend getting an SD card to expand the console’s
storage capacity.
Now when you tap on a game you can see more detailed information and swipe through game
footage, and of course you can proceed to purchase.
There’s also an album for gameplay screenshots and recordings you can take by pressing the
screen grab button here for a photo, or holding down to save the last thirty seconds of game
footage.
You can edit these screen grabs and post them with your Nintendo account to Twitter or Facebook
directly from the console.
We also have controller settings where you can see the battery level of each joy-con
as well as the console and from here you can change the grip order for not only the joy-con
but also a pro controller. We can also pair new controllers by connecting them to the
console itself or by other pairing methods like holding down the pairing button on the
side of a joy-con.
In system settings there are quite a few things to look at. Now this is a wireless device
so airplane mode can be activated here by turning it on or off. Next is the screen brightness
controls that include auto-brightness since there is an ambient light sensor right here
and this will help adjust the screen automatically.
Under screen lock you can turn off the requirement to press a button three times to unlock the
system. We have parental controls, Internet connection so you can see the connection status
as well as the MAC address. Data management shows you how much free space you have left
on the built-in system memory as well as SD card if you have one installed. You can also
manage software and uninstall games if you’d like to do so.
Users allows you at add different user accounts so you can have multiple users on this console
which is great. We can also load our mii account so we can build characters or add Mii’s
we’ve already created. Here we can transfer our Amiibo information and when it comes to
themes Nintendo is keeping it simple for now with either black or white.
And then we have our notification preferences. We also have sleep mode settings, so this
console by default will go off after ten minutes of inactivity but you can adjust it to your
liking. There’s also a different setting for when the console is connected to your
TV.
Next there’s Controller and Sensor settings where you can change the grip order, turn
off controller vibration which will help with battery life, and you can calibrate the controllers
if things get a bit wonky.
For TV settings you can change the resolution from 1080p down to 720 or even 480p. But I
just leave it on automatic. The RGB range can be specified but I leave it on automatic
as well. You can adjust the screen size but you’ll have to be connected to your TV to
calibrate that. There’s also screen burn-in reduction which just dims the TV when a game
is paused for a long time to prevent any damage to the TV itself.
We can also match the TV’s power state so if the TV is compatible with this it’ll
automatically turn on when the console turns on and turn off when the console turns off.
Then we have TV sound options so we can choose surround sound, stereo or mono and this just
depends on your audio setup.
Under system there are important settings like console battery percentage which you’ll
have turn on manually since it is off by default.
Now no matter where you are in the system you can always hold down the home button to
bring up this menu which displays the time, wifi strength, battery life, as well as access
to screen brightness and airplane mode.
So that’s it guys I hope you enjoyed this close look at the Nintendo Switch. I provided
links in the description if you want more information about the switch, its accessories,
or the games I featured.
If you enjoyed the video don’t forget to leave a like, and I’ll see you next time.