Global Hardware 15 December 2018

[Shiken]

DonFerrari said:

Shiken said:

The Switch is a hybrid console because it is both portable and home console, not because a piece of plastic, but because it has two separate functions and changes the resolution and performance based on being docked or undocked.  It is not just sending a signal to the TV, but also stepping up or down the processing power to perform differently based on if it is being used as a weaker home console, or a very powerful handheld.  This makes it both and therefore it competes in the console space as well as portable.

The dock provides energy and cooling. It doesn't grant any special feature to Switch. If someone hacked his switch to run full performance without the dock would then it become the desktop console even holding in the hand? Also Nintendo is selling it without dock in Japan.

And you fall in the same trap of OTBWY of confusing direct and indirect competitors.

If PS4 wasn't in the market X1 would sell much more and vice-versa (you having both is irrelevant). If Switch didn't launch neither PS4 nor X1 would have sold much more.

The dock does not provide any more power than just the AC adapter itself.  It also does not provide cooling as the fans and everything that does the work is in the Switch itself.  The only thing the dock does is send a signal to trigger console mode in the Switch.

 

You basically prove my point.  The fact the the dock does nothing special is exactly why it is classified as both.  The console and portable functions are native to the device itself and in theory, yes you could hack it to output docked level performance in handheld (albiet at higher battery consumption).

 

The fact that you have to hack it however is where your argument falls flat.  It was not designed to operate that way and you are altering its very form factor to make it something else.