Magictodoor Locking Carry Case for Nintendo Switch

Hardware Type: Carrying Case

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Review:

(Note: Review product provided by the kind folks at r/ReviewOfSwitch)

Magictodoor is a Chinese company that, from what I can tell doing a bit of online snooping, has been making travel bags and carrying cases since 2009, although the only products of theirs I can find currently on sale date back to 2017. There also doesn’t appear to be much of an online presence for their company (the most I could find was a Twitter page that hasn’t been updated in a decade), so those buying their products should keep this in mind, although I’ll note that on Amazon they do advertise a 100% money back guarantee and seem to carry a decent seller reputation.

This particular product, a carrying case for the Nintendo Switch, was released in 2019 prior to the release of the Switch lite, and as such naturally it is designed with the original Nintendo Switch in mind. I do not have a Switch Lite to test things, but it seems fairly safe to say that this case won’t fit the Switch Lite, but either way I wouldn’t recommend trying it.

By measurements, this case is roughly 11 ¾” x11” x 5 ¼”, taking into account the extra room needed for the locking mechanism, handle, and strap clasps (the manufacturer claims 12.4” x 10.6” x 5.2”), and weighs about 2 lbs (the manufacturer claims 2.1lbs), making it a fairly bulky case for a handheld system – this is a case not so much designed for portable use, but for transportation – this is the sort of case you’d be looking to get if you wanted to transport your Nintendo Switch to hook it up to a TV at a friend’s house or hotel room.

I should note that I have seen other reviewers saying that the case has a smell, and as such I actually gave it a sniff test myself, and I’d describe the scent as being the sort of smell you get when walking into a shoe store. It’s not an overly strong scent, and personally I found it to be pretty inoffensive, but those who are extremely sensitive to scents should be aware that this may be a consideration.

The exterior of the case is what seems to be a thin plastic shell (it could be metal, I can’t really tell) covered with fabric, with a handle made from a fabric strap covered in a rubber grip, metal clasps for the carrying strap, with the locking mechanism attached to the side of the case with screws secured by a plastic backing. The strap itself is made with a fairly nice, smooth material, and includes a shoulder pad. The top of the case features a design of raised geometric shapes that reminds me of the sort of design they use for fake “alien language writing” in some sci-fi movies. Odd, but whatever. The case is closed by a dual-slider zipper, with this red zipper and the one on the inside cover pocket being the only color on the case, with the rest of the item being black.

On the inside of the case, the top cover has a mesh pocked with a second zipper, and attached near the hinge of the case is a fabric page with elastic pockets for seven rows of three Nintendo Switch game cartridges (21 total). The mesh pocket itself is roomy enough to fit some game cables, spare batteries for controllers, or even a few game cases if you so desire, but it’s not big enough to fit any extra controllers unless it’s something small like Joy-Cons, a Nintendo Switch Online NES or SNES game controller, or and 8BitDo SN30 Pro game controller. The page for the came cards does the job fairly well, though I will note that the pockets being made from a stretchy fabric instead of a mesh or clear plastic means that there’s no way to see what the cartridges are without pulling them out to inspect them, which is inconvenient.

The bottom half of the case includes a removable molded foam insert with pockets to fit the bigger items that will be going into the case, with slots to fit a Nintendo Switch with two Joy-Cons attached, a Joy-Con Grip with two Joy-Cons attached, a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, a Nintendo Switch Dock, a Nintendo Switch AC Adapter, and a pair of Joy-Con straps. I should note that most of these slots are very clearly designed with that specific item in mind, and will not fit anything else – the slot for the Joy-Con grip did not fit a third-party Joy-Con grip I have, nor would it fit a Pro Controller. The Pro Controller slow would fit a Joy-Con grip, and also worked with an SN30 Pro+, but wouldn’t fit some other Pro-style controllers I have. I should mention however that the slot for the AC adapter is overly large, with room to fit not only the AC adapter’s cable, but also possibly some other small item as well. And for those using the new Genki Covert Dock who don’t need to bring a regular Nintendo Switch Dock along with them, you’ll find that this space is sufficient enough to fit a GameCube controller adapter and a Nintendo Switch AC adapter plus their cables.

