The SwitchGrip Pro Is Near Perfect
We all love the Nintendo Switch. What those of us who play primarily in handheld mode don’t love though is the hand cramps we get after holding the device for more than a few moments while playing our favorite games. Although it’s expertly crafted, it becomes cumbersome and many people’s hands start to freeze up and become cramped the longer they hold it. Fortunately, the SwitchGrip Pro from Satisfye gets rid of those woes, and provides much more while doing so.
There are many grips on the market for the Switch, and I’ve tried quite a few of them, including some silicon covers for your JoyCons and have extra padding on the back. All of them help to some extent, but none work quite as well as the Satisfye SwitchGrip Pro.
Out of the box, the SwitchGrip Pro looks fairly unassuming and plain. It’s a giant chunk of plastic that looks like your Switch should fit inside of it… because it does. Two hooks protrude from the bottom of the grip with a large span in between a couple of handles. It’s simple enough to look like it won’t work wonders, but the experience is far superior to the presentation.
The first thing of note is the bumpers that Satisfye have made a part of their grip. These secure, non-slip bumpers protect your Switch from rubbing up against the plastic part of the grip to prevent scratching. It almost feels as if the handheld is floating inside the confines of the grip. They are perfectly spaced to provide a safe and comfortable spot for your hardware to rest.
The previously mentioned “hooks” that come out of the bottom have multiple purposes. The first is that they help keep the Switch in place and not slide out of the grip while you’re holding it upright. While this seems fairly simple and obvious, we’ve seen other grips that didn’t have this and the result was constant worry about your handheld falling out the bottom. The second purpose is that they can help you stand your Switch stand upright on a table or other flat surface. This allows the user to play without holding the device or watch Hulu without having to use the pathetic excuse for a kickstand that Nintendo thought was a good idea.
On the backside of the handles, for lack of a better word, are firm (but not hard) pads. These pads cushion your hands slightly while not giving way. They make holding the Switch a pleasure instead of a chore and, probably most importantly, they don’t make your hands sweat in the slightest.
The right handle of the grip is slightly larger than the left, making it a bit easier to hit those XABY buttons and lower joystick control. While it seems like you would notice the difference between the shapes of the sides, it feels completely natural – like things were always supposed to be this way.
We checked the SwitchGrip out as part of the “SwitchGrip Pro Slim Bundle” which came with two thumb pads and a Pro Slim Case.
The thumb pads are a nice touch. Though I’ve never felt that the thumbsticks on the JoyCons were lacking anything, I do believe that having the extra thumb pads improved my comfort quite a bit. They aren’t the easiest to put on, but once they are there you probably won’t find a reason to take them off.
Also included was the Pro Slim Case. This case is… well slim, just like the name says. There’s room for your Switch, a few games, and the SwitchGrip. It makes very efficient use of the space it takes up and there’s probably no better way to travel lightly with your grip safely stored than this case. And yes, that does mean that the SwitchGrip probably won’t fit in whatever Switch case you have already.
Overall, there don’t seem to be any weak points in the design or functionality of the SwitchGrip Pro. We couldn’t recommend it to you more!
Frankly, you’ll probably forget you’re even using a grip – and isn’t that what you want anyway?
We also reviewed the SwitchGrip Lite!
You can buy the SwitchGrip Pro Bundle or simply the grip itself directly from Satisfye.
This product was provided to Handsome Phantom at no cost by the manufacturer, but this fact did not have an impact on the reviewer’s impressions.
