Power Up Your Switch With The Venom Power Pack and Stand

Looks kinda heavy to play in handheld mode.
Also, I have a hard time trusting 3rd party manufacturers when it comes to batteries and charging stations for some reason.
It's one of the most critical aspects of the Switch and I don't want to take the risk of damaging my beloved console.

Looks bulky and heavy to me. I find the Switch, as much as I love it, is already just on the edge of being a comfortable weight to play in handheld for hours.

I much prefer using a simple 30000mAh portable battery with a USB-C cord from iMuto. It has more than enough power to recharge the Switch and can also handle charging my phone and tablet at the same time. While playing. Since the battery sits in my bag or on the table near me, it doesn't add any weight to the Switch.

@HappyAxiom That was my reaction as well. It looks too bulky for handheld and I have heard horror stories about not being able to charge after using 3rd party charging stations. I'll give it a miss.

Looks bulky, but for £30 it is worrying as there isn't much space for the ventalation, I would be scared of it overheating and melting to the console.

The 5000 mAh from Nyko or whatever was already heavy and not very comfortable for longer use, this one is just ridiculous.

Cya
Raziel-chan

I'd be wary of 3rd party accessories, especially those that could fry your battery or worse, your Switch. Still it's a decent amount of extra battery life and the stand is better than Nintendo's flimsy effort. That's definitely one of the first things Nintendo will improve on a new Switch model.

LOL at,

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being written in fainter, small print.

The battery boost sounds good and I don't mind the bulkiness as this looks more tailored to tabletop mode. On the other hand, as @Bunkerneath mentioned the lack of ventilation is concerning.

@Bunkerneath the Amazon product page (and the top picture here) shows pictures of holes in the right spaces for ventilation - no real reason why it should increase heat retention

"Sleek and ergonomic" - classic.

Terrible design with ZERO ergonomics taken into consideration. Just another 3rd party rushing a product to market to profit on the Switch's success!

It's just way easier and much cheaper to buy a 30.000 mAh powerbank, which are very light and slim these days (less size than this monstrosity strapped on the back of the Switch) and plug those in via a cable. Much better than tripling the weight of your Switch console and ruining your wrists and arm joints, risking developing permanent chronic pain.

@Jeronan "Just another 3rd party rushing a product to market to profit on the Switch's success!"

That sentence could just as easily apply to the game developers who instead of making new games are porting over old games for a quick buck.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Which is sadly also true. The amount of shovelware in the Switch eShop at the moment is disgusting really. So much for Nintendo promising to curate the Switch eShop better. /shrug

I literally have to use the search function these days in the Switch e-Shop, since it's an utter pain to browse through a forest of shovelware to find the game you looking for and that after just a year already.

They should update the chart list to a top 50 or so, that would help a bit.

With portable batteries being a thing, bulky contraptions like this serve no purpose. The only advantage they give is a slightly better kickstand but at the expense of adding extra weight and bulk to your system, the inconvenience of removing it to dock the console and the real risk of bricking your console altogether. A portable battery might not come with a kickstand but for the price of this contraption you could buy one along with a portable battery and have change left over. Plus you can charge your other devices, charge and play and fit it easily into your carry case. Yep, pointless contraption.

The joycons are already small. With that bulky thing on the back, it seems there's even less room to place your fingers. I would have preferred a smaller battery, say 5000-6000 mAh and a more ergonomic design.

While I'm not the target audience this looks like a usefull accessory to some. As most have mentioned, I would look into a portable charger but for some hardcore fans this could work.

I am worried about heat retention and would recommend waiting for more long-term use reviews before buying.

For me: Pass

Pointless. Get a power bank. Less bulky, same function. Won't melt your Switch.

@Jeronan @SLIGEACH_EIRE It can also just as easily apply to Super Mario Odyssey. And Smash. And first party accessories. That's how business works - of course there is going to be a rush to get products to market after a successful system launch

On the topic of "shovelware" I wouldn't personally say it's too terrible, but I agree better curation/search tools would be a huge help. Whether I label them shovelware or not, there are a lot of games that I am simply not interested in or are below the quality I expect from my games.

@roadrunner343 No, that sentence can't just as easily apply to the likes of Super Mario Odyssey.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Yes, it very well can. It's pretty obvious that there was a big rush from Nintendo to get games out the door for Switch. It's painfully obvious that other developers would be trying to do the same thing with their games. Unlike Nintendo, they don't have years of advance notice to prepare. You act as if third parties bringing over their cross platform releases somehow prevent new games from coming out. You also seem to think releasing a product with the intent of making money is somehow a bad thing. Shocker, that's what business are supposed to be doing.

@roadrunner343 SMO was in development since late 2013. They didn't rush it out for the Switch launch, it seems complete and they had it out well in advance for Christmas. It doesn't seem rushed and it's an original game. The majority of the games on Switch are old ports.

