Nintendo Switch: Review

        

          Nintendo Switch: Review

 Is it the best console on the market?

Because the Nintendo Switch occupies a unique space in the gaming landscape, it doesn’t really have any strict competitors. Sure, in the home console space it’s up against the PS4 and Xbox One and, in the handheld market, there’s competition from smartphones and Nintendo’s own 3DS family of devices. But the Switch isn’t really competing with either.

The switch offers up wholly different experiences from what you’d find on any smartphone, Android-powered tablet with a controller or the 3DS. It may run pared-down versions of some PS4 and Xbox One games but the attraction is it turns every single home console game on the platform into a portable title, completely changing how you consume and play them.

On the pricing front, it also easily wins out, despite costing more than other consoles. At £280, it’s £80 more than the cheapest you’ll find an Xbox One S for and £30 more than a PS4 Slim, it’s also around £150 more than a New Nintendo 2DS XL. That extra expense can be justified in part that it’s the newer and – in the case of the 2DS XL – more powerful device, and again that it’s two consoles in one.

The Nintendo Switch simply said, is unlike anything else on the market. Some may have drawn similarities to the Wikipad – a failed Android tablet-like console with removable screen – but Nintendo’s device is a far slicker proposition.

On the hardware front, the Switch clearly can’t compete with either the Xbox One or PS4 – let alone the Xbox One X or PS4 Pro. However, it’s still a formidable portable games console thanks to Nvidia’s Tegra X1 chip – the same processor found in Nvidia’s Android-powered Shield TV. Nintendo hasn’t officially released how much RAM there is to back this up, but leaks suggest it’s 4GB, shared between CPU and graphics chip.

The only real disappointment with the Nintendo Switch’s hardware is its paltry 32GB of built-in storage and relatively short battery life of four to six hours of undocked play. You can expand your storage via microSD, which is conveniently located under the kickstand, but without a Nintendo Switch Online membership (set to launch later in 2018) you can’t transfer saves off of your Switch console.

Even if Switch’s online element – Nintendo Switch Online – fails to deliver when it arrives in September, the Switch is already an unmitigated success. Believe the hype around this one, Nintendo really has done it again. The Nintendo Switch is easily the best console of this generation and, quite possibly, one of the best ever made.