Okay, so what is there not room for in this case that you might want to bring with you on a trip? Well, for starters, if your Nintendo Switch has any sort of hard case surrounding it, don’t expect it to fit in this case. Additionally, because the slots in the foam are designed to snugly fit around Nintendo’s first-party controllers, expect it to be rolling the dice as to whether a third-party controller will fit in here. As I’ve said, I found some of the spaces here to be sufficient to fir some of my other controllers, but not all. Perhaps most disappointingly, those looking to transport their Nintendo Switch for use in a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament will find that there’s nowhere in this case that will fit a GameCube controller.

As I touched on briefly, the side of this case has a locking mechanism with both a combination lock and TSA key access. Despite the description on the Amazon page, this is a 3-digit lock, not 4-digit, meaning it shouldn’t be terribly difficult to brute force it open within about twenty minutes. However, this is the least of its problems. Actually locking the mechanism at the start is a bit of an ordeal in itself, as doing so requires you to thread a bar through the two zipper sliders at the same time, which can be finicky and difficult to do. What’s more, bypassing this lock would be exceedingly easy for anyone not concerned about breaking the case – it seems as though you can simply force the case open by tugging the zipper sliders off of their tracks. In short, this is not a case to get if you want your Nintendo Switch to remain secure so much as having the appearance of security.

In terms of durability, this case claims to be “drop tested” for up to 1.5 meters (roughly 4’11”), and I tested this out a bit myself, first by dropping the case on its corner from that height, then by throwing the case to the ground on its corner as if I was a child having a tantrum (er… but in a professional manner). The first test didn’t cause any sort of damage to the case, and the second one resulted in a small dent on the exterior, without any noticeable deformation on the outside. Given that the case never claimed to protect its contents from a man-child tantrum, this seemed pretty good, although I will note that I did not perform these tests with my Nintendo Switch inside the thing, because I’m not an idiot. However, judging by the fact that the Nintendo Switch seems to be secured in the case by padding not on its screen but to either side, I’d wager that this case should do a good job protecting its contents from an accidental tumble.

I should note that this case may not hold up so well against crushing, since the items placed in the foam slots stick up a bit out of the top, so any significant pressure or impact to that side could potentially damage these items. Again, this seems to be about as good as one could expect from this sort of case – I don’t really see any alternatives that look likely to do better in this regard. Just remember, this thing is designed to survive a tumble, not a hurricane, a bear attack, or being used as a step-stool.

This case is also advertised as being weather-resistant, and I tested this claim as well. – I put it under the faucet for ten seconds or so to see how it fared. Is it weather-resistant? Sure. Waterproof? No. I will commend this case on holding out against a deluge of water, some dampness was able to seep through the top of the case and the zipper, although perhaps not as much as you might suspect. Again, I realize I’m going beyond what this case claims to be able to take, and with that in mind, it fares pretty well. If you’re carrying this case through a rainstorm, its contents will probably remain perfectly dry, but don’t set it down in a puddle, and absolutely don’t drop it into your pool.

One other point deserving mention – this case comes packed with a Glass Screen Pro tempered glass screen protector for the Nintendo Switch. I already have a similar protector on my Nintendo Switch, so I wasn’t really able to make use of this one, but in my experience these screen protectors are fairly standard and interchangeable. I will say that if you do not already have a protector like this for your Nintendo Switch, I strongly recommend that you get one, because the last thing you want is your $300 console to get ruined by a cracked screen.

Okay, so when all’s said and done, how does the Magictodoor Locking Carry Case for Nintendo Switch stack up? On the bright side, it’s reasonably sturdy with protection that seems to be about as good as one could hope for when it comes to this sort of carrying case for the Nintendo Switch. There’s a good amount of space for your stuff, with plenty of room for all of the essentials, it packages them in a way that protects them pretty well, with a construction that consists of materials that seem to be in pretty high quality, and the inclusion of the tempered glass protection screen for the Nintendo Switch is also nice. On the other hand, the locking mechanism is inconvenient to use and easy to bypass, the inability to see what games are in the Game Card holders is frustrating, and the lack of any place in the thing to store a GameCube controller is disappointing. Overall, for a large case with a price tag just over $30, this is a pretty decent package, although it definitely has room for improvement.

tl;dr – Magictodoor has put together a pretty decent, sturdy, large-size carrying case for the original model Nintendo Switch, although it’s not without its flaws – the locking mechanism is difficult to use and easily bypassed, the game card holders hide what games are stored in them, and despite all the stuff this case can carry, it won’t let you carry a GameCube controller or some third-party game controllers. It’s still overall a good case, but there are definitely areas where it could be improved on.

Grade: B-

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