All the consoles + PC screw you over in some way, shape, or form. It’s just a question of what you are willing to put up with and your red lines for what you don’t want. I wouldn’t go so far as to say there’s a bias against Nintendo though, it’s just the most talked about company since they’re the biggest console player at the moment.

It’s down to personal preference, in my opinion. Steam Deck has more flexibility (any game store + Steam, since it is just a Linux PC in a convenient form factor, so you can go through the massive PC back catalogue as well as enjoy massive sales), but the Switch 2 has a wide array of exclusive titles (Mario Kart World is like my dream Mario Kart, and I am not ashamed to admit I’m addicted to Fire Emblem) as well as the third party titles. Deck has more online features (Nintendo for some reason refuse to put achievements into their consoles, plus Steam has the community pages), but Switch 2 has a better local multiplayer experience (being able to detach a Joy Con and play with a friend on a long train ride or something is amazing). I would say buy both, but most people would rather not do both (since it’s a lot of money, two separate devices, and also two separate libraries). It really depends on your priorities. Personally, I lean more Switch 2 due to its good combination of exclusives and third party games, but that is heavily influenced by the fact I have one.

Seems whatever changed wasn’t a perfect solution then. Thanks for the link. Still, I really wish I had access to Nintendo’s repair statistics, as anecdotally I’ve found it harder to find OLED reports, but that might just be because people don’t specify what Switch they have when asking for help.

I don’t have the game, but Switch 2 for Switch 1 titles generally does nothing for the resolution, and it will be the same as on Switch 1. The portable play will be a bit worse than Switch 1, as it stretches the lower resolution portable mode image over a larger screen.

They probably screwed up the rubber making then. For some reason, early Joy Con 1s in particular have even more defects than most of them, possibly due to sloppy and rushed production. It’s a shame this happened though, because you should reasonably expect this to not happen on a product you buy for hundreds.

This looks like a case of rubber reversion (also why old rubberised stuff on phones and such gets super sticky). What sort of temperatures were there in the TV bench? If it got hot from other equipment inside or external heat, that could significantly accelerate the damage. Either that or during the production process the rubber wasn’t produced properly (chemical stabilisers not working properly, so on) which is entirely likely considering the disaster that is the Joy Con 1.

Joy Con 1 is a design disaster internally. I really question how they managed to get past testing sometimes. The original board on the right Joy Con that came with my Switch was so poorly made they even forgot to fully solder in the R button, causing it to literally fall off during disassembly. As a parting gift, the casing plastics developed a crack around one of the screw holes, causing the screw to no longer go in properly. I had to hack together a shell from a parts Joy Con I bought, since it was a special Smash edition Joy Con that I couldn’t get a new replacement of.

USB mice are a bit of a weird situation. You can’t use them in menus or as direct replacements for Joy Con 2 mice (so no Drag x Drive, no Welcome Tour, so on), but you can use them in some supported games (most notably at the moment Nobunaga’s Ambition Awakening).

The Switch 1 Pro Controller also worked fine in the past with a third party cable (it was some sort of phone charger, I can’t remember the exact model). I haven’t got one at the moment, but if I get the opportunity I will let you know how it goes. However, it is likely going to work due to my Switch 1 Joy Con charging grip charging fine off all the random cables in my house in addition to the one that comes in the box.

Unfortunately couldn’t find anything better than DisplayHDR 400, but I would recommend this Alienware AW3225DM instead of the Samsung as it has HDMI 2.1 support, which is most likely needed for 1440p output at 120Hz for Switch 2. The Samsung only has 2.0, so will be a bit flaky when it comes to 1440p 120Hz output - my Alienware AW3423DWF for example has a HDMI 2.0 port, and the Switch 2 only allows me to use either a 4K 60Hz input (downscaled by the monitor to 1440p 60Hz for a better 1440p display) or 1080p at 120Hz.

The main launch titles and updates (Mario Kart World, Zelda Breath of The Wild/Tears of The Kingdom, and so on) already support HDR in game.

I’m assuming you are in the UK from the instance (same as mine). What sort of budget do you have, and what size do you want? I’ll have a look and see if you can scrape in DisplayHDR 500.

