Turning the Nintendo Switch into Android’s best gaming hardware

Enlarge / Android on the Nintendo Switch. Just think of all the Nintendo apps you're missing out on.

The Nintendo Switch is, basically, a game console made out of smartphone parts. The quad-core Nvidia Tegra X1 ARM SoC would be right at home in a smartphone or tablet, along with the 4GB of RAM, a 720p touchscreen, and a 4310mAh battery. Really, the only things that make the Switch a game console are the sweet slide-on controllers and the fact that it is blessed by Nintendo, with actually good AAA games, ecosystem support, and developer outreach.

With such a close relation to smartphone hardware, it only makes sense that people would eventually load some smartphone software onto the Nintendo Switch-and around Ars, we've recently made everyone's favorite handheld run Android. Such a thing might sound like a hardware hacker's pipe dream, but thanks to work from a group called "Switchroot," you can now get a pretty good build of Android up and running on Nintendo's console.

A project like this is only possible thanks to two of the Internet's biggest hacking communities joining forces-you've got the best of the Nintendo Homebrew scene combining with the best of the Android custom ROM community. And as we recently discovered, getting Android running on the Switch is a whirlwind tour of huge community projects and discoveries all in the name of doing whatever you want with hardware you own.

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