Chipworks promised a die scan for this today, should be exciting. At what looks like 121mm2, it's too spookily close to TX1 for me to expect much difference, but it will be interesting to see what areas they touched.
TX1 couldn't use both core clusters at once for example, so without changing that the OS would have to reside on an A57 core, so I wonder if they either updated the CCI, or removed the A53s.
Yeah, I think the only realistic hope is that they touched on the memory controller and caches, at the same die size the GPU and CPU configs are pretty well sure, between that and the leaks. Anyone expecting a heavily customized chip will be let down, anyone expecting a fully stock TX1 is also misleading a bit.
They said Monday, but that didn't happen, so who knows. Today or tomorrow I'm hoping, unless they found something significantly different that they had to work harder on annotating? Not likely though.
No, what this means is that they charged to 100%, started playing games and measured the draw from the wall.. What this means is that the switch is pulling approximately 4 watts from the battery and 11 from the wall at 100% battery life. Which matches what people have seen. The switch actually pulls from the battery down to 88% while docked and gaming. The only way to get a full charge is to put it to sleep and dock it. You'll never have a full charge with it on and docked.
That's awesome news. It shows Nintendo really did a great job when designing the console to maximize battery life. Keeping the battery at a lower state of charge during the time when the console is going to be running hot will really help the longevity of the cells.
Idle numbers weren't collected. Since it's a portable game console, it's only the load numbers that have any significance. (You can't do anything with the console but sleep and play games)
The Tegra X1 was never really a "mobile" chip, as Nvidia only designated it for their Shield TV. Those A57 procs are also old and outdated at this point. Sure it's a huge jump as opposed to what Nintendo usually does, but they probably just went with the X1 to save money. Additionally, using a 16Whr battery while the undocked Switch uses 7W-9W is really pushing that supposed 2.5-6.5 hours of use. Would be nice to see how much power it uses with an indie/mobile game that wouldn't push the Switch as much.
Yeah, shame about staying on 20nm as that limits it to A57 and Maxwell, unless they wanted to port older architectures to a new node. 16nm would be much more efficient, as well as already have A72 and Pascal taped out for it.
I vaguely recall seeing a battery life rating of 2-6 hours in the Nintendo eShop on my 2DS a couple of days ago when I was browsing for games. Honestly, that's a really big range and I'd hate to be on the lower end of that scale. It's already bad enough playing on a Vita Slim. I usually end up a lot closer to 4 hours than Sony's claim of up to 6 hours. If the Switch is worse than the Vita Slim, then it'd be annoying as a mobile gaming platform regardless of the improvements in graphics.
That said, I'm pretty interested in getting a Switch despite the battery life...though I'd like to hold off for a revised, maybe second generation model that lasts a couple hours longer on battery and possibly doesn't need active cooling. If that ever happens, I'd happily order one.
Anyway, thanks for tinkering with the Switch, Ryan!
Just sharing that Nathan K. (who has been doing analyses of various USB-C peripherals now) found a few flaws with the power bank (although he does note that it works, there are just quirks). However, he advises to avoid using the charger that comes with the power bank as it is potentially dangerous (says they should be recalled).
FYI, the Switch also supports the (now optional in USB-PD 2.0) 12V profile.
But also, I would recommend a lot of caution with the Satechi meter. The build quality on it is terrible - so terrible in fact that the plastic trim on the inside of the USB-C port on mine broke off inside my Switch.
Thanks. I don't have any 12V devices around, but it's good to know.
As for the Satechi, yeah, it's not the greatest in terms of build quality. Though I haven't had anything close to what you've described happen, thankfully.
Yeah, luckily I was able to use a tiny pair of tweezers to get the plastic out of the USB-C port without damaging the center board in the female USB-C connector, but it was definitely making me curse the fact that USB-C doesn't use a lightning style design with the board on the cable.
Ryan, I would try testing the Switch with a non-Apple USB-C>Video adapter. From my experiences with the Apple adapters, I believe that they have some kind of built in authentication feature that can tell when it is connected to an Apple device, and does not function when connected to a non-authorized (non-Apple) device.
I've tested with a Huawei MateBook 'MateDock' (2 USB, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, and PD passthrough), the Aukey USB-C dock (3 USB, HDMI, and PD passthrough), and an LG 27UD88 (USB-C monitor). The Switch only works with the Switch's own dock. Presumably it's using USB-C's vendor-specific signaling or something of that sort.
