I am still not sure which Switch hardware I should buy

get the standard model, TV mode and portable you don't have to worry about missing a feature that way.
also joy-cons are detachable for tabletop/multiplayer games.

i play 50/50 handheld/TV mode, hell I bought a second switch and still got the standard model because hell no to the lite.

in japan you can buy a switch without the dock, idk why they only do it there and not everywhere else lol, it gives you an upgrade path later if you regret it, unlike the lite where you are screwed

I mainly played in portable mode too so what I did was purchased the standard switch model and resell the dock, there are people who wants an extra dock or they want to mod the dock.

@Azerus_Kun , I actually own 2 switches; 3 docks. I bought another dock after I wanted to play stuff like ring fit adventures downstairs. this was before I bought the animal crossing switch. I might just keep it, but those things were/are like $90. I have the power cable connected to my laptop's usb hub just for the charging grip for the joy cons and the pro controllers (have every version that I know of). I don't remember if it came with an hdmi cable or even how much a dock by itself with no cables would cost. $60?

japan's dockless switch was like 250, so likely yes

my favorite thing about the switch is not having to mess with a bunch of cables if you want to play it in another room. my entertainment center area is a total mess. now, if only nintendo would add missing features. it's sad that the most recent "big" feature I can think of is being able to transfer content from the nand to the sd card. I can't believe it took them 2-3 years to add that. I'm pretty sure that feature didn't exist with the animal crossing switch at launch as I managed to nab one from gamestop. I was dreading getting all of my saves and stuff on there, but it was relatively painless despite that missing feature.

I own the lite and bought the original size on day one. I do not play F.E. on the lite, I find it too difficult to read and the half-ass, double click zoom is a joke, only working in certain situations (lists, scrollable') and must unclick to adjust the text to fit the reading area each time. There is just far too much reading in all the games (with tiny 2+ 3 point text) I've purchased to consider doing it again. I don't regret it but wouldn't buy one (lite) again.
It is good for BoTW and A.C. a few others but that's about it, IMHO

btw, they had that 1TB micro sd card on sale on prime day a day or two ago. it was $182, marked down from over $400. it was even less than the one I bought on black Friday of last year. that one was $199.99. I'm going to put this second one in my older switch, so that both systems have all of my games. I think getting the saves on there is going to be a pita. I've messed with saves some between the two systems, and always seemed to be just downloading the save from nso. I'll probably have to do that manually for all saves.

I went all digital due to fear of dropping the system. I don't think I'd ever buy a lite for that reason. plus, my eyesight is pretty bad. I can only focus or read with one eye.

@Redhorse thanks for the info. I guess I am getting the normal edition then.

if you want my two cents, I'd suggest buying a banned, early model system. that way you won't have to worry about getting banned. a lot of people are self banning, but imo, it's too much stress when you could make a mistake like a couple years from now. it's not worth the stress of that, plus they're going to be much cheaper.

If you can, try to hunt down a launch-model Switch - it has the TV mode, for superior visuals and audio, and it's vulnerable to RCM exploits. In other words, homebrew - save managers, FTPD for transferring files between the Switch and your computer, EdiZon, custom themes, etc.

Oh, and I guess removable JoyCons too. Meh; just get an 8bitdo controller; they're far better.

@AkiraKurusu I think there are plenty of them, but I thought the original switch has been patched?

The Mariko units - the new ones, with the more-red box - yes, but they're not "launch-model". As far as I know, there's two different types of the main Switch; launch-model, that's vulnerable to RCM exploits, and Mariko, which did indeed patch this flaw.

If you care about hacking/CFW get a low serial one used, you can ask sellers for the serial and check if it's hackable using https://ismyswitchpatched.com/

If you don't care about hacking, get a red box Switch.

The Switch Lite would be nice if it at least had the option of docked mode. The increased portability and improved looks are certainly a plus. But unless that portability is really important to you, it's not worth losing docked mode. Because no matter if you're primarily a handheld mode user or not, there will always be those times when you have friends or family over and you just want to play some multiplayer Smash, Mario Kart or Mario Party, and not catering to that with the Switch Lite is in my opinion a mistake.

@AkiraKurusu well I just realized that the launch model price has been gauged. the price for a new device is around 499 USD. There are a bunch of "used" hardware of the same model in the market, but the seller stated it doesn't really support CFW, is it really the case? (that the original launch model can be patched?)

@eriol33 So, here's the deal:

The OG Switch, as it was released in 2017, had a hardware flaw where, if one bridged some pins on the right Joy-Con rail, and held the power and volume up buttons on the Switch, it would put the Switch in Recovery mode where, naturally, if one wanted, they could do whatever the hell they wanted and boot into CFW for Horizon (the Switch's native OS), L4T-Ubuntu, Lakka (which I haven't seen any developments on in a while for the Switch), and maybe Android (IDK so much about this as I haven't used it for the Switch myself). This had to do with a flaw in the Nvidia Tegra X1 chip used in the Switch and how it was implemented with everything else.

The new Switch and the Switch Lite, on the other hand, use the Tegra X1-Mariko chip, which had this hardware bug fixed, with the benefit of it not being as power hungry, and allowing for a much needed improvement in battery longevity for portable play sessions in the former...and about 30 minutes to an hour more for the Switch Lite.

There's not been an exploit that doesn't involve SX OS for these models, and the less said about using those after what happened between its devs and Nintendo and the FBI, the better.

As for the OG Switches, that's just the natural order of things; to get a PS3 that has the Emotion Engine chip inside for full PS2 BC, the price is higher than the ones that just have it in software emulation (which is good, but some games clearly have issues when running them or need a workaround or two) of the PS2 hardware.

@eriol33 As mentioned, you simply need to check the serial number before buying. Don't go for any console that is marked as "low serial", "hackable", "unpatched" or anything like that, or you'll be overpaying. Instead, ask the sellers for the serial.
And yes, not all of the OG model are RCM exploitable, they fixed it by shipping an updated bootrom on later units (before finally moving to the newer Tegra X1+ chip with Mariko)
They can't patch existing units, only new ones.