Nintendo Switch review: hybrid game console is very simple, but very smart

The Nintendo Switch is unlike any other game console on the market, allowing you to transition seamlessly between playing at home on your big TV and playing the exact same games on the go, Game Boy style. It also has the potential to be one of the most social pieces of gaming hardware released in quite some time, and represents an impressive shift in the design and wow-factor of Nintendo machines.

Out on March 3 at an RRP of $469.95, the console is an incredibly small and solid unit, resembling a large phone with its 6.2-inch 720p touchscreen and discrete speakers, headphone jack, power button and volume rocker. There's also hidden slots for game cards and a MicroSD card, as well as a single USB-C port at the base. The only indications that it's something more than a little tablet or e-reader are the metal rails on the sides, and exhaust vent at the top. It's a deceptively simple-looking device, but thanks to the silky matte finish and responsive capacitive screen it feels space age compared to the bulky tablet controller of the Wii U.

Moving from portable to home console and back again is as easy as dropping the Switch into its dock, or lifting it out.Credit: Nintendo

All the processing hardware needed to run games is crammed into this tablet-like machine, which is positively dwarfed next to either of the other contemporary games consoles, but almost equally important is the pair of little controllers that come with it.

Called Joy-Con, the controllers are packed with tricks including advanced motion sensing, a full array of traditional gaming inputs and a new kind of vibration feedback Nintendo calls "HD Rumble" (essentially it lets you feel a range of subtle tactile sensations rather than just a vibration). The right Joy-Con even has an IR camera that detect the shapes of objects you put in front of it, and an NFC reader in the joystick to scan amiibo figures. The left Joy-Con has a "capture button" that instantly takes screenshots and adds them to your album.

When you buy a Switch you get the console, two Joy-Con, a grip, and the dock. The Pro Controller (front right) is sold separately.

Slide both Joy-Con onto the Switch and you can take the whole thing with you wherever you go. It's a very wide portable device but very comfortable, and a quantum leap in quality from Nintendo's 3DS. I've been playing the amazing Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in bed and on the train, and having a game this vast, complicated and beautifully rendered on the go is astounding. The screen is sharp, bright and colourful in most situations (a bit hard to read in direct sun), and the stereo speakers pack a surprising punch.

When you want to relax on the couch with your big screen TV, you just drop the Switch into the included dock (a simple but secure plastic box that connects to your TV via HDMI and to the mains power). With the Switch itself hidden away, the picture and sound moves to your TV. Put the Joy-Con on the included grip to turn them into a standard controller (or just hold them in either hand) and you're free to use the Switch like a traditional console.

Players intending to use the machine in TV mode a lot should consider the sold-separately and totally optional Pro controller. At $100 it is very expensive, but it offers bigger buttons, better ergonomics and nicer spacing than the Joy-Cons can, and it has a traditional D-Pad. It even has the motion controls, HD Rumble, capture button and NFC reader the Joy-Cons have. Plus it just looks and feels really nice.

Looking at the setup as a whole, what's most impressive to me is how smart and consistent it is. Previous solutions to getting the same game at home and on the go required multiple bits of hardware, clumsy save file transferring or wireless streaming. With the Switch, you don't even need to pause the game. No matter where you're playing or with which controller you always have access to the exact same slick, fast user interface, the exact same control inputs and all your stuff.

The Switch UI is simple but smart and very fast.

When in the dock and connected to mains power, the Switch pushes its internals much harder in order to render games at up to 1080p and produce 5.1 channel sound. This means the same game can look and sound impeccable on your TV, while also being battery conservative when in handheld mode.

Of course there are other ways to use the Switch as well, depending on the game and how you want to play. A kickstand on the back of the console (it's flimsy, but it does the job) lets you set it up anywhere as a portable little TV, so you can sit back on a plane or at the park to play. For multiplayer, multiple people can play on the one console, you can link up to eight of them wirelessly or you can go online.

At 14mm thick and around 400 grams with the Joy-Con attached, the Switch is big but certainly portable. Credit: Tim Biggs

The Joy-Con come with strap attachments for games that have you swinging them around one-handed, Wii style. Turn the Joy-Con sideways and you have a miniature controller for use with some games, handy for impromptu multiplayer matches on the go (the strap also adds some width the the Joy-Con, meaning this is less crampy than it sounds).

