#Ars technica imazing review 720p
#Ars technica imazing review 1080p

At about 25 cm wide, though, the system will stick out awkwardly from pretty much any pocket you try to stick it in. The screen does give off a decent amount of glare when playing in direct light, but in most situations I was able to angle the system so I didn't see any bright spots reflecting back at me.Īt just under 14 ounces (393 grams) with the two Joy-Con controllers attached, the Switch feels solid but not overly heavy to cradle for long play sessions. The size and clarity of the screen makes even small details stand out by comparison previous portable consoles look downright blocky.

#Ars technica imazing review 720p

A powerful portableįurther Reading Hands-on with Nintendo Switch: Jack of all trades, master of someI've highlighted the quality of the Switch's 6.2-inch, 720p screen for portable gaming in previous pieces, and the quality display still stands out after just over a week with the system. While the Switch probably won't ever be fully adequate as your only game console and some questions about controls and software support remain, the 'new hardware system with a brand new concept' that Nintendo first announced in 2015 is in many ways the most interesting piece of gaming hardware in decades. But through that ambition, Nintendo has created an interesting hybrid that seems to pull portable gaming upward more than it drags home console gaming downward. It's something of a quixotic ambition, considering that smartphones and tablets seem to already dominate everyone's free on-the-go gaming minutes (and considering that larger, more powerful, price-competitive home consoles can obviously do more in the living room). Nintendo is betting that a system that fits in a diminutive tablet form factor is now powerful enough to feel acceptably modern when you throw it into an included dock and blow it up to full size on your living room wall.

#Ars technica imazing review 1080p

The Switch is an attempt to drag the portable gaming market kicking and screaming to a point where it's literally indistinguishable from the experience you'd get playing on a 1080p HDTV.

With the Switch, Nintendo seems to be betting that the continued drum beat of Moore's Law and miniaturization has made that dichotomy moot. Aside from pricey experiments like the Turbo Express, playing on the go meant making significant and understandable sacrifices in graphical and computational power (and, often, controls) compared to contemporary home consoles. Since the release of the Game Boy in 1989, there has been a pretty fundamental split between playing games on a TV-based console and playing games on a portable system.