When it comes to taking the Nintendo Switch 2 for a trip, the beautiful hybrid console presents something of a dilemma. Sure, it’s easy enough to find a good travel case for the handheld portion, but what if you want to take all the peripheral gear — the dock, the cables, some extra Joy-Con or controllers — along for the ride as well?
Enter Turtle Beach’s PlayTrek 2-in-1 Case: a neat carry-all that aims to offer just such a solution while retaining the ability to quickly whip out the console for on-the-go play. It’s a smart, compartmentalised solution that carries (mostly) everything you could want when porting the Switch 2 wholesale to a new location, without forgetting that a major draw of the console is its portability.
To be clear, this dual-storage design isn’t particularly new, but previous iterations from other manufacturers have always had a quirk or two to work around. Has Turtle Beach finally cracked the perfect design for dual-storage Switch cases, then? Well, not entirely, but it certainly comes closer than its progenitors.
The case itself is well designed; it’s sturdy and nice to look at, with no wasted space or unnecessary embellishments. The top half is a standard Switch 2 travel case, capable of fitting the handheld console, 14 game cartridges, and a couple of small accessories/cables in the padded zip compartment. The lower half houses moulded compartments that can carry the bulk of the Switch 2’s main accessories: dock, charging brick, a couple of extra Joy-Con, and a spare Pro Controller or other full-sized gamepad.
The fun part is that the top section — the travel case — can be separated from the base entirely, functioning as a standard travel case without compromising the security of either compartment. Simply pull it out of its Velcro-secured housing and it’s good to go. It’s easily accessible, meaning the Switch 2’s portability isn’t compromised even if you’re travelling with the rest of its gear as well. There’s a reason this form has become the norm in hold-all travel cases for the console.
Sound perfect? Well, there are a couple of quirks to be aware of. Most glaringly is the moulded base. While the mould is of good quality and fits what it’s meant to fit to a tee, it ends up being a little too restrictive in practice. Because the moulds are so snug, they fit only what they’re designed to, making more niche compositions a tricky prospect. For instance, you can’t fit both a Pro Controller and the standard Joy-Con connector at the same time, and there’s limited space for cables in the main compartment. Ultimately, it’s best for very standard compositions and little else.
One way this could be improved is if the moulded sections were complemented by a general padded compartment that could house any variety of different accessories, but of course then space becomes an issue. In any case, potential buyers who want to carry more than what the moulds allow will need to be mindful of this restriction.
Speaking of restrictions, another point of contention is the case’s handle, which wraps over the top of the case and requires a fair bit of fiddling with to remove. This makes quick access difficult, and while not a deal-breaker, it’s an area that could seemingly have been easily bypassed with a simple clip function.
Niggles aside, this is a really strong effort from Turtle Beach, and delivers quality in the most crucial areas: it’s sturdy, secure, and does a good job of protecting its contents while remembering the Switch 2 is a hybrid console that needs a hybrid travel solution. The frustrating issues of the restrictive moulded body and fiddly handle are not deal-breakers for those who want a safe way of transporting the vanilla components of the Nintendo Switch 2.
