Caring for your Nintendo Switch out in the wild

Thoughts on Sd card size? 37 bucks for 128 seems pretty good.

Also, on the glass screen. I noticed that the fit in the dock is fairly snug with the screen on (can definitely feel some resistance taking the switch in and out of the dock). Does that match your experience?

You must be historically clumsy… or have kids. I’ve never needed screen protectors on anything. :)

128 is the current bang-for-buck sweet spot.

But Amazon have a deal that expires in 11 hours for a SanDisk 256GB for $99 which is decent for that size. It’s 2-4 weeks shipping time and an older model (new ones that go up to 400GB were recently introduced!).
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IC0GJKE/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

edit: QT3 breaks the link and shows a different seller. You’ll likely need to copy/paste the link manually to get to the deal:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IC0GJKE/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Get as large of an SD card as your wallet is comfortable with (with good write speed for downloading speed too). Yes you can switch around SD cards, but that defeats the point of having your library on hand wherever the Switch goes. That said, independent games seem to be the shining greatness of Switch and they tend to be smaller (data and dollar) eShop purchases. The AAA releases can eat up space fast, so if you plan to load up on mainstream $60 titles, I’d shift the math even further in the “buy big” category.

I think my Switch is a bit tighter in the dock with the screen protector, but to be honest I never docked it before it had one due to the screen scratching scares. The glass is stronger than the plastic of the dock so you should be fine. I have docked and undocked mine tons of times (I tend to throw the Switch in my bag when I go to work or away on a trip while docking it at night) and my release day Switch looks as new as it did the day I bought it. The glass does add a tiny, tiny bit of width, but the curving in of the dock from the manufacturing process is the source of the problem. Depending on your dock, it could be as bad or worse without glass. Me? I went with the hard glass cover and don’t sweat it anymore.

PS: I love my mother loving Switch! Best console purchase in a long time. And I say that as a guy that bought it on a whim on release expecting to not be wowed by it, but more worried about FOMO. The hybrid elements plus a very strong cross platform independent library makes it such an awesome system. I’ve had multiple handhelds over the years, and my time using the Switch dwarfs all of them combined. Each Thursday (eShop refresh) is like Christmas. I’ve had many home consoles over the years. Outside of glorified Bluray or Netflix boxes, I am getting a hell of a lot of use of the Switch over those as the seemless presence of a given game in my life is great for keeping interest going. Such a cool system. And I don’t even really dig Nintendo license stuff.

I don’t tend to use screen protectors either. The Switch is a special case as it has a soft screen and the manufacture process of the dock has varying degrees of bend on the thinner side depending on how the plastic set/ cooled on each unit. Mine, as many do, has a bit of bend. A protector was cheap peace of mind.

The current 200 GB sale for 63 dollars today is a better price per gigabyte. I went ahead and ordered the 128. That’s what I have on my iPad and it is more than enough. I don’t expect to store bunches of 60 dollar releases on sd cards, as I’m happy to buy those physically here and there.

I totally agree with Chaplin, as per usual. We should turn this into a stealth reasons to buy a Switch thread.

P.S. Speaking of which, haven’t seen you in the Mario + Rabbids thread. If you don’t own it, do consider it!

My girlfriend and I put our Switch on layaway last night (along with Puyo Puyo Tetris and Cave Story+), so this thread is very useful for the personal recs on screen protectors, cases, and memory cards. I was fully prepared to go for a 32GB card because it’s cheap and we plan on primarily getting physical copies of stuff when possible, but $37 for 128GB sounds pretty good for future-proofing, especially if good sales or Switch Humble Bundles like the 3DS/Wii U bundles of the past come our way.

Hello my twin interest friend! (Fist bump) :)

Yes, Mario + Rabbids is the one Nintendo $60 property that I have really enjoyed. For me, eShop is where it’s at. Has Been Heroes, Ironcast, NeroVoider, Steam World Dig, etc are all so good and so good on a hybrid device like the Switch. Battle Chasers, Hollow Knight, and Darkest Dungeon (as a double dip) can’t come soon enough!

I debated buying one for a long time because I was afraid it would be like the Vita was for me, something I liked well enough but didn’t go out of my way to play. I can safely say that’s not the case after using it for a week.

What a great piece of hardware. Feels solid. Great screen. I really like the joycon flexibility (I’ve mostly been playing with them split). The ability to go from handheld mode to docked and pick up right where I left off on the tv feels great. Perhaps best of all, the ease and speed of getting in and out of sleep mode is fantastic.

Minor quibbles:

I did have some trouble with joycon desync last night while playing Zelda, but I hadn’t had that before and have played a lot over the last week, so hope it isn’t an ongoing concern.

Thumbstick on left joycon is being a bit squeaky when pushing upward.

I wish the system were a couple of millimeters thinner so I could use it with my tablift stand.

The e-shop functionality is incredibly barebones. Not sure why Nintendo can’t figure that out. They did add a tab for sale items, which is a nice addition. How about one for game demos? How about being able to choose the genre I want to see without having to go into the search menu?

Dock should have an Ethernet port (I would happily pay 100 bucks more for a pro version with this, a thinner design, and gorilla glass)

It’s a lovely toy; for some reason I really love the feedback sound and rumble from the joy-cons when you slide one back onto the unit. And all the little noises it makes. Nice

I was looking at a lot of cool tablet and phone stands that are all much nicer than Switch stands. However the Switch runs hot on some games and it has two vents on the back that are blocked by every stand not a specific Switch stand that I have seen. As more folks figure this out, I expect to see some cooler (no pun intended) stands come to market.

The stand/case thing Cathcart linked above seems cool. I was looking at something similar at Target the other day. There are a lot of interesting cases and peripherals there to look through.

I’ve been using this (it’s my iPad travel stand), which I think probably leaves enough of the vents open to not be too concerned.

https://www.amazon.com/Foldable-Playstand-Multi-Angle-Accessories-Universal/dp/B01LXP8Q29/

But you make a good point. I hadn’t realized it had vents there. If it did fit in the tablift slots, those vents would be blocked

You must have matching joy-con straps. It’s required… by law.

I also had to have 4 different colored joy-cons, because 3 kids.

I finally installed this a couple weeks ago. I think it’s worth it and wish I had put it on sooner. It can be difficult to avoid air bubbles as with any screen protection. I saw where it’s suggested to install it in the bathroom after running water. Knocks down any dust particulates in the air with the moisture. Who knew?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N3ASPNV/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Also if you own a switch and you don’t own this I am very disappointed in you as a person.

https://www.amazon.com/Puppy-Mouth-Sticker-Nintendo-Switch/dp/B06XSTC1JH

Ha! Those are great. I’ve never thought it looked like a face (too lopsided, and I can’t see really see it even after it’s been pointed out to me), but the grips/ears make it work.

The one thing I wish someone had told me before I unboxed the switch:

Put your damn SD memory card in first!

I ended up downloading games and updates to the built-in memory (only 26GB to work with) and had to “archive” all of them and redownload them once the 128GB SD memory card was inserted… because there’s no way to move games from internal to external storage. Archive (effectively delete everything but savegames) and re-download is the only way.

$5.50 for a tiny sticker? Damn.

People use those things?