Check out our first impressions of the Nintendo Switch

Available on March 3, the Nintendo Switch is available at the editorial office for a few hours now. A good opportunity for us to give you our first impressions of the machine before carrying out a complete test.

Inside the box, we can first find a first floor containing the tablet acting as a screen in portable mode accompanied by its two Joy-Con. Below this first floor, there is accommodation a fairly short power cable which will encourage us to strategically choose the location of our dock around the TV. An HDMI cable is also included as well as two wrist straps in the colors of the Joy-Con. In addition to this, we can find the support allowing us to assemble the two Nintendo controllers in order to benefit from a semblance of a traditional controller without having to purchase a Pro pad. Finally, we find the essential dock to operate the console in TV mode.

As seen during our first test at the beginning of the year, the Joy-Con are very small and handling them will take some time to get used to. Adults with big hands will have a hard time gripping the Switch controllers properly without hiding all the buttons. Thus, the hidden button at the back to unclip them from their support is not easily accessible and we we are far from the speed shown in the different trailers when it comes to removing them from the tablet or even from the square support. A helping hand perhaps…

This square support, present with the aim of making players wait who cannot afford the Pad Pro, is rather well thought out with the presence of two metal rails to easily clip the two Joy-Cons as well as two indicator lights which allow us to See the remaining battery of both controllers at a glance. But unfortunately, the latter is also small and once the two devices are clipped, our hands no longer have full access to the Joy-Con Grip and the handling is unfortunately not very pleasant. All that remains is to hope that in the future, Nintendo offers a revised and corrected size support to compensate for this defect. Last flaw of this support, it annihilates any sensation of vibration transmitted by the pair of controllers. The latter benefiting from cutting-edge technology in the field, we do not understand the choice made by the manufacturer in this configuration. We can hear the vibrator working, but the support does not vibrate in unison with the controllers it contains.

Once clipped onto the tablet, our controllers are easier to hold and we have the feeling of having a big PS Vita in our hands. However, we find ourselves once again faced with a new grip defect due to the size of the Joy-Con. The latter being not very thick and Nintendo having nevertheless decided to graft two triggers on each, the sensation when using them is quite unusual and could cause problems for players with large hands. We therefore experience two contradictory feelings. At first, we tell ourselves that the size of the screen is well adapted to be able to play comfortably, but we quickly have the impression that our hands are not spread out in a natural way during gaming sessions. see over time if it becomes more natural or if, on the contrary, the feeling of discomfort is still present.

During our tests on Zelda in portable mode, the console did not overheat greatly and we particularly like the fact that the hot air outlet is placed on the top of the tablet. As a result, unless we decide to pass our hand over the air outlet, it is impossible to feel a sensation of heat during long gaming sessions. Although limited to 720P, the tablet screen displays good quality graphics and the interface menus are well thought out and easy to access via the touch option which works perfectly. When switching to TV mode, you have to get used to clipping the console into its dock, because this is something new for any player, and although the tablet quickly finds its place, we often have to put it down a little too much to the side and the connection does not take place.

Once the console has been switched to TV mode, it is advisable to adopt the black theme proposed by the machine otherwise you will burn your eyes on our large flat screens. The brightness set in portable mode appears very different on our TVs and the result can be surprising. During our games on Zelda, we had the opportunity to test the transition between TV and portable mode on several occasions to discover that the function imagined by Nintendo works perfectly. The only problem when switching comes from the fact that when the tablet is placed on its Dock, She seems to have a lot of trouble letting off heat.. Although the fans weren’t screaming in agony, when we switched back to portable mode, the entire lower back of the machine was hot, like a smartphone running a game that was too demanding or desperately looking for power. 4G.

At present, Nintendo’s machine shows some shortcomings in home console mode without a Pro controller in addition, but offers good sensations in portable mode with a screen delivering quality images and a very responsive touch surface. We will meet with you in the days to come to see if certain defects highlighted here are solely due to the novelty imagined by Nintendo or if the problems with controller size and support will translate into real design defects over time, preventing the console from fully fulfilling its hybrid role on a day-to-day basis.

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