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Nintendo Switch Teardown -- Episode 280

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We don't know why Ben does the things that he does sometimes, but he keeps on licking. Discover what we mean as Ben, Karen and Felix tear down the new Nintendo Switch games console and Joy Con controllers. How does it compare to a laptop or tablet computer? Is it designed for easy maintenance or upgradeability? Let us know what you think on the element14 Community here.

Karen and Ben examine the new Nintendo Switch as they decide what to take part first. Buttons are closer to size of the DS.  There’s Phillips screw on the sides and tri-wing screws on the back.  It’s thicker than your average modern tablet which is good because you get more power, more battery, and an active cooling unit. Tablets/smartphones passively cool themselves (no fans or vents).  There’s a USBC you can get video out of and a kickstand that allows you to put more memory in it. There’s a light tunnel on the console that allows LEDs inside the controller to go through that light tunnel and illuminate out the front. The power supply has both 5 volts and 15 volts. It uses the 15 volts for fast charging and when it’s running in docked mode.

Ben takes apart the docking stage to it. It contains 2 USB 2 ports and a USB 3 on the inside. USBC has six differential pairs of data (HDMI only has 4) and multiple power/ground lines to allow high power charging. Inside the board contains a USB 3.0 hub controller.  The ribbon cable connects to the USB-C port that docks into the switch.  The dock is designed to allow the Switch to run faster since it doesn’t have to worry about battery life.

Next, Ben takes about the main unit. The Switch contains a little fan, an area for the battery that takes up most of the unit, a heat pipe that goes from the main system on a chip, and the rest of the internal circuitry. It uses SD cards for cartridges giving it lower bandwidth than storing on built-in memory.  Its put together more like a laptop than a tablet. Ben removes the heat sink off of the soc.  There’s a RF cam protecting the system on the chip.  Finally he and Felix take apart the joy con together.

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