Switch Discussion Thread

[Sarge]

I mostly despise touch-based gaming, at least for genres that really need a controller. So if I used my phone for it, I'd also bring along a gamepad. However, support for controllers in Android is very much game-to-game dependent; titles I would love to play with a pad, I can't. The Switch won't have that problem.

(Adventure games are awesome in that format, though!)

[Exhuminator]

The Switch won't have that problem.

It'll just have a different problem; a noticeably shorter battery life then your phone.

But hey, at least you can play Mario on either one!

[alienjesus]

The Switch won't have that problem.

It'll just have a different problem; a noticeably shorter battery life then your phone.

But hey, at least you can play Mario on either one!

I can guarantee you that the Switch will have a longer battery life when playing games than my phone will. That thing last about an hour tops if I'm playing a game on it, and it's not even an especially old phone (it's an iPhone 5s I bought new last year).

[Exhuminator]

old iPhone

I meant contemporary stuff. Like comparing a 2017 Switch's battery life with a 2017 phone's.

But even going one year back, here's average battery lifespans for 2016 phones:

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/mobile-p ... nes-tested

Even the lowest phone on the list, Sony Xperia XA (7 hours), has a longer expected battery duration than the Switch does (2.5-6 hours).

[Tanooki]

The Switch won't have that problem.

It'll just have a different problem; a noticeably shorter battery life then your phone.

But hey, at least you can play Mario on either one!

Ehh, as fast as Pokemon Go drains a battery on an iphone I'd say they're about even, likely ahead a bit (like alien I have the iphone5s too.) My shield tablet depending on the game will get sucked dry faster than the time given to the Switch in mobile mode too and they're very similar devices given the Tegra background.

Sarge: Adventure games sure, any point and click is awesome on a tablet, say like a (Starcraft style) RTS. A finger or two you can wrangle up a posse and go after the enemy as easy as a mouse.


Those caps exist I think on Android around the 4GB level. I think they'd like them usually to stay around 1/2 that or less though from what I've read up. You can get around it, but you need a specially designed device and their interface. Shield has this with their setup. YOu can buy via their store, which tethers to google play, but unless google play sees you using any of the 3 Shield style devices it bans a purchase. Under that realm though the games get into that 4+GB size with the likes of DOOM3 BFG ediiton(I have it and it's 4.01GB.) Another not bound to a service, but gets away with it is Bard's Tale. The download itself is fairly small, but if you start it, it asks if you want the SD or HD version. The SD one is under a GB, but the HD assets rack up to 3.27GB. I don't have anything over 1GB in size otherwise, just a couple more fairly close at 900 and 950MB.

[Exhuminator]

Ehh, as fast as Pokemon Go drains a battery on an iphone I'd say they're about even, likely ahead a bit (like alien I have the iphone5s too.)

Depending on how the phone's being used greatly affects battery life as well. When I play games on my phone, I usually disable wifi, GPS, cellular data, and any other concurrent apps. This greatly increases the battery lifespan versus if I do not do this while playing games. With something like Pokemon GO, I understand you have to have cellular data and GPS enabled to play it, but there are still ways to maximize battery life while playing. If you guys are getting less than 2 hours on your phone will playing, you're doing something wrong.

[Sarge]

There's a huge caveat on those numbers, though. I have a Moto X, which is kinda meh on battery life in practical use, pretty middle-of-the-pack. If I game on it, it chews through battery. My recent example is Adventures of Mana, certainly not a game that should be that strenuous. But I'm looking at perhaps two or three hours tops before I'm reaching for the charger. It's why I don't play processor-intensive games on my phone, because I need to save that juice for the actual phone bits.

[marurun]

Indeed, games really kill phone batteries. I'm lucky. My iPhone 6S is powerful enough that even Pokemon Go doesn't totally flatten in, but still, I usually only get about 4 hours before my battery starts crying for a charge. Though I will say, Pokemon Go is rather unique in its ability to kill a battery.

[Sarge]

I don't like that site's testing metric much, either. Video playback is something that is very efficient on smartphones these days. Most phones have very efficient dedicated processing for video/audio streams, so they're very light on the CPU/GPU, unlike games.

By the way, my phone supposedly gets 8h54m on that video test. I'm not even close to that for gaming, in any form.

I could probably get a little more juice from something like SNES9x, though.

[TSTR]

Battery issues? Just do what I did as a kid with Sega handhelds, and stay attached to the wall, haha.