Gadgetory

- I love the Switch, I really do. It has this awesome core concept that allows you to play games wherever you want whether it's on a TV or on the go and handheld and it's got this great library of games that's just growing more and more and more, whether that's ports from other systems or its own original new games. I mean I'm gonna be honest. Any time there's a major third party release that's on multiple systems I go for the Switch version because the ability to go handheld just beats out the option of oh, it's a little shinier on this system. But it has its problems, some that we've known about since when it first came out and others that we've kind of just learned more about as time has passed. And none of these problems individually are enough to be like oh, the Switch is actually terrible, nevermind, you shouldn't be getting one, blah. No, like it's still a fun system but that doesn't change the fact that those problems are there. And with mounting rumors that it looks like we might really be getting not one but two new models of Switch this year, I've just come to the opinion that right now you really shouldn't buy a Switch. There are numerous things that add up as being problems for the current Switch model. Some of it is odd design choices, some of it is possible bad build quality, and others are just missing features. Now when it comes to design choices, some of these I understand just by the virtue of how the Switch works we're kinda locked into. For instance, the power port. It makes sense when you wanna dock your Switch into the dock it'd have a little port right here but if you ever wanna play in tabletop mode and charge your switch at the same time, there's not actually a convenient way to do that right out of the box. You have to buy some kind of special stand or attachment or a different cable so it'll actually rest under here comfortably. Then there is also of course the all time favorite argument of the kickstand. Now obviously this is a redone Switch back and part of the reason why it is is 'cause my old kickstand got so loose from my regular switch that it just hung out at all times and would even just randomly fall out. So this one, while it still doesn't actually work as a functional kickstand, at least fills the space and doesn't fall off all the time. Again, there is an entire wave of different third party accessories meant to address this problem but it'd be great if it just wasn't a problem. So we were just setting up for the shot and I was originally gonna bring up how on the top front of my switch just one of the little plastic pieces broke off and you can kinda see the other ones had little cracks. I decided to poke one very lightly and the whole grill just came off. So that's just completely exposed now. That's cool, that's, that is really well times for this video. As for build quality, there were a lot of different things that were circulated when the Switch first came out. A lot of people were complaining about the fact that oh I think my Switch might be warping while it's in the dock. Oh, I'm getting screen scratches because when I put it in the dock it hits the screen. A lot of these are somewhat debatable. It might be someone just not being very careful at all and sometimes it's a question of well, how much is it actually bending? Was it just like that in the first place? Something that we do know that is happening for sure 'cause it's a lot easier to measure this evidence with other people showing what's happened to their system is that as time has gone on a lot of the plastic on the shell of the switch is starting to crack. Now for a lot of switches where this problem can happen is you'll actually have cracks that go around the screws on the corners of the back plate, which is exactly what happened to my Switch which is why I ended up putting on this Game Cube one instead. Plus I just thought it was a great excuse to have a cool-looking design. But the thing is those cracks don't just happen on the back plate. They also happen to the top and bottom of the system. In fact, something that just happened is that the whole grill on the top of where the heating vent is for mine just cracked off. Originally there was just one piece missing and a few little parts cracked but now the whole thing's just exposed. Now none of this actually affects your ability to play the system, true. It's just a lot of cosmetic damage, but that kinda sucks to spend money on something that even if you take really good care of it is gonna start falling apart over time. I mean yeah cool, I use it as a great excuse to get a different design on the back of my Switch but not everyone wants to do that or even go to the trouble of changing it. You might just be stuck with a broken looking backplate. Then there's the issue of missing features. Internally the Switch has some pretty good stuff going on. I mean I wish you had a little more actual internal storage, maybe better battery. But I think one big function that people miss out on is kinda common across a lot of systems now, Bluetooth support. And again, there are a ton of third party companies that saw this as a great opportunity and jump on it and fix it. There are a lot of bluetooth adapters you can get for your Switch to fix this issue which is great if you already own a Switch, but it'd be cool if you just didn't have to worry about that in the first place and your Switch just worked with bluetooth. And again, all these problems combined doesn't ruin what the Switch does well for me. If I was told that this was the only model ever of the Switch, this was the only way to play I would still buy it and accept all the problems it was gonna have and maybe even eventually dish out the money to buy a new one to upgrade it, which kinda sucks but I still love the system that much. But the thing is there's been a lot of rumors we might be getting new Switches, and if that's true why put up with this? If you haven't heard these rumors before, for a while now, almost a year already, we've had a lot of rumors that Nintendo is working on a new model of the Switch already that could come out this year. Now before those rumors were all focused on the idea of there just being one new model and people would debate, oh maybe it's a cheaper one, maybe it's a pro model, a more expensive one, a 4K one, something. But now more recent rumors, as only about a month back point to the fact that we might actually be seeing two models this year. If these rumors are true it looks like we might actually be seeing both of those ideas, a pro model and a cheaper one. In the case of the cheaper one, the idea would be something that's going to save people a lot of money and not offer nearly as many functions that the Switch has. A lot of the main theories people seem to have is that you don't actually have removable JoyCons, it's just one smaller system with the controls actually attached and is more relatable to a traditional handheld console and not something that actually gives you the option to switch between on the go or on TV gameplay. While removing wireless controllers like the JoyCons would certainly hurt a little bit, especially 'cause you also couldn't play in tabletop mode unless you bought additional JoyCons on top of the ones attached to the system, it would certainly save a lot of money on production of the system and make it potentially way cheaper for people to buy, maybe even as low as 150. On the other hand, there's also the concept of getting a pro model, something that is very similar to what we already see with the current Switch but offers possibly new features, new functions, or more importantly just overall more performance, whether that's being more powerful so it can provide us with better resolutions, maybe even a full blown 4K system. In my opinion, more likely it's just gonna be something that gives us actual stable frame rates on all games regardless of whether they're handheld or docked and maybe even giving us better resolution on those games and handheld that are downscaling. They could also do things like add those functions that we talked about that are missing, like bluetooth support or just be made out of a better, stronger plastic that isn't going to break over time. Now there are some issues that new models like this might not completely address. For instance, something that blog people have been talking about again recently is the issue of drift on their left JoyCon, which might be caused by damage inside the JoyCon stick itself. And if we're using the same JoyCons from before with the new systems, well that's not gonna be a problem that goes away anytime soon. Though it is possible they could do some kind of quiet hardware refresh where all the new JoyCons that are released from that point on would actually not have that problem. So if you get a new one maybe just don't buy older model JoyCons. The Switch is a great system. It has an awesome idea that I think was executed really well and it has a great library of games backing it up. It just has some problems on the build performance side that could use addressing and if we are getting these new model systems that's gonna be the breath of fresh air that we really need. So again, I think the Switch is awesome, you should get one, just not right now.