Gadgetory

the Nintendo switch this is the most recent full-fledged gaming console from Nintendo and this all-gray unit is the one lucky enough to end up on my desk with me it's time to see what this thing is made of let's see if this system will be able to last the next five or six years until the next Nintendo system comes along and takes its place let's get started now normally I test cell phones but this device is meant to be portable which means it's fair game for my durability test I think it's better that I test the durability of a device on purpose so you won't have to find out on accident I'll tell you what to avoid and what to watch out for I always start my durability test with a scratch test on the screen I use a set of Mohs hardness ticks that tell me what the screen is made of if it's plastic it'll scratch it a little three if it's glass like most cell phones it'll scratch it a five or six but if it's sapphire like we see on some watches it'll scratch at level eight or nine and if Nintendo made their screen out of diamonds well it'll scratch it a level ten unfortunately for us though the switch isn't made out of diamonds it's actually plastic and it scratches at level three most smartphones have a glass screen because cell phones are designed to be constantly rubbing around in your pocket all the time I assume Nintendo decided to choose a plastic screen because a it's cheaper be it's not in your pocket all the time and see this is a family console played mostly by kids and kids at heart and a plastic screen definitely will never get cracked if it's accidentally dropped glass would so it's a valid cost effective trade-offs and in this case I'm okay with plastic but as you can see from my key marks it will get scratched up if you just toss it in your backpack or purse so a screen protector or case is definitely a good idea I'll link some good screen protectors in the video description on either side of the device we have what Nintendo is calling the joy con controller and we can tell by the sound of my razor blade that these are made out of plastic the joy Conn joystick has a super thick rubber coating around the top with how thick and strong it is I can tell it will take years of playing for it to actually wear out with normal use even with me deliberately trying to pull off the slice portion it was staying attached pretty well so far so good here is something I thought was really cool the top buttons are made of plastic as well but if you look close you can see that the letters on these buttons are not printed or screened into place they are literally injected all the way through the button so for you diehard gamers out there that have had letters rub off on your keyboard or joysticks with time that will literally never happen on this Nintendo switch because the letters are the button thumbs up for that along the top of the switch near the headphone jack we still have a solid plastic exterior layer and even along the back of the device there is no ear-splitting sound of metal on metal when I carve into the switch body if you're one of the few who recognize this symbol leave a comment and tell me where it's from it has to do with the force and I'm not talking to Star Wars there are a pair of symmetrical vents at the bottom of the device which are probably for the stereo speakers for heat dissipation we'll find out for sure when I do my full teardown the holes are covered by a thin vinyl layer which is actually surprisingly easy to tear so if you ever need to clean these out be very careful the kickstand is also made from plastic its attachment dimension dose which is a pretty weak saw my first time opening it up and it popped right off the good news though is that it pops right back into place very easy over and over again I did this several times to make sure that it was still solid and it didn't get any weaker with each removal so it's probably designed this way but that also makes it easy to lose as well and well it covers the SD card slot so try to keep track of it it is important I know a few of you have already thought well I'll just cover up all that plastic with a skin well be brand a company that makes protective skin said that this particular plastic that it's being used on the switch is not compatible with skin the plastic gets physically destroyed by the skin which is pretty odd so you should probably avoid putting a skin on it for now and just use a case or a sheet instead now normally I made to tell what kind of display a device has by applying a little bit of heat an IPS display turns off em'ly LED burns white but the thick plastic layer over the 720p Nintendo switch display is super thick and it never let the heat reach the actual display the exterior plastic did reach its melting point after about 15 seconds though blink wasn't too happy with me but everything still functions 100% so far even if the screen were to break it should still be able to output to a TV like any normal console would with this docking station the dock allows the squish to play on your TV at 1080p which is a bit higher resolution than the built-in screen that screen at 7:20 just slide it in and the USBC allows it to dock immediately there is one large flaw with this dock though and that's the large plastic runners inside the docking station that press right up against the screen so every single time you dock your console the dock will rub up against the sides of your display plastic on plastic can still cause damage or scrapes to the screen and there already have been reports of scratched screens luckily it's not on the visible part of the display just that thick black bezel between the display and the side controllers so it's not that big of a deal if it does get scratched but once again a thin screen protector would solve this issue 100% I would say a screen protector is pretty mandatory on this console remember I'll have some linked in the video description as you know the switch is pretty modular you can play with little joystick niblets attached to the screen like you've seen me doing or you can pull them off and play with them detached the third way you can use them is to attach them to this little grip that turns both niblets into one large handheld controller the new symbol I just drew is a bit more difficult so let me know in the comments if you know where this one's from muggles probably won't understand after joining the joy con controllers into the joy con grip I can give it the initial stress task a basic flex in all directions reveals that it's pretty darn sturdy for being a bunch of plastic parts stuck together with little thin rails I don't see any immediate failure points on this controller unless you are intentionally trying to break it everything is still totally functional so far one interesting thing about the controllers is the little LED light built on the inside when you slide the controller into the grip that transfers light upwards shining out of the grip itself this is done with little tiny mirrors inside of the controller handle you can see what I mean when I shine the LED flash from my phone into the mirrors it still transfers the light straight up and out of the grip interesting stuff we saw the same feature in the GoPro five lag tore that down now the rail on this joy con controller is made out of plastic which at first I thought was a bad design but it turns out the plastic joique on rail isn't the failure point the connecting rail on the console itself is made out of metal which is rather refreshing when dealing with the console entirely made out of plastic I do love how securely and satisfyingly these controllers click into place now it's time to find the failure point trying to bend the body of the console was futile there was no breakage no matter which way I was bending from the center body and the screen are very strong even the side joique on controllers are pretty strong by themselves it would be very difficult to break one of these off on accident but with enough deliberate force I was able to snap off one side the interesting part though was that the failure point wasn't the plastic rail or the metal rail I'll show you it broke in a second the important thing is is that the console is still working completely which is good obviously the part that broke were the four screws holding the metal rail into the switch body the rail itself is fine the screws are fine but the inferior metal holding the screws to the body to switch ripped right out definitely not what I was expecting to happen I'm pretty sure that the wire at the bottom of this rail is what charges the Joye con so the side rails definitely is important luckily mine is still connected and that wire didn't rip for the most part I would classify this portable console as durable even though I was able to deliberately break mine you shouldn't have any issues with yours unless you're dropping it off your house or someone extremely heavy sits on it but as long as you get a screen protector for that screen the rest of the console should survive just fine I can say the Nintendo switch is definitely a successful successor to the Wii U my Twitter followers knew this video is coming before anyone else so make sure you follow me on Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date on my future projects thanks for watching I'll see you around