I’m running a QD OLED monitor, so take that into consideration with my results. HDR in Nintendo titles seems to be more focused on increasing colour accuracy rather than “pop”, which will be something that is down to your personal taste. For example, the sun in Breath of The Wild turns from a white blob in SDR to a well defined sun with rays in HDR. It is definitely noticeable, but not in the same way as a lot of other consoles or PCs do HDR. However, this depends on the game, as Cyberpunk 2077 (I don’t own it so have to go off what other people say) has a far brighter and more traditional HDR master that has high contrast.

I would not recommend getting a HDR 400 monitor if you can. The specifications for HDR 400 are significantly watered down (10 bit not required, sRGB colour gamut rather than WCG, high black level luminance allowance, so on) compared to even DisplayHDR 500 certified displays. If HDR is a priority, it would be worth getting maybe a lower refresh rate monitor but with at least DisplayHDR 500, as the HDR will be far better.

I can’t comment on HDR at high refresh rates as I have no games at the moment that use both, although I assume it would work fine at high refresh rates.

My Switch 2 Pro Controller and Joy Con 1 charging grip both charge fine off a Samsung 25W charger with an IKEA USB C to C cable (on a sidenote, IKEA of all places do great chargers and cables, way better prices too), as well as a Samsung USB C to A cable connected to my PC’s front ports. Perhaps the cables he was using were old or defective in some way? Although that stream did make me think the whole time that Nintendo (and also Sony) should just use regular AA batteries like the Xbox controllers.

Yeah, Nintendo have always had a bit of a weird mentality when it comes to their hardware. They always like doing things their way, and for you to only deal with them for repairs and service (as far as I know not even having a repair partner program to make their service easier to access). It’s a shame, considering their hardware has been fairly modular and easy to open in general.

As far as I know, the charging is mostly just regular USB C PD, although with some odd power profiles (weird voltages that most non-PPS chargers don’t support) and Switch 1’s charger technically violating the spec through no 9V profile (the dock also does, but that’s to allow the drop in functionality without the regular USB C click). Switch 2’s charger complies and has a 9V profile though. This standardisation means I can power the Switch 2 dock with my Lenovo laptop charger no worries since it has a 20 volt profile at 3+ amps. Similar story for any power supply with a 20 volt profile, or one with PPS that can work in that range.

I was miffed about the digital triggers at first, but it makes sense for Nintendo’s main titles. In Mario Kart and Smash, for example, you need a quick and snappy button input for ZL and ZR for things like drifting or shielding, and an analogue trigger would take more time to press down. Still, for use outside of the Switch 2 it’s not ideal. Hopefully for games that can use analogue triggers on the Switch 2 we see more support for the GameCube controller, since we have the new Bluetooth version for Switch Online.

Potentially. I’m leaning more incompetence/“we always did it this way”/cost cutting rather than malice though, considering Joy Con 2 has a fairly easily repairable design like Joy Con 1. They probably just shoved on a bunch of adhesive for the battery, for example, since it was the most cost effective way to keep the battery from moving about on the go while taking no time in the factory (the only time they care about the assembly). Steam Deck did the same thing (although ROG Ally was smart and actually used screws and brackets to hold its battery down). It’s a lazy and stupid solution, but it is a solution.

Theoretically, yes, they could do that with the electronic fuses to prevent firmware from booting, as the Tegra on Switch 2 likely retains the same system. However, they probably wouldn’t do it mostly because it would deprive them of boards for refurbished consoles, if not whole units they can go and turn into systems they can send back from the repair centre. Besides, all they really need to do with any potential brick is to stop most people from using the device and to give up. I can’t be entirely sure since I don’t know the internals that well, but it wouldn’t make sense for them to do an irrecoverable brick.

Thanks for letting me know about the eFuses though in the Switch 1 chip, wasn’t aware of those before.

If it’s anything like the Wii, there’s no hardware to fully brick the console. Instead, it would likely just come up with a software error message on boot (usually after an update) and tell you to contact Nintendo Support, who presumably would completely reset your console and remove mods if you sent it in. Maybe ban the serial number from online too.