@Slaytan In docked mode, the battery doesn't overheat because the Switch will primarily run on mains power from a normal wall socket. In case it isn't full enough anymore, the battery will also be charged simultaneously, but once the battery is fully charged, it probably won't be operational anymore/will be shut down, until the next time you actually take it out of the dock. So, once you click it into the dock, all necessary juice is rerouted to come from normal electric power instead of from the internal battery.
And in docked mode, there's also more cooling going on, so they did indeed think about this, and there is really nothing to worry about where that is concerned.
@Slaytan The system should be designed with that in mind. I never had any issues playing any of Nintendo's previous systems for an entire day. The Switch should be no different. If problems arise anyway, you're always covered by the warranty.
@KirbyTheVampire I just want to know how hot that plastic has to be to warp. I assume this would be from heating up and cooling down, but wouldn't the plastic show some kind of stress or orange peeling if that were the case?
@Dokkaebi I'm not sure, but I really doubt it gets hot enough to warp. If some people (AKA like two people on Reddit) really do have this issue, my money is on it being a faulty dock that's bent in some weird way that causes the system to curve. Who knows, though.
Either way, I keep mine basically only in the dock, and I'm not having any bending issues.
@Dreamliner@Dokkaebi@KirbyTheVampire For it to get hot enough to warp, it would also have to get hot enough to warp the aluminum backing plate, the fiberglass PCB, and the STEEL frame. Warping fiberglass with heat is pretty challenging, but it can be warped with pressure/physical force pretty easily. The system would not be receiving that level of force in the dock. Warping aluminum could happen purely with heat/cooldown, but it wouldn't even have to be particularly high heat. Pressure, again is more likely to cause that, in addition to heat to soften the material. Getting steel to warp purely from heat is quite a challenge even when thin steel.
Those "warping" reports look to me more like "bendgate" (a warm phone held under pressure over long durations of time in a pocket warping to match the curve of the object (a human body) it was pressed against.)
At worst, a possibly defective (warped dock) along with, maybe a defective fan so the heat was building up along the copper heatpipe and not being expelled could superheat things enough to do some damage. But that would be a machine with a faulty fan, and any fan-cooled electronics would suffer pretty badly with a dead fan.
I keep mine docked while playing. I have not had any warping. My personal thoughts are if it was that hot you would see the following: 1. The vent would be the first place to see issues because the heat would be coming out and would melt around the vent. I had this happen on a laptop before. The vents were the first place I noticed damage when it was getting too hot. 2. The dock would sustain damage too. The dock would be warped also if it was happening in dock mode. The dock seems like it would end up in worse shape than the console.
@ThanosReXXX the battery will be more damaged in the dock. Like every smartphone out there wich is charging will be constantly charged. everytime 1% of the battery drops down the system will charge it again this means a device with 8 hours in the doc can lose 10% easily. So every day you play 8 hours in dock mode you will lose 1/10 of a charge cycle. A li-ion battery can be charged between 500 and 1000 times.
Second of all the amount of charge is important to the battery life. When a li-ion battery for instance is fully charged and is kept at a 25 degrees celsius it will loose 20% of its capacity in a year. While you play in dockmode the device will exceed this temperature by far. It will get hotter then 40 degrees celsius within the device. At 40 degrees with a fully charged battery li-ion will loose 35% of its capacity over a year. And thats without the amount of times you charge your device.
So its safe to say the battery will be damaged when playing in dock mode all the time.
A fun fact:
When a battery is charged for 50% it will loose only 4% of its capacity over a year with 25 degrees Celsius and 15% at 40 degrees Celsius. Thats the reason that devices you buy out of a store are almost all the time only 50 ~ 60 % charged.
@Slaytan In docked mode, the battery doesn't overheat because the Switch will primarily run on mains power from a normal wall socket. In case it isn't full enough anymore, the battery will also be charged simultaneously, but once the battery is fully charged, it probably won't be operational anymore/will be shut down, until the next time you actually take it out of the dock. So, once you click it into the dock, all necessary juice is rerouted to come from normal electric power instead of from the internal battery.
And in docked mode, there's also more cooling going on, so they did indeed think about this, and there is really nothing to worry about where that is concerned.
Thanks for that info - wondered how it worked! ..good to know!
@sygys You're telling me nothing new: I'm an IT-related sales & marketing professional and I also have quite a few connections in the smartphone business.
But you're sorely missing the point and that was the original question of it being more damaging to the Switch and its battery to be playing a lot in docked mode, and the answer to that is no, for reasons I've already explained in my answer to the OP.
P.S.
Bit of a late reaction also. Had to re-read the previous comments to get up to speed again...
EDIT:
Obviously, by constantly being partially re-charged, the battery will last shorter, but that doesn't constitute damage. Also, batteries work with charging cycles, and those small percentages of drain and recharge when in the dock almost never constitute a full cycle:
A battery's lifespan is counted in cycles, which means the equivalent of a full recharge. Modern batteries are rated for up to 1000 cycles. More is possible, but that number is kind of a factory guarantee.
There's even some crazy advisors floating around the net, saying it would be even better to remove the battery altogether if possible (don't even know if that works for the Switch) when on mains power or when you're not using the device for longer periods of time, but that doesn't fly.
Let's say for example, that a laptop is plugged in, yet it's battery would drain for maybe 1% of a charge each day (if even that), you'd have "3.5" cycles of trickle charge each year, without the chance of damaging your laptop or the battery itself by constantly removing and re-inserting the battery, let alone the fact that you're not protected from data loss in case of an unexpected power outage anymore if you use methods like these.
And on top of that, by letting it fully drain, you're forcing a charging cycle. Letting batteries fully drain is always a worse option compared to just leaving a device on the charger. (in regard to battery health)
Isn't this more just about hours of use? If you are playing it 8 hours a day out of the dock (with an external batter or cable etc) the battery its going to wear out sooner too. This seems pretty strait forward to me, like all other devices... If you play the crap out of it its going to wear the battery out faster.
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Topic: Always playing in Dock Mode question?
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