It is worth buying a unhacked Switch for Homebrew?

[PkStarzone]

First of all, I actually have no interest on pirating Switch games, a lot of trouble just to potentially get your Nintendo account banned and I don't find it worth it, especially when I already own games on my account on the 3DS and I hate managing 2 accounts.

What I'm interested with the Switch hacked is homebrew, emulators, booting Android, drawing, playing retro games through emulations, etc. I found one on eBay for around 300 dollars.

More importantly, how's the battery life on the hackeable Switch? If I use it for drawing, it would drain my battery in an hour? I need to know.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

First of all, I actually have no interest on pirating Switch games, a lot of trouble just to potentially get your Nintendo account banned and I don't find it worth it, especially when I already own games on my account on the 3DS and I hate managing 2 accounts.

What I'm interested with the Switch hacked is homebrew, emulators, booting Android, drawing, playing retro games through emulations, etc. I found one on eBay for around 300 dollars.

More importantly, how's the battery life on the hackeable Switch? If I use it for drawing, it would drain my battery in an hour? I need to know.

Sure, if you don't already have a tablet, it works pretty well as one with Switchroot Android, though it's not very fast by today's standards, you can still run emulators up to and including even some GC games at good speeds and game streaming from a PC on it is nice.
It's a capacitive touchscreen, so it's not very good for drawing though, just like any phone or tablet that doesn't have a special stylus released by the manufacturer, capacitive styli aren't very accurate and the rubbery tip feels bad since it adds a lot of friction. A glass screen protector helps somewhat.

 

[PkStarzone]

Sure, if you don't already have a tablet, it works pretty well as one with Switchroot Android, though it's not very fast by today's standards, you can still run emulators up to and including even some GC games at good speeds and game streaming from a PC on it is nice.
It's a capacitive touchscreen, so it's not very good for drawing though, just like any phone or tablet that doesn't have a special stylus released by the manufacturer, capacitive styli aren't very accurate and the rubbery tip feels bad since it adds a lot of friction. A glass screen protector helps somewhat.

Well, Colors Live is releasing on Switch so that seems good enough for me. I wonder tho, what version should I get exactly? The known unpatched Switches from what I heard they only last 2 hours, how bad that is for normal play?

It is possible to use Homebrew and Android on one of the Switches with better battery life?

 

[deathblade200]

Well, Colors Live is releasing on Switch so that seems good enough for me. I wonder tho, what version should I get exactly? The known unpatched Switches from what I heard they only last 2 hours, how bad that is for normal play?

It is possible to use Homebrew and Android on one of the Switches with better battery life?

idk who told you "only 2 hours" this site is a decent estimate of actual times and there are games that dont even fully use the stock clock speeds thus can be underclocked for even more battery https://reviews2go.com/2018/08/06/nintendo-switch-battery-life-chart-2/

 

[BeastMode6]

First of all, I actually have no interest on pirating Switch games, a lot of trouble just to potentially get your Nintendo account banned and I don't find it worth it, especially when I already own games on my account on the 3DS and I hate managing 2 accounts.

Homebrew will also get your account banned.

What I'm interested with the Switch hacked is homebrew, emulators, booting Android, drawing, playing retro games through emulations, etc. I found one on eBay for around 300 dollars.

It sounds more like you need a tablet over a game device like the switch. You ain't gonna be drawing that accurately with the tiny capacitive touchscreen on the switch.

If you want a device in this form factor for emulators and don't care too much about switch games, I'd suggest waiting for the Steam Deck. Way easier to install emulators on that over hacking a switch. Also, I fully expect the Steam Deck to handle gamecube emulation without any problems.

 

[Kallrkyle]

playing retro games through emulations

That is also pirating if you not own the games you play in the emulators

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Well, Colors Live is releasing on Switch so that seems good enough for me. I wonder tho, what version should I get exactly? The known unpatched Switches from what I heard they only last 2 hours, how bad that is for normal play?

It is possible to use Homebrew and Android on one of the Switches with better battery life?

The stylus for Colors Live supposedly works pretty well, I guess that's your best bet on Switch.

It's closer to 3 hours, that's only for demanding 3D titles, simpler games use much less power.
If I want to play for longer I just play docked. For short sessions I can't be bothered to dock it. When Paper Mario Origami King came out I just kept it docked since I played that game for many hours every day. Same with any other big title that comes out that I'm interested in. So it's not really an issue, since playing docked with the Pro Controller is usually a better experience anyway. It just sucks when I'm away from home for a few days or on vacation or something, and playing docked is not really an option, I always need an outlet nearby so I can play while charging.
If you can find a SX Core modchip or you're willing to pay up for the overpriced HWFly clone, and you know someone skilled enough in soldering that can install it for you (or you can do it yourself) then Mariko is not a bad option, the improved battery life is certainly nice although not essential. It just seems like too much of a hassle for me and I'm not *that* confident in my soldering yet. I could probably do it but there's also a chance I damage something like rip a pad off or a small component, which would be beyond my skill to repair and worst case brick the Switch.
Worth noting that the new OLED Switch that's coming out soon will probably be supported by modchips too so if you are willing to jump through hoops to mod a Mariko Switch you should wait for the OLED model.

