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Forums - Nintendo - Do you like the Switch as a handheld?

NATO on 07 March 2017
bonzobanana said:

There's nothing on that circuit board of value. It probably costs less than $1 to make. The Raspberry pi zero is made in the uk which is very expensive to manufacture compared to China by a long way and retails at £4 including more performance than a wii or 3DS. In that price is VAT, profit for the raspberry pi foundation, profit for reseller and maybe other costs. The only reason Nintendo is charging $90 is because Nintendo thinks they can. It could profitably be sold for £20 I'm sure if they wanted to even allowing for the psu. We may even find that third parties produce a cheap compatible dock at a fraction of the price as I'm not sure there is any proprietory hardware there at all. Nintendo charges what the market will bear which is not related to manufacturing cost as much as people think. I suspect from Nintendo's perspective they believe by charging $90 seperately they have added perceived value to the Switch as a package plus they make a ton of money for those who want to use a Switch in two rooms. My android tablet was £69.99 with a 10.1" 1280x720 ips screen, octocore cpu beyond the cpu performance of Switch by a long way but only 2GB memory, 16GB storage and a gpu of about 50 gflops where as Nintendo will be charging £80 for a plastic box with a psu in the UK.  You remove the dock from the Switch box and it would probably only reduce the console price by $20.

The BOM cost for the VL210-Q4 is more than the price of the Pi Zero on it's own.

Why would you even argue the value of the board without even knowing the components used? you can't just pluck a random PCB out of thin air then compare the cost like that.



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NATO on 07 March 2017
GhaudePhaede010 said:

2 things:

1) You just said it was 50 not 90. That ends that.

2) I did not say you did not have one, I said you need to spend time with one. If you did not have one and did not want to buy one, that is fine because I am not suggesting someone actually buy what they do not want to buy. However, you seem to not understand my points and even though I understand yours and that is a huge disconnect. You have not once went in on one of my actual points and I am not going to have that derailed any further. Spend some time with Switch, if your opinion does not change, so be it. However, at least you will have more information than the very little you have displayed here.

1) Yes, $50,. but the retail price is $90, in the same way that the BOM price of the Switch retail pack isn't $300, it isn't rocket science. Retail for dock is $90, which by Nintendo's margin adjustment puts the console around $200-220, which puts the BOM cost of the actual switch and it's controllers at around $100, much less without the HD rumble, ir camera and supporting SMD, IC's and interfacing.

2) Bullshit, you specifically said: 

(not buy one because you have every right to not want one)

and

"but you would not understand since you probably have not played the console to know the benefits"

Which explicitly implies that I do not have one in the first place. - Your whole shtick gave off the stance of assuming I have not spent any time with the console, I have not spent any time with it's games, and "should try spending time with it, but don't go out and buy one, you have every right not to", "you wouldn't understand since you probably have not played the console" what part of that isn't "you don't have one"?



Helloplite on 07 March 2017
bonzobanana said:
NATO said:

I'm a hardware engineer, so as someone that has taken apart the dock, dumped both the SPI flashes and fiddled around with the code, I can say that while the dock isn't worth the $90 retail pricetag, it's still at least a $50 chunk of the cost alone.

SPI flashes are located either side of the HDMI connector, other side of the board has an arm serial wire debug testpoint for dumping the MXIC ic, too, i've delved into all of the readable data in great detail, so i'm extremely familiar with what the dock does, how it does it, the BOM for such a device, and the bottom line, which is seemingly infinitely more than you, with your "if you think it's worth $90 this convosations over" stuff.

But hey, what do I know?, hell you even went as far as to pull the old "you don't even have one" nonsense, what do you think this is?

There's nothing on that circuit board of value. It probably costs less than $1 to make. The Raspberry pi zero is made in the uk which is very expensive to manufacture compared to China by a long way and retails at £4 including more performance than a wii or 3DS. In that price is VAT, profit for the raspberry pi foundation, profit for reseller and maybe other costs. The only reason Nintendo is charging $90 is because Nintendo thinks they can. It could profitably be sold for £20 I'm sure if they wanted to even allowing for the psu. We may even find that third parties produce a cheap compatible dock at a fraction of the price as I'm not sure there is any proprietory hardware there at all. Nintendo charges what the market will bear which is not related to manufacturing cost as much as people think. I suspect from Nintendo's perspective they believe by charging $90 seperately they have added perceived value to the Switch as a package plus they make a ton of money for those who want to use a Switch in two rooms. My android tablet was £69.99 with a 10.1" 1280x720 ips screen, octocore cpu beyond the cpu performance of Switch by a long way but only 2GB memory, 16GB storage and a gpu of about 50 gflops where as Nintendo will be charging £80 for a plastic box with a psu in the UK.  You remove the dock from the Switch box and it would probably only reduce the console price by $20.

LOL. Are you seriously suggesting your £70 tablet sport superior hardware to the Switch? Post the specs now and the link to buy it from. Asinine claims need strong proof. 



d21lewis on 07 March 2017

About to find out! This is my first day back at work since launch. I'll have roughly 8/12 hours to play it, today.

Got my phone's C Charger and I bought an Anker power bank just for days like today.



d21lewis on 07 March 2017
NATO said:
Given that the clock speed is downclocked for handheld mode, and most people prefer it in handheld mode, having the capacity for higher processing power just for docked mode is stupid, why not just have an option for high power mode in handheld mode and run games better with nicer visuals.

Switch's biggest gimmick - playing on a TV is a waste of space and likely increased the cost of the console way more than it had to.

$300 for the current switch or $150 for the same thing, minus "HD rumble" which is shit, minus the useless camera in the right joycon, minus the piece of shit dock that is having extensive issues with manufacturing quality, and minus the extra components used for TV out and it would have done much, much better.

😢

 

I've almost exclusively played it on my TV since launch.



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AlfredoTurkey on 07 March 2017

I play it as a home console 99% of the time. As a handheld, it feels a little too large and using both analog sticks is taxing on the muscles in my hands (not ideal placements). If it were smaller like the GBA, I'd love it but handhelds this large are just too cumbersome for me.



SuperNova on 07 March 2017

I initially completel ignores the console side of it and didn't even hook up the dock. I used my wiiU as a big ol' handheld as well most of the time. I just love handheld gaming and the Switch is perfect for it.

I'm surprised by how much I like it as a console though. Zelda look gogeous on the big screen and the puppydog grip is surprisingly compfy.

The only drawback I can think of, is that I'm going to have to buy a second power adapter for charging in Handheld mode for long play sessions in bed.



d21lewis on 07 March 2017
SuperNova said:
I initially completel ignores the console side of it and didn't even hook up the dock. I used my wiiU as a big ol' handheld as well most of the time. I just love handheld gaming and the Switch is perfect for it.

I'm surprised by how much I like it as a console though. Zelda look gogeous on the big screen and the puppydog grip is surprisingly compfy.

The only drawback I can think of, is that I'm going to have to buy a second power adapter for charging in Handheld mode for long play sessions in bed.

Don't buy the official charger!

A phone charger and a generic C Cable work great! I'm using the exact same one I use for my phone. I bought some extra C Cables (5 for $19, I think) for at home use but you don't need the official product.



JRPGfan on 07 March 2017

I havnt held one yet... but judgeing from videos of people that use the system, and their impressions, it seems they prefer it as a handheld mostly.



Dgc1808 on 07 March 2017

Perhaps it's because I only have breath of the wild but to my surprise, I find it much more enjoyable as a home console. I also don't like using the joycon grip. I'm playing on a 4k TV in gaming mode with with a few tweaked color settings and it looks much better than on the switch screen. Did not expect this.



4 ≈ One