The Nintendo Switch offers some great games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, and Super Mario Maker 2. If you're looking to do something a bit different with your Switch, though, you can now put Android on it.
The first publicly available Android ROM for the Nintendo Switch is now available. Released by users in the XDA-Developers forums (via Engadget), the LineageOS 15.1 ROM is based on Android 8.1 Oreo and will let you do a lot of the things that you can do on real Android devices, including browse the web and play games, but on the Nintendo Switch's tablet. Audio is supported and the Joy-Con controllers connect over Bluetooth, and both docked and handheld modes are supported.
Because the ROM is based on the NVIDIA Shield TV, you can even run games meant for NVIDIA's Tegra chip on the Switch with this ROM, including Borderlands and Half-Life 2.
That all sounds great, but this ROM isn't without its issues. There are bugs related to battery life, auto-rotation, and touchscreen input. And so while loading this ROM onto your Switch is something only experienced tinkerers should deal with, those bugs mean even those folks may want to hold off on installing this ROM until some of the issues can be ironed out.
If you don't care about the bugs and just want to take the plunge, you should know that you'll need a Switch that is able to boot into Hekate. If you can do that, then your Switch is supported with this mod.
While this mod is something that lots of folks will probably want to avoid, it's still pretty cool to see Android running on a Switch complete with Joy-Con support and support for both docked and handheld mode. Have you ever performed any mods like this on any of your devices?