My understanding is that 15V was put in because of Apple, who had been using 14.5V for the MacBook USB-C charger. And if I had to guess, I'd say that 9V probably came into play for phones (such as the Google Pixel) where 12V or 15V would be overkill, but manufacturers wanted faster than 5V 3A charging. But just speculation on my part.
Yeah, Qualcomm uses 9V for Quickcharge (at least for the AC adapter for my GS7 edge), so I assume that they influenced the inclusion of the 9V option for USB-PD.
This is a really helpful article, thanks! I was puzzled by what seemed like an absurdly high rating on the included AC adapter—I was worried it'd be impossible to find a travel adapter that would be sufficient. It sounds like a good 5V@3A adapter will do in a pinch, though, and those are easy enough to come by.
Can you measure power cosumption while Zelda is paused? It's still doing stuff even within the various pause screens, but I would think that the SoC would clock itself lower.
Good one. I'm interested in this kind of power and charging articles.
For the Switch, I feel that it is pretty redundant for a battery charging a another battery. It is fine if it can't charge the battery well while it is being used.
My smartphone lives with PC USB charging only so it may sometimes consume more power and draw from the internal battery while connected and is in use..
Interesting, though I spent an age trying to persuade a Switch to charge from 5V sources with an A-C cable and it refused to pull more than 0.5A from any of them. Were all your tests with Type-C chargers/power banks and C-C cables?
Ah, might want to clarify that on page 2, as the following paragraph was definitely not true when I tried with an A-C cable from a good (2.4A) Anker power bank (and even the Switch's own dock).
"what I’ve found is that any good power bank designed to power tablets will be sufficient to power the Switch. So long as a bank can deliver 5V @ 2A or better, then it can power Nintendo’s console."
Also, while the battery itself isn't so badly designed that he recommended they stop selling it immediately because it's dangerous (unlike the wall charger it comes with..), USB-PD guru Nathan K isn't so hot on your recommendation:
wow, so people care about power use for such a device? it seems absolutely irrelevant to me. how about an actual review, showing what this gadget can run and how well?
People care, because you want to know what chargers are compatible with the Switch. You want to know which chargers communicate with the Switch and provide more amps than just a trickle. This article also shows that the 5V profile appears to be not fully utilized, so chargers that have a 9V or 15V are able to provide up to the Switch's limit.
What is irrelevant to you is relevant to plenty of Switch owners. We want chargers and battery packs that can provide enough juice to charge while playing undocked, not just slow down the battery drain. This article will help a lot of people buy the most appropriate chargers and battery packs. Helping everyone people advance their understanding of USB-C in general, is great.
The article tested numbers were very similar to this reddit user's quick tests (link below). He pulled ~16.5W in-line from the Nintendo AC adapter. He pulled 18W from the Google Pixel charger, which was great news to me, as I've got several already. I highly recommend it to anyone reading comments here. It packs small, and comes with a 6' cord, and the cord & charger have passed rigid usb-c spec testing.
Knowing the 9V profile can provide the maximum 18W means I'll be making sure that the batter charging pack I pick covers it. It'll be a bonus that I can also recharge the Pixel XL at the full rate.
Thanks for the article. It's great having someone putting out good information with the testing method spelled out. Maybe, just maybe, it'll help /r/nintendoswitch to stop passing around poor information and recommendations for chargers and battery packs. USB-C has been a nightmare for consumers to understand.
Great work delving into this. As I read your article I thought of my Dell Laptop Power Supply as well as Dell's Laptop Powerbank which outputs in both 5V USB and has a special connector to output in 19.5V. A quick search led me to Dell's 7.4mm Barrel to USB-C adapter on the Dell site. Spec's say it supports 5V/20V, I'll be ordering one to test.. anything to save from packing more power adapters or powerbanks.
I want a Switch but the idea of 3 of hours battery life is pretty disappointing, Hopefully a node shrink in a Switch "Pro" version in a year or two will increase battery life.
An honest one, too. I don't doubt the validity of Ryan's report, nor those that have tested and confirmed Switch running Zelda at max brightness for over 2.5 hrs. There's something I don't understand. Here's hoping we get an answer.
Power conversion inefficiency, for a start. That 15V has to be converted internally to a number of other voltages. The actual intensity of the workload will also vary a bit; I grabbed an early area with a lot of transparency specifically because that tends to be especially hard on the GPU side of things.
Is there a measure of how much power this draws while in sleep mode when NOT charging? Would be useful to see if there's any long term power draw in sleep mode.
