Nintendo Switch: various technical details, features (Album, parental controls, more)

13 January 2017 Lite_Agent

During and following the Nintendo Switch Presentation, today, Nintendo revealed plenty of details about its new home gaming console. In this post, you will find everything that’s a bit on the technical side, but also details about the console’s features.

Region-free

First, let’s start with what many fans have been expecting to hear: yes, the Nintendo Switch will be region-free. It’s not clear right now how it will all work for digital games, but at the very least, we can expect all retail games to be region-free.

Specs + Technical details + Pictures

Here’s some pictures of the Nintendo Switch and its various elements:

And here’s some technical details:

System battery life: can last from 2 to 6h, depending on the game and usage conditions. Nintendo gives an example with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which can be played for roughly 3 hours on a single charge;
Internal memory: 32GB of internal memory, a portion of which is reserved for use by the system. Of course, you can also use microSD cards to expand the amount of memory available;
Screen: 6.2-inch, multi-touch capacitive touch screen; can display a resolution of 1280 x 720 (1080p when docked, 720p when in portable or table mode. Resolution varies depending on games)
The main unit is said to weight 300g, and the Joy-Cons 50g each.

See more details in the following screencap:

Features

Here’s some the announced features for the Nintendo Switch:

Nintendo eShop;
Album: you can take and save screenshots using the Capture Button on the left Joy‑Con. After that, you can view, add text, and share to social networks from your album. You will also be able to record videos, but that feature will come at a later date;
News and announcements: get the latest updates on game releases, Nintendo events, announcements, and more, with your Nintendo Account.

Joy-Cons

The Nintendo Switch’s main controller. It features the traditional buttons, but also motion-controls, “HD Rumble” (for advanced and precise vibrations). According to Nintendo, they feature a 525mAh battery that takes 3.5h to charge for 20h of gameplay.

To play, you can use one or two Joy-Con, depending on the game. Some will have you share one with friends, too: possibilities seems “endless”, and no doubt developers (especially indies) will come up with unique and interesting ways to use the Joy-Cons.

Using the Grip, you can combine both Joycons into a more traditional controller. Of course, if you slide both Joy-Cons on the main unit, you can take it away with you, and play wherever you want.

The Joy-Cons will be available in three colours at launch:

Neon Blue
Neon Red
Silver

Here’s some more technical details about the Joy-Cons:

Play Styles

Multiplayer

For multiplayer, players will have the choice between:

local multiplayer using the Joy-Con, Pro Controller, and a combination of both. You can use up to 8 controllers at once on a single unit;
online multiplayer;
local multiplayer by linking up to 8 main units together.

Click here for more details about the Nintendo Switch Online Service!

Parental controls

Naturally, no modern Nintendo console would be complete without Parental controls. But on the Nintendo Switch, parents will have to use a dedicated app, released on smart devices. It will allow you to control the following:

Which games your kids can play
How long and how late they can play
What they can share on social networks
You can also set restrictions for Nintendo eShop via your Nintendo Account.

Stay tuned for more details!