Most every aspect of the system is smart, simple and intuitive, which is a must given how frustrating juggling multiple control schemes and play modes might have been. Syncing a controller to the Switch requires connecting it physically or going to the "controllers" option on the main screen, but once they're synced you don't ever have to worry about it again. Pressing the Home button on any synced controller will wake the Switch from sleep, and changing controllers is as simple as putting one down and picking one up. The Switch will ask you to confirm, and then it will turn the one you're not using off.

The kickstand on the back of the Switch lets you prop it up on the go.Credit: Tim Biggs

Charging is intuitive as well. The Switch charges whenever it's in the dock, but since it uses USB-C you can also just use whatever you use to charge your phone when on the go. The Joy-Con are charged when they're attached to the Switch and it's charging. They last for 20 hours or so and charge quickly, but if you don't intend to ever connect them to the Switch you can also buy a grip that charges them for $40.

Enamoured though I am by the Switch's versatility and general fun factor, since prospective buyers will be hoping to get years of entertainment out of this thing there are some points of concern I've had during my testing:

With the extra bulk of the strap attachment, the Joy-Con become small but usable controllers for two-player games. Credit: Tim Biggs

Battery life: In portable mode this will depend greatly on what you're doing with it. Nintendo says up to six hours of continous play, but with the resource-heavy Zelda I'm getting consistently just under three. This has been totally fine for me, especially since putting the machine in sleep mode will let it keep its remaining charge for a very long time, but for long trips you'll want a charging solution, preferably the bundled AC adapter. As a saving grace if the worst happens, the Switch suspends your game to memory just before its juice runs out so you won't lose anything.

Charging: The bundled 15V adapter can fill the battery on a sleeping Switch in 3 hours. But if you continue to play in TV mode while charging your mileage will vary. It seems almost all the energy is needed to keep Zelda going at 1080p for example, so the Switch charges incredibly slowly while doing it. Further, most chargers and batteries designed for phones are 5V, so you should not expect to be able to charge using one of these while playing at the same time. The battery will likely stay the same or deplete slowly. I also worry about what all this constant heavy charging will do to the battery in the long term. Nintendo gets the benefit of the doubt on this one giving its history of hardware longevity, but only time will tell.

Specs: Nintendo is known for not following along with what other game hardware companies are doing, and the fact the Switch is also a portable means it looks even more spartan if you compare it with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in terms of raw specs, advanced features or non-gaming content. If you're looking for video apps, a web browser or support for your fancy Bluetooth or optical headsets you won't find it here, at least at launch.

Controller range: Some reviewers have reported issues with the left Joy-Con losing sync with the console, and while I haven't had those issues I can confirm the Joy-Con are most reliable at three metres or closer. I've had no issues playing with the pro controller or with the Joy-Con attached to the Switch (where they transmit directly rather than wirelessly), but using them loose or in the grip can be flakey if you're far from the console or have part of your body blocking the signal. This won't be a big issue for most but if your TV's far from your couch maybe wait and see what happens once the machine's out in the wild.

In all, playing with the Switch has been a liberating and refreshing experience, to the point that I wish I had the option to play all games like this. The core concept of seamlessly changing between portable and home console works wonderfully. The system software is clean, quick and simple, but filled with handy utilities (like the quick options menu that lets you change brightness or activate flight mode without suspending the game) and charming touches (like the very Nintendo sound effects and the photo album that lets you look back on your gaming memories or edit and upload the pictures to social media).

The comparative capabilities of Nintendo's machine makes it unlikely that many of the AAA games that launch simultaneously on the two mainstream consoles will run on Switch. It's obviously too early to say for sure, but I'd speculate the large bulk of Switch games will be made by Nintendo, by an indie developer, or by a big AAA studio that's decided to make a game specifically for the device.

It remains to be seen how the actual games library will shake out, but by the end of this year it will feature big Nintendo franchises (Zelda, Super Mario, Splatoon, Mario Kart), new games that make interesting use of the Joy-Con (1-2-Switch, Arms) and plenty of indies that sound perfect for portable play and local multiplayer (Overcooked, Stardew Valley, TowerFall), among many others.

While not a must-buy at launch, the Nintendo Switch is smart, fun and easy to understand. I wouldn't be surprised to see it amass a cult following like Sony's PlayStation Vita, but I also wouldn't be surprised if it became one of the must-have gadgets for this year and beyond.