It's so low that I'd need a multimeter to measure it correctly. The power draw of the USB-C power meter becomes the dominant load.
If there is any power draw, I'd say it's low enough to be inconsequential. The Switch does slowly draw down the battery over time, but baring wake-up events (e.g. firing up the WiFi radio) we're talking about a process that would take weeks.
One question. Is it common for power banks to cause damage to your devices battery. I purchased a imuto taurus x4 20000mAh power bank. I've contacted their support to see if it was possible that the power bank could power the switch while I was playing it (or at the very least) slow the battery drain a bit.
But I got some unclear information saying that using the device while the power bank is charging it would cause damage to the battery (not clear which battery they were implying). Is this common or normal to not be allowed to use a device while it's being charge by the power bank?
One thing to throw out, speaking of battery pack charging ability, go shorter and higher gauge cables if you can manage it. Obviously a 4" cable probably isn't practical for charging the switch, but if you can manage with a 1ft cable over a 3ft, let alone a 6ft cable, go shorter.
2 Amps is a fair amount of current to pull on a tiny conductors. A lot of cables only have 28ga data wires and 26ga power wires for USB 2 cables. A few premium wires are 28/26. On a 6ft wire at 2 amps you've got nearly 20% loss due to voltage drop/heat dissipation.
Going up to that premium 24ga power wires and you are talking only a 12.6% drop. Still substantial, but a lot better than wasting 1 in 5 watts.
Go to a 3ft, or even better a 1ft wire and you could be down to a ~2% loss on a short, thick wire.
That is the biggest reason you almost never see 5v charging higher than 2 amps. You end up getting the wires rather warm once you start pushing that much amperage through them.
By comparison, for residential 120/240v wiring you generally want to look at increasing voltage or wire gauge if your calculations come in above a 2% voltage drop...and here we are in USB town tolerating a 20+% drop.
How much power is the Nintendo Switch dock able to draw at max? For clarity, if a Nintendo Switch with a near-empty battery is docked and playing a videogame and all the USB ports on the dock are pumping out the maximum power they possibly can, how much power, at what voltage and amperage, can the original Nintendo Switch dock draw from the USB C port where you connect a wall charger? (The charger does not necessarily have to be Nintendo's charger. It can be any USB C PD charger.)
If Ryan not tested this, would he be kind enough to test it? It might make for a great article and better yet serve as specifications for what we should be seeking in USB-C PD chargers that will work for the Switch both docked and undocked.
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61 Comments
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tipoo - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Chipworks promised a die scan for this today, should be exciting. At what looks like 121mm2, it's too spookily close to TX1 for me to expect much difference, but it will be interesting to see what areas they touched.TX1 couldn't use both core clusters at once for example, so without changing that the OS would have to reside on an A57 core, so I wonder if they either updated the CCI, or removed the A53s.
zunaidahmed - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Still waiting for the die image, should clear up all the smoke from the battle between bashers and fanboys. This is getting way too ridiculous.tipoo - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Yeah, I think the only realistic hope is that they touched on the memory controller and caches, at the same die size the GPU and CPU configs are pretty well sure, between that and the leaks. Anyone expecting a heavily customized chip will be let down, anyone expecting a fully stock TX1 is also misleading a bit.zodiacsoulmate - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 - link
when is the die shot coming? Im not familiar with chipwork website i'm so confused looking at it...tipoo - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 - link
They said Monday, but that didn't happen, so who knows. Today or tomorrow I'm hoping, unless they found something significantly different that they had to work harder on annotating? Not likely though.tsk2k - Wednesday, March 8, 2017 - link
Let me know when it does!tipoo - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
That idle wattage use would be eyebrow raising for a tablet, I think the iPad Air 2 was at 2.7 watts or something with a larger, higher res screen.Murloc - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
yeah but I guess that as a gaming console idle power does not matter.eddman - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Where are the idle numbers? All I can find are charging numbers.tipoo - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
If a 100% charged Switch is pulling 11 watts from the battery, that would indicate it's discharging at 11 watts, I think.p-zilla - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
No, what this means is that they charged to 100%, started playing games and measured the draw from the wall.. What this means is that the switch is pulling approximately 4 watts from the battery and 11 from the wall at 100% battery life. Which matches what people have seen. The switch actually pulls from the battery down to 88% while docked and gaming. The only way to get a full charge is to put it to sleep and dock it. You'll never have a full charge with it on and docked.tipoo - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Ah, ok.uberfish - Saturday, May 6, 2017 - link
That's awesome news. It shows Nintendo really did a great job when designing the console to maximize battery life. Keeping the battery at a lower state of charge during the time when the console is going to be running hot will really help the longevity of the cells.Ryan Smith - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Idle numbers weren't collected. Since it's a portable game console, it's only the load numbers that have any significance. (You can't do anything with the console but sleep and play games)bubblyboo - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
The Tegra X1 was never really a "mobile" chip, as Nvidia only designated it for their Shield TV.Those A57 procs are also old and outdated at this point. Sure it's a huge jump as opposed to what Nintendo usually does, but they probably just went with the X1 to save money. Additionally, using a 16Whr battery while the undocked Switch uses 7W-9W is really pushing that supposed 2.5-6.5 hours of use. Would be nice to see how much power it uses with an indie/mobile game that wouldn't push the Switch as much.
