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Comment by holtalanm | Hacker News Reader

the switch is advertised to only work with official nintendo cables and accessories. Anything else and you're just risking damage to your console/tablet/thingy.

I don't think they have ever claimed that their USB-C connectors were compliant with the spec.

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What they claimed is almost irellevant - the device bears USB-C logo and has a USB-C port - so plugging a USB-C device into that port should in the worst possible case result in a system message "sorry, this device is not supported", not brick the device! There's a reason why you can't use a USB-A cable in your device to carry 220V - because someone will plug it into a normal USB-A socket and burn their computer down. If both sides of the connection have the official USB logo, then connecting them together should never result in either device becoming damaged.

Are you sure it has a USB-C logo?

The Switch has many logos on it, but a USB-C logo is not one of them. Nintendo does not use the term "USB-C" in its literature for the Switch.

Nintendo of America may not, but Nintendo UK and Japan both refer to it as a "USB Type-C terminal"

UK: https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Nintendo-Switch/Specifications/Sp...

JP: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/hardware/switch/specs/

I stand corrected. Good catch.

I wonder why they would even use the same shape then...

Nintendo (and up until recently, the videogame hardware industry at large) has a long history of making their own connectors...

My guess is that if they make their own shape, then third party accessories with that shape are guaranteed to work. Since they use USB-C, then there is fear, uncertainty and doubt by the consumer about if an accessory will work or not.

That's overcomplicated 4D chess. They just wanted to use standard tools and components.

True enough, but then deciding to use a usb-c port on the console is asking for trouble.

The dock is cool but I wish they'd release like a "travel" version which could be just like a cable.

When I travel and stay away from home with my Switch, sometimes I really yearn for the dock-to-TV functionality so I can play it with family/friends.

The dock is a pain to carry around

i bought a simple USB Type-C to HDMI adapter and used it successfully a few times. of course, now that people's switches are getting bricked, i'm scared to keep using it. :(

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