Could this be real? Sounds a little too much for what they've shown:
Post 1
There are no additional functions in the base, it's just an output. The main unit is actually a 1080p capacitive touch screen, surprisingly. I haven't played with the controller but from observation the key travel of LR buttons is probably very short.
I saw heatsink fins on the main unit, probably because it was an engineering sample. I haven't seen a production unit yet.
The base is very light, feels very plasticky.
The side controllers are very small. They start charging when you plug them into the sides of the main unit. The split LR buttons are positioned under your hands. Handling feels weak due to the lack of buttons.
There's a 5cm vent at the top of the main unit and you can see heatsink fins inside.
The main unit is around 1.5kg.
Each small controller has 2 separate SL SR buttons. Key travel is still very short. Doesn't feel very nice.
The silicone buttons on the controller are very average.
The brightness of the main unit isn't very good. I'm guessing it'll be just visible enough outdoors if set to max brightness, but then you can forget about battery life.
I checked again today, the main unit definitely has a 1080p screen, which is great. There are no games on it so I couldn't tell much [about display quality]. Will try to check out the motherboard in the next few days.
I had a look at the heatsink today, there's a L shaped heat pipe 0.8cm wide and about 12cm long, placed upside down. The fins on it are 5cm long and 0.8cm tall, and there's a turbine fan with 4cm diameter. Looks pretty shoddy, but should be enough since the main unit doesn't generate that much heat anyway.
The demo screen is very boring, just a bunch of fish swimming around. The factory floor is very noisy so I couldn't tell if it generates much noise. I touched it and it wasn't too warm after running for 2 hours, so it's not too bad.
Brightness really isn't very good.
As a portable console the Nintendo Switch is not bad, but don't expect it to be on par with home consoles. If you want 1080p60 you can forget about it, even PS4 Pro only barely achieves that. If The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild can run at 1080p30 then it's definitely worth buying, after all it only runs at 720p on the Wii U. But if it's interlaced/interpolated then that'd be pretty embarrassing.
It's a good choice as a portable console, and the 2 small controllers allow multi-player Mario Kart too. I'll need to check the battery capacity of the controllers, not sure how good its battery life is.
Had a look at the motherboard today. The CPU looked like about 10mm2 and is made in Taiwan. There are 2 memory chips but couldn't see the model or type. The fan is pretty powerful, I can feel waves of hot air. The unit itself doesn't feel very warm. There are heat pipes so we shouldn't need to worry about frequency throttling.
On the right side of the main unit there's a 8cm2 slot that's about 0.6cm deep. Pretty sure that's for the battery, a big one at that.
There's no way Nintendo would be generous enough to include a hard drive.
Even the Nvidia GP106 is only 120cm2 [Ed: did he mean mm2 ?]. I think we can look forward to good graphics performance on the Nintendo Switch even though some chip area is taken up by the CPU.
The CPU in Nintendo Switch is what's commonly known as an APU. Its area is about the same as Nvidia GP107, but that includes the CPU too, so graphics performance won't be as good as GeForce 1050.
Reply from OP: Not an engineering sample, a verification unit assembled in Japan, should be the same as production units. You think our factory security are useless? [Its performance] beats iPhone 8 hands down, but miles behind PS4.
Post 2
Can't take any photos. I've tried to describe all I could. Haven't checked the battery capacity of the side controllers yet, will take a look soon.
The controllers feel okay when attached to the main unit. It sucks that there's no + button, but I guess it's a compromise to allow two player games.
Our factory doesn't have the traditional controller so I can't say anything about that.
The main unit structure is pretty simple, should be easy to repair.
The side controllers are very complex, make sure you take good care of them. If you break the gold pins on the bottom then you can't charge them.
Post 3
The battery in the small controllers is about 5x2x0.5cm. You guys can guess the capacity. I don't want to go into the clean room, that'd look too suspicious.
The advantage of Nintendo Switch is no frequency throttling. There's no lag whatsoever after running for 2 hours straight. Not like mobile phones that can last only 1 minute on full performance.
I almost took a controller button home today, but then I thought it's pretty useless so I didn't do it. If I get caught the punishment will be severe [Ed: lit. "they'll cut off my hands"].
The most expensive component in the NS, besides CPU and motherboard, would be the side controllers. The quality is very high. Feels good to use when connected together.
I'm confident in the small controller's battery life after seeing the battery dimensions.
Quality control is very strict, you can buy with confidence.
I think the base is pretty useless besides charging. It's mostly a portable console.
The base is easily scratched because it uses the shittiest plastic.
If you want to upgrade your portable console then buy this. The display is high definition and not blocky.
Nintendo Switch is definitely the best portable console.
The chip looks like it uses the same packaging as the Nvidia GPUs. Looks very big and powerful. It's made in Taiwan, there's no TSMC logo but we all know who made it. The surface of the chip is smooth like GP106. Have a look at your video card and you'll know what the NS CPU looks like.
Post 4
Diagonal size of the screen is about 17. [Ed: they didn't say what unit.]
Our production line made 2,100 units today and we're still increasing output. The whole factory floor should be able to make 20,000 units per day.
I saw the blue and orange versions of the controller today.
Nintendo Switch has active cooling with heat pipes and fans, you can't compare it to mobile devices. It won't throttle frequency even after prolonged use. Its performance beats any mobile device hands down, including iPad Pro.
There's a very important thing I still need to find out, will let you guys know in a few days.