tipoo - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Yeah, shame about staying on 20nm as that limits it to A57 and Maxwell, unless they wanted to port older architectures to a new node. 16nm would be much more efficient, as well as already have A72 and Pascal taped out for it.
BrokenCrayons - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
I vaguely recall seeing a battery life rating of 2-6 hours in the Nintendo eShop on my 2DS a couple of days ago when I was browsing for games. Honestly, that's a really big range and I'd hate to be on the lower end of that scale. It's already bad enough playing on a Vita Slim. I usually end up a lot closer to 4 hours than Sony's claim of up to 6 hours. If the Switch is worse than the Vita Slim, then it'd be annoying as a mobile gaming platform regardless of the improvements in graphics.That said, I'm pretty interested in getting a Switch despite the battery life...though I'd like to hold off for a revised, maybe second generation model that lasts a couple hours longer on battery and possibly doesn't need active cooling. If that ever happens, I'd happily order one.
Anyway, thanks for tinkering with the Switch, Ryan!
skiboysteve - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Would be interesting to see a power bank that is capable of 15V output with the switch like the razer one: https://www.razerzone.com/gaming-accessories/razer...eriri-el - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
All u need is a quick google search: https://www.ravpower.com/26800mah-Type-C-external-...Ryan Smith - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Good find. Thanks!I had been searching over the weekend but that one never came up. Glad to see someone is finally shipping a power bank with higher voltage modes.
OCedHrt - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Doesn't quick charge power banks also provide more than 5V?Ryan Smith - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Quick Charge is a proprietary standard not supported by the Switch.psikick - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 - link
Just sharing that Nathan K. (who has been doing analyses of various USB-C peripherals now) found a few flaws with the power bank (although he does note that it works, there are just quirks). However, he advises to avoid using the charger that comes with the power bank as it is potentially dangerous (says they should be recalled).https://plus.google.com/102612254593917101378/post...
and
https://plus.google.com/102612254593917101378/post...
jhoff80 - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
FYI, the Switch also supports the (now optional in USB-PD 2.0) 12V profile.But also, I would recommend a lot of caution with the Satechi meter. The build quality on it is terrible - so terrible in fact that the plastic trim on the inside of the USB-C port on mine broke off inside my Switch.
Ryan Smith - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Thanks. I don't have any 12V devices around, but it's good to know.As for the Satechi, yeah, it's not the greatest in terms of build quality. Though I haven't had anything close to what you've described happen, thankfully.
jhoff80 - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Yeah, luckily I was able to use a tiny pair of tweezers to get the plastic out of the USB-C port without damaging the center board in the female USB-C connector, but it was definitely making me curse the fact that USB-C doesn't use a lightning style design with the board on the cable.Schmov17 - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Ryan, I would try testing the Switch with a non-Apple USB-C>Video adapter. From my experiences with the Apple adapters, I believe that they have some kind of built in authentication feature that can tell when it is connected to an Apple device, and does not function when connected to a non-authorized (non-Apple) device.jhoff80 - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
I've tested with a Huawei MateBook 'MateDock' (2 USB, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, and PD passthrough), the Aukey USB-C dock (3 USB, HDMI, and PD passthrough), and an LG 27UD88 (USB-C monitor). The Switch only works with the Switch's own dock. Presumably it's using USB-C's vendor-specific signaling or something of that sort.Schmov17 - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Good to note, thanksphoenix_rizzen - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
From the article:"In short, PD 2.0 defines 5 voltages: 5V, 9V, 15V, and 20V."
That's only 4 voltages. What's the fifth?
