Ron Amadeo
Here is a wild report by David Ruddock of the Android Police: Qualcomm is planning to build a Nintendo Switch clone with Android. This device would be a serious gaming-focused tablet with detachable side controllers. The Switch is powered by Nvidia’s Tegra SoC and Nintendo’s game designers, while this Qualcomm game console … (?) Would be powered by a Snapdragon chip and run games from the Play Store. Qualcomm apparently plans to launch this thing in the first quarter of 2022.
According to the report, the device would attempt to “show the company’s Snapdragon chipsets in a less traditional format”. This new format would be thicker than a normal smartphone and would come with a 6000 mAh battery. Ruddock says that “the company believes that the added thermal headroom that a thicker design offers will make its processor run faster and significantly more efficient than a modern ultra-thin smartphone.”
The report says Qualcomm is using “a premium vendor” to manufacture Joy-Con-style controllers and that, as a Switch, the device will support video output for games on a TV. An SD slot will allow you to package your device with games, and the system will run Android 12, the Google app bundle and a custom launcher. As a Qualcomm device, it will, of course, feature the latest 5G connectivity, but the report says, “We do not believe that any version of the console will function as a standalone mobile handset (ie, it has telephony capabilities).”
The strangest line in the report states that Qualcomm will offer this product directly to consumers, which would mark a change in the way the company usually does business. Qualcomm is a chip supplier, and although it regularly creates reference phone designs (and sometimes even XR headsets), they are not consumer products. The report says Qualcomm does not expect to move a ton of units and hopes to inspire partners to build similar devices. The report goes on to say, “The company’s target price is $ 300, but we’re not sure whether that price includes detachable gamepads or the aforementioned 5G.”
XDA’s Mishaal Rahman corroborates
XDA Developers’ Mishaal Rahman pasted into the report after it was published, saying it heard that Qualcomm is building a clone of the Switch, too, but it was unclear whether it was a consumer device or not. Rahman says the device has a Snapdragon 888, a 6.65-inch Full HD + screen and a 6000 mAh battery. He aims to work on a fan controller in the Qualcomm repository. Rahman says the device has a model number of “GRD8350P”, which he speculates would mean “Gaming reference device”, meaning something that was not a product for sale. Even if the device turns out to be a reference device, there is a good chance that someone will take the idea from Qualcomm and ship a real product, especially if Qualcomm is doing most of the design work.
The two reports are not necessarily talking about the same device. Qualcomm could have built a reference device before moving on to a cheaper consumer device. It certainly doesn’t look like Qualcomm could sell a Snapdragon 888 device for $ 300. The idea for Qualcomm, a chip company, to send a one-year-old chip in its consumer device also seems strange. If you wanted to build a reference device by patching it out of a Snapdragon 888 that you had out there, that certainly seems plausible.
$ 300 sounds like a very aggressive price in general. Nintendo charges so much for a Switch, but a Switch has very old hardware (the Tegra X1 was launched in 2015). Nintendo controls the Switch platform, so a sale usually leads to more revenue from the sale of Nintendo games, licensing of third-party cartridges, presumably a cut in sales from the Switch Store and the sale of Switch accessories like more Joy-Cons. Qualcomm does not obtain any of these additional revenue streams.
If you want to get an idea of what Qualcomm’s device would look like, you can already run Android on the Nintendo Switch today; you just need to be willing to root the console through a security exploit. We did this in 2019 and found a surprisingly capable Android handheld device. It’s up to you whether you’re interested in mobile games or not, but in addition, there are a ton of classic games on the Play Store, allowing you to build a virtual console that Nintendo refuses to put on the switch.
Sega has Sonic 1, 2, and CD on the Play Store, along with many other classics like Super Monkey Ball, Streets of Rage, and Beyond the oasis. Square Enix has most of the Final fantasy and Dragon’s mission series there, along with Time trigger and The world ends with you. Capcom is providing many Mega Men games, along with Ace Attorney and even a port of Street Fighter IV. SNK has a lot of Metal slug and King of fighters games. Rockstar has Grand Theft Auto III, San Andreas, Vice city, and Max Payne. The Android Police report also notes that Qualcomm hopes to bring Fifteen days to the device when it starts, via the Epic Games store. You can also use the system to run cloud-based gaming services like Stadia (if Stadia is still around in the first quarter of 2022) and Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming, although it’s hard to imagine a chip company like Qualcomm not emphasizing local computing.
The Play Store also houses all emulators known to man, if you like that kind of thing. If this device is released, it will probably be one of the best emulation boxes out there. Furthermore, it is difficult to imagine something like this taking off. We’ve already tested Android game consoles with Ouya, and it didn’t work.