Tech

This $75 portable dock is a must-have Nintendo Switch accessory — even if you don’t plan on traveling anytime soon

Published 4 years ago iNFO Vi4y ago • Bookmarks: 9

A common predicament among Nintendo Switch owners is the desire to play the console on more than one TV.
The Genki Covert Dock, which retails for about $75, is the perfect solution: It’s a small cube no bigger than a standard laptop charger that lets you connect your Nintendo Switch to any TV, and keeps it powered up as well.
This is perfect if you’re traveling and want to play Nintendo Switch on a hotel’s HDMI-equipped television, for example — but it’s also great if you just want to play your Switch on another TV in your house without having to unplug Nintendo’s standard dock that comes with the console.

My wife and I play a lot of video games, especially during the pandemic. But there’s an issue we’ve run into a lot: I’ll want to play a PlayStation 4 game, like “Ghost of Tsushima,” while my wife will want to play “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” at the same time on the big screen.

Both consoles are hooked up to the same TV. What to do?

The obvious solution is to buy a second Nintendo Switch dock and connect that to another TV. Unfortunately, Nintendo has been sold out of Switch consoles and standalone Switch docks for months, and I refuse to buy marked-up versions of those items on eBay.

Enter Human Things, a tiny three-person company that’s been trying to fill important voids left by Nintendo for its popular Switch console.

Last year, I reviewed Human Things’ Genki Bluetooth adapter, which actually raised more than $530,000 from over 9,000 backers on Kickstarter back in 2018. The Genki Bluetooth adapter lets you connect wireless Bluetooth headphones to the Nintendo Switch — something the console can’t do on its own — and I thought it was an excellent little device.

Now, the company has a new item to fill another important need, and it’s the one I’ve described above: the desire to play the Nintendo Switch on more than one television.

Human Things was kind enough to send me its new Genki Covert Dock, which retails for about $75, to test out for myself. And I have to say, Human Things has once again knocked it out of the park by creating an accessory that not only addresses an important need, but does it flawlessly, and is drop-dead simple to use.

Design

The Genki Covert Dock is basically a little black cube that you plug into an outlet.

The device itself has just three ports, including an HDMI port that connects the device to a television, and two USB ports: USB-C to connect to a Nintendo Switch, and a USB-A port in case you felt like connecting another device, like a controller, to your TV.

The package also includes multiple adapters for global outlets, in case you’re playing your Switch in a remote part of the world that uses different plugs, and a USB-C cable that connects to the Switch so you don’t have to go out and buy a second one. That’s super convenient.

You might be wondering, “That’s it?” And yeah, that’s it. That is the entire accessory.

The Genki Covert Dock connects to power, connects to your Switch console, and connects to your TV. It’s simple as pie.

This smaller dock takes the general design of Nintendo’s default Switch dock that comes with the console, and makes it much smaller and simpler. It’s only a little bigger than Apple’s pocketable AirPods Pro.

Performance

In practice, the Genki Covert Dock feels perfect to use. I experience zero lag or latency when playing games with it.

Picture and sound are all communicated between the Switch and the TV with no issues whatsoever, as made evident in my time using the Genki Covert Dock.