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.
Things are this are why I am so glad for European crash safety regulations. Even an adult getting hit by an F150 must feel like getting hit by a brick wall.
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.
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.
Oh goodness, this is reminding me of the SUV/truck hellscape most manufacturers are trying to push nowadays. Even my inner car guy hates those with a burning passion, as it killed so many cool cars.
Most of the delivery services here in the UK even in places with big roads use bicycles, mopeds, or at most a small hatchback car. They can easily fit through that city.
I don't get why Nintendo felt the need to hide screws behind stickers, or to glue down the battery so hard. Switch 1 was fairly easy to open up. Hopefully right to repair legislation can force Nintendo into providing official parts and repair guides before Switch 2 batteries start dying.
It feels decent enough for me, a bit better than Switch 1 Pro Controller. You probably shouldn't take D pad related info from me though, considering I somehow liked the D pad substitute on the original Joy Cons.
I'll probably give that a try when I can then, since I only did up to two players locally as well as online Knockout Tour. I wouldn't be surprised if it went down to 30FPS instead of 60 in 3 or 4 player modes considering how much is on screen.
I only got to try a Deck for a bit, so I unfortunately can't do a proper direct comparison. I would say it's a little bit lighter than the Deck, while being a bit thinner. The backs of the Joy Cons have a better shape that makes it feel more secure in my hand compared to Switch 1.
If you can (and are brave enough) it's worth also replacing the thermal paste under the heat spreader. It gave me a decent boost. I made a post about it here if you'd like to know more.
It seems for some reason Nintendo's in house games' HDR support seems to be more for increasing accuracy of colours and shapes rather than increasing brightness. Running on my QD OLED monitor, Breath of the Wild's Switch 2 upgrade does not look super bright with massive contrast (as most PC HDR would be), but you have things like the sun going from a white blob (on an SDR Switch 1 as well as an emulator) to being much more detailed due to the increased gamma value range. On Welcome Tour as well, the fireworks demo definitely shows much more detail in the explosions, but does not use the peak brightness of the monitor. Similarly, Switch 1 games look a bit more muted with the Switch 2's HDR output (compared to the tone mapping the monitor uses for the Switch 1's SDR output), but with colours closer to the printed box art and other sources. I think we might see future Nintendo published Switch 2 focused games try and use the HDR for a higher brightness output, or we might see the more accuracy same brightness trend continue. This is likely a development choice, and explains why Cyberpunk 2077 (a game with existing HDR on other platforms, where the tendency is for higher brightness with more "pop" with high contrast) looks quite different in HDR on Switch 2 compared to the Nintendo titles.
The integrated display is definitely not the best thing in the world, but it does what it needs to do pretty well. High refresh rate 1080p with some light HDR looks perfectly fine to me, and it definitely looks far better than Switch 1. It's very good for my usage. The brightness could have been higher though, considering this is a portable device that you might want to use in bright sunlight on the train or something (high end phone screens get 1000+ nit brightnesses for this reason, and as far as I know Deck OLED does at least 800 or 900).
Ah, it's LibreOffice Fontwork on my modern Linux desktop, just screenshotted and comically compressed to look that bad. I did genuinely consider installing my copy of Word 2003 on WINE to make this though, because classic Microsoft Word WordArt is funny as hell.
I do think Nintendo need to follow the lead of a lot of other companies and offer official replacement parts, especially with the weeks long turnaround times their official service can have sometimes. Replaceable storage is also a good improvement that could happen, considering it's not unheard of for storage chips to die (for example early 32GB Wii Us). Still, I think iFixit are somewhat unfair when it comes to the Switch's battery. It is definitely harder to remove than the ROG Ally (screwed in batteries are the way, ASUS did a good job on this) but even their own guide scores the Switch battery removal as being easier than the Deck. The Switch's battery can be removed mostly with isopropyl alcohol and prying (still a royal pain compared to the Ally, but doable), while they recommend using multiple applications of heat for the Deck (which is terrifying considering this is a battery we are talking about, and will put a lot of people off). The only thing better on the Deck is availability of official parts, but everything else is far worse than the Switch battery replacement experience, and I do not think the Deck deserves the 7/10 repair score considering the replacement procedure for this commonly replaced part. It should be given a 5/10 instead.
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.