When you buy a Switch you get the console, two Joy-Con, a grip, and the dock. The Pro Controller (front right) is sold separately. Slide both Joy-Con onto the Switch and you can take the whole thing with you wherever you go. It's a very wide portable device but very comfortable, and a quantum leap in quality from Nintendo's 3DS. I've been playing the amazing Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in bed and on the train, and having a game this vast, complicated and beautifully rendered on the go is astounding. The screen is sharp, bright and colourful in most situations (a bit hard to read in direct sun), and the stereo speakers pack a surprising punch. When you want to relax on the couch with your big screen TV, you just drop the Switch into the included dock (a simple but secure plastic box that connects to your TV via HDMI and to the mains power). With the Switch itself hidden away, the picture and sound moves to your TV. Put the Joy-Con on the included grip to turn them into a standard controller (or just hold them in either hand) and you're free to use the Switch like a traditional console. Players intending to use the machine in TV mode a lot should consider the sold-separately and totally optional Pro controller. At $100 it is very expensive, but it offers bigger buttons, better ergonomics and nicer spacing than the Joy-Cons can, and it has a traditional D-Pad. It even has the motion controls, HD Rumble, capture button and NFC reader the Joy-Cons have. Plus it just looks and feels really nice.

Looking at the setup as a whole, what's most impressive to me is how smart and consistent it is. Previous solutions to getting the same game at home and on the go required multiple bits of hardware, clumsy save file transferring or wireless streaming. With the Switch, you don't even need to pause the game. No matter where you're playing or with which controller you always have access to the exact same slick, fast user interface, the exact same control inputs and all your stuff. The Switch UI is simple but smart and very fast. When in the dock and connected to mains power, the Switch pushes its internals much harder in order to render games at up to 1080p and produce 5.1 channel sound. This means the same game can look and sound impeccable on your TV, while also being battery conservative when in handheld mode. Of course there are other ways to use the Switch as well, depending on the game and how you want to play. A kickstand on the back of the console (it's flimsy, but it does the job) lets you set it up anywhere as a portable little TV, so you can sit back on a plane or at the park to play. For multiplayer, multiple people can play on the one console, you can link up to eight of them wirelessly or you can go online. At 14mm thick and around 400 grams with the Joy-Con attached, the Switch is big but certainly portable. Credit:Tim Biggs

The Joy-Con come with strap attachments for games that have you swinging them around one-handed, Wii style. Turn the Joy-Con sideways and you have a miniature controller for use with some games, handy for impromptu multiplayer matches on the go (the strap also adds some width the the Joy-Con, meaning this is less crampy than it sounds). Most every aspect of the system is smart, simple and intuitive, which is a must given how frustrating juggling multiple control schemes and play modes might have been. Syncing a controller to the Switch requires connecting it physically or going to the "controllers" option on the main screen, but once they're synced you don't ever have to worry about it again. Pressing the Home button on any synced controller will wake the Switch from sleep, and changing controllers is as simple as putting one down and picking one up. The Switch will ask you to confirm, and then it will turn the one you're not using off. The kickstand on the back of the Switch lets you prop it up on the go. Credit:Tim Biggs Charging is intuitive as well. The Switch charges whenever it's in the dock, but since it uses USB-C you can also just use whatever you use to charge your phone when on the go. The Joy-Con are charged when they're attached to the Switch and it's charging. They last for 20 hours or so and charge quickly, but if you don't intend to ever connect them to the Switch you can also buy a grip that charges them for $40. Enamoured though I am by the Switch's versatility and general fun factor, since prospective buyers will be hoping to get years of entertainment out of this thing there are some points of concern I've had during my testing:

With the extra bulk of the strap attachment, the Joy-Con become small but usable controllers for two-player games. Credit:Tim Biggs Battery life: In portable mode this will depend greatly on what you're doing with it. Nintendo says up to six hours of continous play, but with the resource-heavy Zelda I'm getting consistently just under three. This has been totally fine for me, especially since putting the machine in sleep mode will let it keep its remaining charge for a very long time, but for long trips you'll want a charging solution, preferably the bundled AC adapter. As a saving grace if the worst happens, the Switch suspends your game to memory just before its juice runs out so you won't lose anything. Charging: The bundled 15V adapter can fill the battery on a sleeping Switch in 3 hours. But if you continue to play in TV mode while charging your mileage will vary. It seems almost all the energy is needed to keep Zelda going at 1080p for example, so the Switch charges incredibly slowly while doing it. Further, most chargers and batteries designed for phones are 5V, so you should not expect to be able to charge using one of these while playing at the same time. The battery will likely stay the same or deplete slowly. I also worry about what all this constant heavy charging will do to the battery in the long term. Nintendo gets the benefit of the doubt on this one giving its history of hardware longevity, but only time will tell. Specs: Nintendo is known for not following along with what other game hardware companies are doing, and the fact the Switch is also a portable means it looks even more spartan if you compare it with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in terms of raw specs, advanced features or non-gaming content. If you're looking for video apps, a web browser or support for your fancy Bluetooth or optical headsets you won't find it here, at least at launch. Controller range: Some reviewers have reported issues with the left Joy-Con losing sync with the console, and while I haven't had those issues I can confirm the Joy-Con are most reliable at three metres or closer. I've had no issues playing with the pro controller or with the Joy-Con attached to the Switch (where they transmit directly rather than wirelessly), but using them loose or in the grip can be flakey if you're far from the console or have part of your body blocking the signal. This won't be a big issue for most but if your TV's far from your couch maybe wait and see what happens once the machine's out in the wild.