* The kickstand on the back of the Switch is flimsy and seems destined to snap off. It props up the screen at a steep angle unsuited to a lot of situations and generally feels unsteady. It also doubles as a cover for the MicroSD card slot, so if it does break, your memory card will be exposed.
* Both the Joy-Con grip and the Pro Controller lack a headphone output, putting the Switch behind the PS4, Xbox One and even the Wii U in terms of allowing you to easily listen to game audio on headphones from your couch when you’re using the console to play a game on the TV.
* The charging port is on the bottom of the Switch, which is fine when you’re holding it but means you can’t prop up the screen on a table while charging it, because the plug gets in the way.
* The release buttons you use to detach the Joy-Con are small and hard to press without accidentally pressing other buttons as well.
* The caps that slide over the Joy-Con when you’re using them separately are oddly tricky to get on and off.
* There’s no HDMI output on the tablet, so if you want to plug the console on a TV at a hotel or your relatives’ house, you’ll need to bring the dock with you.
* There’s no support for bluetooth headsets, which feels like an omission in a high-tech tablet device in 2017.
* If you want to use the included AC adapter to charge the console on the go, you have to open up the dock and remove it before taking it with you.
* The included HDMI cable is a hair under 5’ long, a foot shorter than the 6’ that I’ve come to think of as standard and too short to use in my entertainment center. Apparently Nintendo likes shipping things with cables that are too short.
* The included Joy-Con grip doesn’t charge the controllers, so if you use the Switch for TV gaming and want to charge the Joy-Con every night you’ll have to disassemble the grip controller and re-attach the Joy-Con to the handheld in the dock. It’s an awkward process, and your only alternative is to buy a Pro Controller or shell out $30 for a nearly identical “charge grip” with a USB input.
* The console apparently drains some of its battery even when docked—I’ll put it in the dock at 100% charge, play for a while, and when I take it out, it’ll say it’s at 88% charge. My colleague Jason and some others I’ve talked to have reported the same thing. It never goes below 88%, and I don’t believe the battery can run out in the dock. Still odd and a little annoying.
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Breath of the Wild looks and performs noticeably worse when plugged into the dock than it does in handheld mode, a potentially worrying indicator of how the Switch’s graphics processing hardware will hold up over time. When I play on the TV, I notice frequent dips below the game’s 30fps frame rate, sometimes to the point that it’s genuinely distracting and makes it harder to play.