Android gaming is great, and there are no shortage of excellent mobile games to dive into right now. But many of us, myself included, still really enjoy Nintendo's vision of on-the-go gaming with the Switch. I can't play Breath of the Wild on my phone, you know?
So when we got a chance to check out Kaiunzan's Switch MicroDock, which was recently funded on Kickstarter, we jumped on it. The project promises to make your Switch even more portable by slimming down the dock that comes out of the box, making it easier to carry something with you to get connected to an external screen.
Our unit is a pre-release model, but already seems very promising.
Sleek design
The entire selling point of the MicroDock is, well, the fact that it's micro. The original dock for the Switch is pretty big, with compartments to hide cabling and hidden USB ports. That's great for a dedicated home theater setup, but the MicroDock puts all of that in a much more streamlined hub that you can put in your pocket.
On one side of the dock you'll find the power connection and a standard USB port (this doubles for PC connectivity, but we'll talk about that in a bit) and the other side houses a headphone out and microphone input. The end of the dock is where you'll find the standard HDMI output, and there's an integrated USB-C cable to connect to your Switch.
Honestly, it looks just like a small USB hub. Toss this one in your bag and forget about it. It'll definitely fit inside most Switch carrying cases, too.
Extra functionality
The MicroDock hits on everything you'd want the regular dock to do, and then some. It properly charges up your Switch so you can keep playing while you're connected, and it specifically will not destroy your Switch like some of the early dock models. There's some voltage regulation inside of it to keep things from going haywire, so rest easy.
You'll also get that additional headphone and microphone port, which seems exceptionally useful for portable monitor setups, a connected car display, or even just your regular computer workstation. You can tell they wanted this to get picked up by people that primarily game at a desk or stream content.
Speaking of, that USB port is specifically designed to mirror your Switch to your PC. That might not sound useful for everyone, but if you've ever tried to record or stream gameplay from your Switch, that's actually going to make for a significantly more convenient solution than the current standard of adapters and devices to capture gameplay. Much improved over the Switch's built-in capture capabilities, too.
However, keep in mind the MicroDock does only have a single USB port, compared to the three ports on a regular Switch dock. Most of the time, not a big deal, but that could cause issues if you're trying to wire up a bunch of GameCube controllers for a Smash tournament or something.
Audio and video quality
All of the extra features in the world don't mean much if your game looks terrible through the dock, though. For the most part, that's not an issue with the MicroDock, since it passes through 1080p/60fps footage, which is all the Switch is capable of. If a Switch Pro with a beefed up NVIDIA processor ever turns out to be a real thing this might be a problem for 4K recording, but as it stands, not an issue.
Audio's a little different, however. There's no degradation of audio quality, but this dock doesn't seem capable of outputting surround sound. My current Switch is run through a full surround sound system, and running through the MicroDock had no sound with my default settings. After a couple reboots and tinkering, the audio kicks on if I change my settings in the Switch back to stereo. This could be an issue with my unit, or it could be something that's fixed after the Kickstarter period; we reached out to try and get an answer for you either way.
But that does bring us to the point of considering who this dock is really made for.
Worth it?
Depending on the kind of person you are, this might either be the best Switch accessory you'll ever own, or it's entirely useless. While I can see the advantages, I keep GameCube controllers hooked up to my Switch dock and have a surround sound system. When I take my Switch on the go, I don't need the dock, and that limits how useful the MicroDock really is.
But there are two kinds of people that I think will seriously enjoy how convenient it is. If you go back and forth to places with TVs that you want to connect your Switch to, whether that's a friend's house or your super cool work place where they let you play Mario Kart or something, this thing's going to solve a ton of headaches. No more lugging around a big dock, just grab this thing with a few cables and you're set.
Streamers and workstation/PC gamers are going to get a lot of usefulness out of this as well. It's plug and play, and most content that you'll be creating with this won't be surround sound (Twitch doesn't support anything above 2.0, for example) to outweigh the limitation on a home theater setup. Most PC setups aren't surround sound, anyway. It's tricky to have a 5.1 system at a desk, and trust me, I've tried.
If you fall into those groups, you'll absolutely want to keep an eye on this. At $99 it's a bit more expensive that what Nintendo offers, but it's significantly cheaper than another dock + a capture card, especially for how well it works.
Kickstarter Link