What's the maximum distance of the controllers? This is an important question if you want to play 2-player Mario Kart with split screen.
I haven't seen the OS. When they do testing I'm also working, when I'm off shift I'm too tired to go check.
About the 1080p screen, I'm not 100% sure about my visual estimation. The testing computer says output is 1080p. I guessed it's 1080p based on the fact that the motherboard in the base is too simple. [Ed: is this in response to a question about whether it supports 4K? Some context would be nice here.]
The base doesn't enhance performance in any way. There's only the power connector, a USB 3.0 and a HDMI port on the inside, and 2 USB 2.0 ports on the outside.
Nintendo Switch is a traditional portable console. It's major selling point isn't innovation. The only thing extra is a video-out.
One characteristic of the NS is that everyone has a different view on how it should be used. For me, it's a great portable console.
Sorry for not being able to check the details of various things. I can only say that I haven't found any motion sensing capability yet, and our factory doesn't have any testing for it either. Maybe I just haven't found it yet! I'm too tired today, will reply tomorrow.
The motherboard in the base is way too simple. Just think of it as a charger.
The main unit has 2 small holes on the sides, and a heat vent at the top. Dust getting inside could be a problem.
Post 5
Here's some standard specs: CPU 1750 MHz, GPU 912 MHz, EMC 1600 MHz. (I remembered wrong, the GPU is actually 921 MHz. It sure looks like it [Ed: likely in reply to someone saying it's similar to some other chip], but this one is 16nm so it's probably a new product.)
Battery capacity is 4310 mAh. (The battery is not replaceable.)
Today I saw a cube module near the bottom of the controller, could be a gyroscope. I'll ask around when I get a chance.
GPU frequency is half of a desktop Pascal.
The controllers are very light, around 20–30 g. Together with the main unit they're less than 1,000 g.
Correction, the CPU is 1785 MHz.
Battery is built in.
One unit has been under test for 11,750 minutes in our factory, still working well.
It can be charged using a standard USB Type-C cable.
There's no such thing as frequency throttling when not plugged in. The performance isn't very high to begin with, if it throttles then the games will lag like hell.
There is indeed an infrared-looking light at the bottom of the right controller.
I've confirmed today that there will be a 4G version.
We have an updated motherboard and the old motherboard. Probably different firmware, I can't really tell. Battery life is about the same, probably just a different version.
Today we had units shipped to Japan and Australia. I was confused.
Today I saw a colleague making some accessory with a network port. The main unit is now thicker, with 2 layers of back cover. The plan is to make 2,000 first. (This is the 4G version, we're making 2,000 as a trial, I didn't see the unit myself, heard it from some other guy in my dorm. I'll take another look the day after tomorrow when I go back to work. There's a new circuit board behind the back cover, I reckon it's an accessory. I'll check it out on Monday when I go back to the factory.)
[to be continued]
Post 6
Here's a spec for the standard version, the standard main unit without controllers is 302 g.
Each controller is 50 g.
Today I saw the enhancer. There are still many questions but I'll tell you what I know.
The processor in the enhancer is even bigger than the main unit CPU, at 200mm2.
Dimensions looked like 12x18, on par with GP106.
There are 2 extra memory chips. (Pretty sure it adds 4 GB memory, for a total of 8 GB.)
It connects to the back of the main unit motherboard via some sort of PCI bridge.
There are 2 Wi-Fi [antennae], 1 HDMI, 1 Mini-DP, 1 network port, 2 unknown circular ports, 3 network activity indicator lights.
The enhancer is much more complex than the main unit. It also has 6 or 7 unknown storage chips.
The enhanced main unit also looks different than the standard unit. It's got extra bits on the motherboard, including the bridging connector.
What I don't know is whether this is a development unit or if it'll be officially announced, and of course I have no idea if it'll go on sale at all.
The enhanced version doesn't have a base yet.
The enhanced version can connect to a TV/display without the base. It also has a power input.
I don't know if the processor on the enhanced version includes CPU.
If it doesn't include a CPU, then it can at most upscale existing games to 4K, it won't bring any dramatic improvements. The weak CPU might be the bottleneck.
If the main processor on the enhanced version only has GPU, then it'll be more powerful than PS4 Pro.
At the moment our factory floor only plans to make 2,000 enhanced units. (I also think it's probably a development unit. Let's wait for Mr. Ren to give us more info.)
The enhanced version is very powerful, but also weighs more and feels worse in the hands. It's purely to cater for 4K TVs. I'm also anxious to know if it'll go on sale.
The performance will be off the charts with the main processor plus enhancer processor. I've never seen such a huge 16nm chip on a mobile device, especially because the main processor is already 100mm2.
The main processor is dwarfed by the enhancer processor.
There's no additional battery on the enhancer. You probably have to plug it in when playing.
The power adapter is also built in.
I've already said, this might be a development unit. I want to tell the whole story, please go back and have a look at my previous posts. (The base only has a USB-C port, it won't handle a huge amount of data transfer.)
The main unit is unexpectedly light, at 300 g. I'm liking the standard version more and more.
I weighed it myself with an electronic scale.
High definition is finally a reality.
Each smaller controller is 50 g. When combined with the main unit the total is 400 g. Is that acceptable to you guys?
Yeah I think the enhancer is a development unit too, but the performance is really something.
There's no way to boost the performance of the standard version via the base. It only has a USB-C connector, at most USB 3.0, that's obviously not enough bandwidth.
Alright I've said a lot. Flame on.
!translated
Original thread:
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