Yaldabaoth - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
"The Spanish Inquisition has _5_ preferred voltages! 5V, 9V, 15V, and 20V! [...] WAIT!"jhoff80 - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
12V. Which is now optional in USB-PD 2.0.DanNeely - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
does anyone know why it was deprecated in favor of 9 and 15V (which weren't in the 1.0 version of the spec)?jhoff80 - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
My understanding is that 15V was put in because of Apple, who had been using 14.5V for the MacBook USB-C charger. And if I had to guess, I'd say that 9V probably came into play for phones (such as the Google Pixel) where 12V or 15V would be overkill, but manufacturers wanted faster than 5V 3A charging. But just speculation on my part.metayoshi - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Yeah, Qualcomm uses 9V for Quickcharge (at least for the AC adapter for my GS7 edge), so I assume that they influenced the inclusion of the 9V option for USB-PD.acfoltzer - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
This is a really helpful article, thanks! I was puzzled by what seemed like an absurdly high rating on the included AC adapter—I was worried it'd be impossible to find a travel adapter that would be sufficient. It sounds like a good 5V@3A adapter will do in a pinch, though, and those are easy enough to come by.Shadowmaster625 - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Can you measure power cosumption while Zelda is paused? It's still doing stuff even within the various pause screens, but I would think that the SoC would clock itself lower.zodiacfml - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Good one. I'm interested in this kind of power and charging articles.For the Switch, I feel that it is pretty redundant for a battery charging a another battery. It is fine if it can't charge the battery well while it is being used.
My smartphone lives with PC USB charging only so it may sometimes consume more power and draw from the internal battery while connected and is in use..
sircod - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Were you ever able to pull more than 10W through a 3rd party adaptor (like the 17.7W you got through the official)?Ryan Smith - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Yes. While it's not listed here, the Apple adapter provided more than 10W when the Switch was running.julian- - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Interesting, though I spent an age trying to persuade a Switch to charge from 5V sources with an A-C cable and it refused to pull more than 0.5A from any of them. Were all your tests with Type-C chargers/power banks and C-C cables?Ryan Smith - Monday, March 6, 2017 - link
Yes, they were are C-to-C.julian- - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 - link
Ah, might want to clarify that on page 2, as the following paragraph was definitely not true when I tried with an A-C cable from a good (2.4A) Anker power bank (and even the Switch's own dock)."what I’ve found is that any good power bank designed to power tablets will be sufficient to power the Switch. So long as a bank can deliver 5V @ 2A or better, then it can power Nintendo’s console."
Also, while the battery itself isn't so badly designed that he recommended they stop selling it immediately because it's dangerous (unlike the wall charger it comes with..), USB-PD guru Nathan K isn't so hot on your recommendation:
https://plus.google.com/102612254593917101378/post...
https://plus.google.com/102612254593917101378/post...
Visual - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 - link
wow, so people care about power use for such a device? it seems absolutely irrelevant to me.how about an actual review, showing what this gadget can run and how well?
whowantscake - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 - link
People care, because you want to know what chargers are compatible with the Switch. You want to know which chargers communicate with the Switch and provide more amps than just a trickle. This article also shows that the 5V profile appears to be not fully utilized, so chargers that have a 9V or 15V are able to provide up to the Switch's limit.What is irrelevant to you is relevant to plenty of Switch owners. We want chargers and battery packs that can provide enough juice to charge while playing undocked, not just slow down the battery drain. This article will help a lot of people buy the most appropriate chargers and battery packs. Helping everyone people advance their understanding of USB-C in general, is great.
Chidoro - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
Have you provided Anand with your list of what is important to you yet? I’m sure the side doesn’t want to encounter any additional misstepswhowantscake - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 - link
The article tested numbers were very similar to this reddit user's quick tests (link below). He pulled ~16.5W in-line from the Nintendo AC adapter. He pulled 18W from the Google Pixel charger, which was great news to me, as I've got several already. I highly recommend it to anyone reading comments here. It packs small, and comes with a 6' cord, and the cord & charger have passed rigid usb-c spec testing.Knowing the 9V profile can provide the maximum 18W means I'll be making sure that the batter charging pack I pick covers it. It'll be a bonus that I can also recharge the Pixel XL at the full rate.