"You also seem to think releasing a product with the intent of making money is somehow a bad thing." How do I think that?

@SLIGEACH_EIRE "Doesn't seem" rushed does not mean there is not a rush to meet certain deadlines. There absolutely was a major push to get it out the door within the Switch's first year. Many of the ports that you would accuse of being "rushed" to make a quick buck, are also feature complete, primarily bug free, and do not "seem rushed." You can't have a double standard.

If you hate ports, fine. Whatever. I can't argue with that. But implying that they are all rushed to make a quick buck is just nonsense. EVERYTHING is rushed to make profit. It's simple business sense. Whether or not the end product seems rushed is another story, but considering we don't have the final product in our hands yet, there's no way to say yet. Riding a system's wave of success isn't somehow inherently a bad thing.

EDIT: Not sure if you edited your post after my latest response, but I didn't see your last bit until now. In every post announcing new games for Switch, inevitably, one of the first responses are your's complaining about ports. Even though they are cross-platform releases that are only just now available for the Switch. Porting a game to Switch does not mean all new development is somehow halted. First, very often, it's not even the same studio doing the porting. When it is, it's very often not the same team that would be working on new projects.

Even if it is the same studio/dev, it still takes FAR less resources to port and it's almost a given that they are concurrently working on their next title. Look no further than Image and Form Games, who brought SteamWorld Heist Ultimate Edition and SteamWorld Dig the same year they brought out their new game, Steam World Dig 2.

@blockfight @Jeronan Good luck getting that setup to work in tabletop mode

@Blathers If you were traveling and wanted to charge and play in tabletop mode, a 3rd party stand would be a necessity anyway as the included one isn't sturdy enough.

@OorWullie That is what I was implying

Wrist strength +1

How many people play portable consoles for long durations of time while supporting the console's weight with nothing more than arm strength?

@Blathers Ehh I already have a stand for that. 10 bucks and works great. Can put it in different angles.

Has been on the market since April last year, so people can charge and play in table top mode.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B074ZKPMDK/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1521118699&sr=8-2-spons&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=nintendo+switch+stand&psc=1

@Jeronan Hmm true, but the drawback of that device is it's not a self-contained unit.

@Blathers fair point. Hadnt thought of that. Probably because I've never played in tabletop mode.

@Blathers What is the problem with that? It folds and takes up very little place and can easily fit in the bit larger Switch transport cases or bag.
I can tell you that it takes less space than strapping that monstrosity on the back of the Switch. It won't fit in any storage case anymore.
While the stand and a portable battery is lighter than that one and doesn't make your Switch console incredibly heavy and unwieldable.

PS. I have used Mophie juicepacks before on my iphones in the past and Mophie actually puts some effort in design and the battery cases fit nicely with the phone, making it still easy and comfortable to hold.

I like the idea because the original battery is too small. It reminds me of my Gamegear add on battery that screws into the back. It does look bulky and I think heat transfer wise it might raise temperatures a bit with that extra set of cells right by the ports

Ugh... and I supported the Switch Charge on Indiegogo for $100

Still not got the thing.

@electrolite77 Your reply to @Jeronan is one thing that always baffled me. Steam is far worse with shovelware and people complain all the time about it. And yet, I've never accidentally purchased a title I would deem shovelware. Maybe I got some in a humble bundle. Like you mention, there's enough resources out there to find games. Even Steam's reviews, top seller lists, and the recommended for you helps me find relevant games. I'd much rather have it be easy for anyone to get their games out there and have the market/community regulate, than have Steam (Or Nintendo, Sony, MS) attempt to regulate, making it harder for everyone to get their games out, and potentially preventing good games from launching.

@Blathers I probably play 80% handheld. I don't know what you would consider a long period of time, but I've played for an hour or two. I don't really find it uncomfortable, but I'm sure the extra weight/bulk of a device like this would make it quite a bit worse.

On the topic of how many other people are like me, Nintendo released a graph a while back: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2017/171031_2e.pdf
According to that, more people play portable than docked exclusively, and the vast majority use both modes. So I would imagine there are plenty of others that use their system handheld for long periods of time.

@roadrunner343 So you don't rest the console in your lap or rest your arms on your legs or on a table, or your elbows against a wall (when standing up) or anything? That seems really tedious.

@Blathers Perhaps I misunderstood your comment, but of course - while sitting, my elbows are typically in my lap. I don't hold my arms straight out =D So I am supporting the device with my forearms, typically. I usually don't have the system itself resting on anything, is what I meant.

According to Amazon reviews, the case will obstruct the headphone port, making it impossible to connect any audio output devices. Not sure if they will make an updated revision to fix this, but for now, you’ll have to take a drill to it in order to use headphones.