 

[M7L7NK7]

Homebrew will also get your account banned.

No one has been banned for homebrew, apart from online save editing

 

[The Real Jdbye]

No one has been banned for homebrew, apart from online save editing

People did get banned before Atmosphere added creport but not since then (not for homebrew use anyway)

Still, you never know what Nintendo might do, one day they decide to take more direct action and implement code in a new firmware update to detect any CFW use. As you do need CFW in order to run homebrew on current firmware which was never the case on previous Nintendo consoles, that makes it much easier for them to detect. The new checks would be patched out in Atmosphere once people found out but not before damage was done.
That's why, if you don't absolutely need to run homebrew/CFW on your legit NAND, I find it best just to use an emuNAND for that stuff. People on 4.1.0 iPatched Switches don't have much choice though, if they want to go online they need to do so from an emuNAND, as the sysNAND can't be updated. People on unpatched or chipped Switches almost always have other options.

Of course that's just hypothetical, they could do it but that doesn't mean they will. At this point it seems like they consider it a lost cause and not worth investing money into, as getting banned would hardly stop pirates from pirating anyway, it doesn't really do Nintendo any good to invest time and money into banning more people if they don't get anything back from it. Investors might not be happy that Nintendo are spending money on something that doesn't benefit the investors bottom line.
But Nintendo are good at doing the unexpected when you don't expect it, and doing the expected when you expect something unexpected, so I never take anything for granted with them.

I care more about online than piracy (even if I don't play online much, I still benefit from automatic updates, cloud saves and all that) or I might not think twice about running homebrew on my legit NAND. But from the very beginning I took every measure possible to make the chance of me getting banned as close to 0% as possible so any risks, however small are not worth it for me.

That is also pirating if you not own the games you play in the emulators

Even if you own them it's still technically piracy if they aren't your own personal dumps. Morally there's nothing wrong with it though.

 

[PkStarzone]

Still, you never know what Nintendo might do, one day they decide to take more direct action and implement code in a new firmware update to detect any CFW use. As you do need CFW in order to run homebrew on current firmware which was never the case on previous Nintendo consoles, that makes it much easier for them to detect. The new checks would be patched out in Atmosphere once people found out but not before damage was done.
That's why, if you don't absolutely need to run homebrew/CFW on your legit NAND, I find it best just to use an emuNAND for that stuff. People on 4.1.0 iPatched Switches don't have much choice though, if they want to go online they need to do so from an emuNAND, as the sysNAND can't be updated. People on unpatched or chipped Switches almost always have other options.

Is installing Android/Ubuntu perfectly safe? I heard that Nintendo can't really see you when you use dual booting so its practically unbaneable, but I'm not quite sure. I only heard its only supported for unpatched versions, which is kind of a bommer. But I'm going with info I got from 2019. I have no idea what's the state of Android on Switch is today.

If Android is unbaneable, then I'll leave the Switch OS alone and only boot Android.

 

[Draxzelex]

Is installing Android/Ubuntu perfectly safe? I heard that Nintendo can't really see you when you use dual booting so its practically unbaneable, but I'm not quite sure. I only heard its only supported for unpatched versions, which is kind of a bommer. But I'm going with info I got from 2019. I have no idea what's the state of Android on Switch is today.

If Android is unbaneable, then I'll leave the Switch OS alone and only boot Android.

Android and Ubuntu don't touch the operating system, Horizon, and instead exist solely on the SD card so they are perfectly safe from bans,

 

[JayBae]

First of all, I actually have no interest on pirating Switch games, a lot of trouble just to potentially get your Nintendo account banned and I don't find it worth it, especially when I already own games on my account on the 3DS and I hate managing 2 accounts.

What I'm interested with the Switch hacked is homebrew, emulators, booting Android, drawing, playing retro games through emulations, etc. I found one on eBay for around 300 dollars.

First off: Everyone says that.
Second: using emulators is technically pirating...

Also be careful with some you buy used on ebay and such, my first experience doing that the A-Hole of a seller sent me a cheap shitty amazon tablet instead of a switch. Took me about 2 weeks to get my money back to try again, Luckilly the second time I got the 1st gen low SN Switch i'm currently using, and I got it for cheap [$250] cause the memory card slot was busted, replaced that for about 6$... anywho Just make sure the seller is trust worthy, usually if the price is too good to be true... something could be wrong.

 

[iiTzSamurai]

Second: using emulators is technically pirating...

no its not