Thanks for the article. It's great having someone putting out good information with the testing method spelled out. Maybe, just maybe, it'll help /r/nintendoswitch to stop passing around poor information and recommendations for chargers and battery packs. USB-C has been a nightmare for consumers to understand.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/5...
dchengster - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 - link
Great work delving into this. As I read your article I thought of my Dell Laptop Power Supply as well as Dell's Laptop Powerbank which outputs in both 5V USB and has a special connector to output in 19.5V. A quick search led me to Dell's 7.4mm Barrel to USB-C adapter on the Dell site. Spec's say it supports 5V/20V, I'll be ordering one to test.. anything to save from packing more power adapters or powerbanks.http://accessories.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx...
dchengster - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 - link
A 4.5mm power connector to USB-C version is also available:http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/accessories/apd/470...
sonicmerlin - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 - link
I want a Switch but the idea of 3 of hours battery life is pretty disappointing, Hopefully a node shrink in a Switch "Pro" version in a year or two will increase battery life.yhselp - Wednesday, March 8, 2017 - link
If Switch draws 8.9W how can it last 2.5 hrs on a 16Whr battery?zodiacsoulmate - Wednesday, March 8, 2017 - link
Good question hahayhselp - Thursday, March 9, 2017 - link
An honest one, too. I don't doubt the validity of Ryan's report, nor those that have tested and confirmed Switch running Zelda at max brightness for over 2.5 hrs. There's something I don't understand. Here's hoping we get an answer.Ryan Smith - Saturday, March 11, 2017 - link
Power conversion inefficiency, for a start. That 15V has to be converted internally to a number of other voltages. The actual intensity of the workload will also vary a bit; I grabbed an early area with a lot of transparency specifically because that tends to be especially hard on the GPU side of things.yhselp - Monday, March 13, 2017 - link
Thanks for replying. Hoping Nintendo releases Switch XL with a FinFET SoC, bigger screen, and much better battery life.Vash63 - Friday, March 10, 2017 - link
Is there a measure of how much power this draws while in sleep mode when NOT charging? Would be useful to see if there's any long term power draw in sleep mode.Ryan Smith - Saturday, March 11, 2017 - link
It's so low that I'd need a multimeter to measure it correctly. The power draw of the USB-C power meter becomes the dominant load.If there is any power draw, I'd say it's low enough to be inconsequential. The Switch does slowly draw down the battery over time, but baring wake-up events (e.g. firing up the WiFi radio) we're talking about a process that would take weeks.
IanAugust - Saturday, March 11, 2017 - link
One question. Is it common for power banks to cause damage to your devices battery. I purchased a imuto taurus x4 20000mAh power bank. I've contacted their support to see if it was possible that the power bank could power the switch while I was playing it (or at the very least) slow the battery drain a bit.But I got some unclear information saying that using the device while the power bank is charging it would cause damage to the battery (not clear which battery they were implying). Is this common or normal to not be allowed to use a device while it's being charge by the power bank?
Thanks!
azazel1024 - Monday, March 13, 2017 - link
One thing to throw out, speaking of battery pack charging ability, go shorter and higher gauge cables if you can manage it. Obviously a 4" cable probably isn't practical for charging the switch, but if you can manage with a 1ft cable over a 3ft, let alone a 6ft cable, go shorter.2 Amps is a fair amount of current to pull on a tiny conductors. A lot of cables only have 28ga data wires and 26ga power wires for USB 2 cables. A few premium wires are 28/26. On a 6ft wire at 2 amps you've got nearly 20% loss due to voltage drop/heat dissipation.
Going up to that premium 24ga power wires and you are talking only a 12.6% drop. Still substantial, but a lot better than wasting 1 in 5 watts.
Go to a 3ft, or even better a 1ft wire and you could be down to a ~2% loss on a short, thick wire.
That is the biggest reason you almost never see 5v charging higher than 2 amps. You end up getting the wires rather warm once you start pushing that much amperage through them.
By comparison, for residential 120/240v wiring you generally want to look at increasing voltage or wire gauge if your calculations come in above a 2% voltage drop...and here we are in USB town tolerating a 20+% drop.
extide - Sunday, May 7, 2017 - link
..and that's why the new higher voltage modes were introduced.Taric25 - Tuesday, March 13, 2018 - link
How much power is the Nintendo Switch dock able to draw at max? For clarity, if a Nintendo Switch with a near-empty battery is docked and playing a videogame and all the USB ports on the dock are pumping out the maximum power they possibly can, how much power, at what voltage and amperage, can the original Nintendo Switch dock draw from the USB C port where you connect a wall charger? (The charger does not necessarily have to be Nintendo's charger. It can be any USB C PD charger.)If Ryan not tested this, would he be kind enough to test it? It might make for a great article and better yet serve as specifications for what we should be seeking in USB-C PD chargers that will work for the Switch both docked and undocked.