(apologies for the pun, but it was totally intended)
Last night, Nintendo officially announced details and games for their upcoming console, the Switch. This morning I waited outside of a GameStop to preorder mine. I’m excited.
Most of the technical details, while impressive, struck me as basically what was to be expected — nothing out of the ordinary. Better haptic feedback, new sensors, etc. One thing did surprise me, though.
The actual Nintendo Switch charges via USB-C. The controllers also charge via USB-C. This means a couple things, listed roughly in the sequence that they occurred to me:
- Huh, that’s interesting. I’ll be able to use the same charging cable that I have for my Pixel phone for the Switch as well! That’s certainly a change, Nintendo has a history of inventing proprietary connectors on, like, everything.
- Oh, so if I’m on a plane ride or a trip, I’ll be able to charge it on the go to extend its battery life.
- Wait wait wait, if the Switch charges via USB-C when it’s plugged into the TV Dock, I wonder if it uses that single connection for both charging, and the 1080p HDMI video out? It certainly could, I don’t see why it wouldn’t.
- Does that mean that the Nintendo Switch’s TV dock is just a glorified version of Apple’s USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter — piping the video out through the same single USB-C port that the power comes in via? I wonder if they’d be interchangeable.
- I wonder if it would support USB peripherals via a USB-C hub plugged into the Switch.
There’s a lot of tech questions that will only be answered on or about March 3rd, when the Nintendo Switch actually releases — but with Nintendo changing — err, switching — to more modular technology standards, I’m very excited to learn where we go from here.
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