Supposed teardown of Nintendo's Switch gives an idea of what makes it tick

The hype around Nintendo’s upcoming Switch game console has been building to a head over the past few weeks. With the release of the Switch less than two weeks away, the gaming world has been a nonstop buzz of anticipation. Now, a Chinese gaming manufacturer has released a teardown of what appears to be the Switch, revealing the components we can expect to find in the final retail version.

The biggest physical part of the Switch is the 4310 mAh battery, which takes up about ⅓ of the volume inside the device. The battery shows off some manufacturer stamps and looks like it comes from Amperex Technology Limited. Amperex has recently become infamous as one of the battery suppliers for Samsung’s ill-fated Galaxy Note 7. The Note 7 was recalled last year due to fires caused by shoddy batteries.

Other notable internals of the Switch include a large heat pipe and fan array for thermal management, what look like two DIMMS of RAM, and an Nvidia SoC.

We know that Nintendo will use an Nvidia SoC to power the Switch, but until now we’ve assumed it would be similar to the Tegra X1 found in Nvidia’s own Shield TV console. However, the label stamped on the silicon is a bit different from existing X1 chips, which could mean it's very different than the X1. This isn’t unusual - game companies frequently request customized processors and chips for their consoles. Both the Playstation 4 and the XBox One use custom processors and GPUs from AMD.

As with most rumors, this one should be taken with a huge grain of salt. There’s no way to confirm that this is a teardown of the retail Switch; we can’t confirm that this is even a legitimate model of Nintendo’s latest console, retail or otherwise. With the release of the Switch scheduled for March 3, it won’t be long before we know for sure what exactly makes the Switch tick.

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