[aaron-lebo]

I showed up at Target at 4 am and was second in line. Some other poor soul had been there since 11 and out of the 50 units available there were probably 10 people at opening. Not sure if that suggests demand isn't that great or what.

It's hard to figure out. Check out the unit next to the Wii U tablet and the latter looks very much like a clunky cheap toy. Everything here seems well-designed (don't scratch your screen on the dock though), the joycons are very clever. I must admit tablet mode with them is just okay and they are undersized in every way compared to other controllers, but snapped onto the controller shell you forget it isn't just a regular controller. Very cool.

The hardware though? It makes me nervous. I get at $300 and what Nintendo was going for you don't have much of an alternative. Maybe I'm spoiled but 900p upscaled at 30 fps with drops when docked feels wrong in 2017. The game (BotW) is beautiful and controls wonderfully but the lag is noticeable at times for me and the lack of fluidity hurts the experience. Oddly enough playing at 720p undocked isn't slow at all and on the small screen looks great. I kind of drool at the thought of this upscaled to 4k at 60fps and that and it wouldn't be hard on modern hardware. Maybe a remaster or emulator?

It very much feels like a mobile device you can dock versus a home console you can take with you. Just not sure how much headroom is in the hardware to make this last for three or four years without major compromises.

Does anyone else have an impression?

[ThatPlayer]

I scoped out my local Target at 1 am and there were 5 people in line and maybe a few more waiting in cars. Came back at 7:30am before the 8am opening and got a voucher for about 40 out of 60 Switches. I think it could just be a smaller thing because most people expect the midnight launches, and people have work at 8am. The midnight launch at my local Fry's sold out of their 90 Switches. Or maybe it is your location as I am in Los Angeles County.

>It very much feels like a mobile device you can dock versus a home console you can take with you.

I definitely agree that it feels like a 3DS successor rather than a Wii U successor. That wouldn't surprise me if you consider how well the 3DS does compared to the Wii U. I'm playing the Zelda on the portable more than on the TV.

>Just not sure how much headroom is in the hardware to make this last for three or four years without major compromises.

If you look at the 3DS which still has most games running on the same hardware from 2011, I can see the Switch lasting three years without requiring a refresh. Maybe a small one like the New 3DS is to the 3DS.

[b3b0p]

The difference between the New 3DS and the original 3DS is actually quite substantially technically.

New 3DS:

* ARM11 MPCore 4x @ 268MHz

* 4x VFPv2 Co-Processor

* 256MB FCRAM

* 10MB VRAM

* Dedicated Hardware Video Decoder

(* It also can play SNES Virtual Console games and can also play Xenoblade Chronicles for New 3DS)

(* The menu screen is also substantially faster)

3DS:

* ARM11 MPCore 2x @ 268MHz

* 2x VFPv2 Co-Processor

* 128MB FCRAM

* 6MB VRAM

[LandoCalrissian]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpqaTdflkNU

You are not wrong. I appears docked has the hiccups.

[developer2]

>> Does anyone else have an impression?

That if you don't like upscaled 900p at 30 fps, you shouldn't be buying a half-assed device that pretends it can be called a next-gen "console", when in fact it's a glorified tablet?

[aaron-lebo]

This is for all intents and purposes Nintendo's console now that the Wii U has been discontinued. They are advertising it as such and it's gonna get those comparisons whether they want it to or not.

But really I just like trying new tech.

[M_Grey]

Early adopters... I do not understand you at all.