Miyamotoo said:
Switch is not only handheld with TV out, fact is that from start is designed that can be used like real home console or like real handheld, thats why you have portable mode and home console mode where games run difrently, thats why games are made to run in two difrent mods, thats why you have full AAA home console games, thats why you have extra GPU power in docked mode, that why you have local multiplayer, that why you have ditachible controlers, thats why you have dock...so definatly its not just handheld with dock, its a hybrid of handheld and home console.
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Dock contains nothing but a powered USB-C to HDMI passthrough with mild handshake encryption (rushed attempted at preventing third party docks and low cost usb-c to hdmi adapters from working on it).
The device has two performance profiles because of it's hardware limitations, it has a 720p screen so what point would there be in running at 900p/1080p for that?, and because of that limitation (720p) they can afford to clock back the specification and use a less agressive performance profile to try to extend battery life.
Sony did a very similar thing with the PSP when it originally launched, limiting launch titles to an operating speed of 222mhz, with the plan to eventually allow for games to run at 333mhz when in a dock or when connected to an AC adapter, however when the PSP was cracked and modders discovered that the console wasn't running at it's full speed, and with a little bit of homebrew running in memory you could force even games locked to 222mhz to run (much more smoothly) at 333mhz, they quietly lifted the limit and future games used whatever frequency was best suited for the games.
Just as with the Switch, the reason this was done was to improve the battery life when not connected to a charger - Think of it this way, Switch (from new) has a battery life of roughly 3 hours right?, now imagine it ran at the same performance profile used when connected to a power source, even when NOT connected?, you would likely struggle to get 2 hours, and if that was the case, initial reviews which were already fairly critical of the 3 hours, would have torn it a new one.
To put it simply, there is no "Extra" power when docked, the switch is just operating at the hardwares intended speed, what infact happens is what when you are not docked, they intentionally gimp the performance to improve battery life, just like there was no "extra" power on the PSP when modding it to operate at 333mhz, that's what it was designed to run at, it was just intentionally crippled to improve battery life.
"Full AAA console games" - has nothing to do with it, the games are there regardless, if they released a game that ONLY worked in docked mode maybe you could use this as an argument.
"extra GPU power in docked mode" - Oh no baby what is you doing, reality is standard operating speed when they don't have to worry about battery power, more accurately, normal speed when docked, limp mode when undocked.
"Local multiplayer" - Been done before, on handhelds, here's an example of the psp doing exactly that -
"Detachable controllers" - Having detachable controllers has nothing to do with a console being portable, handheld or "hybrid", just as the multitude of android gaming tablets and streaming units featuring detachable controllers coming out of china *before* the switch was even revealed, aren't hybrid consoles, they're handhelds with... dun dun duunnn.. detachable controllers.
"That's why you have a dock" - Yes and the DS had a dock, and the 3DS had a dock, and the PSP had a dock, and the Vita had a dock, and the PSP go had a dock, with both the PSP 3000 and PSP Go dock featuring tv out and ability to play via a seperate controller, all of them were still handheld consoles, go figure.
It is definitely just a handheld with a dock, the only difference is it's a handheld with a dock that copies the gimmick of removable controllers, and here's betting that some point somewhere down the consoles life cycle, they release a version that does not include the dock, and perhaps even further down the line, a version that does not feature removable controllers - and what will the argument for the thing be then? "it's still a hybrid.. honest!"
P.s. on the topic of the dock, Nyko released their own which required that their engineers adjust the device ID and handshake data to trick the switch into believing it was a legitimate Nintendo product in order to operate, here's a quote:
"Nyko representatives declined to call their effort "reverse engineering," but they did confirm that the Docking Kit's circuit board ticks off three check boxes of the official Switch Dock: to facilitate the amount of current sent to the Switch via USB Type-C (15 volts, 2.6 amps), to successfully shake hands as a "Switch product," and to push HDMI video out."
There would no absolutely no reason to add in this protection beyond intentionally locking out third parties from releasing their own docks, and forcing owners to cough up the $80 or so for an official dock if their original was either lost or damaged, or if the owner wanted a second dock to install elsewhere - If it wasn't for this stupid lock out, you could literally just have a usb c cable that you plug in and away you go, tv out and charge capability, no dock to mess around with and no potential screen scratching over time.
Last edited by NATO - on 17 November 2017