The first Switch was such a hit that Nintendo decided not to mess with a good thing. Instead of releasing a successor that feels like a generational leap or a pivot in a new direction, it’s following up the hugely successful original with the Switch 2 — a welcome upgrade that largely sticks to the formula. It looks about the same, works about the same, and plays most of the same games. It’s the Switch, just better.
Nintendo’s bet is that it doesn’t have to wow people all over again, and so it made a sequel that’s only as good as it needs to be. After spending a week with the new console, I’ve realized that good enough is exactly what the Switch needed.
A refined (and bigger) Nintendo Switch
Fundamentally, the concept of the Switch hasn’t changed. It’s still a tablet with a split controller stuck on either side, with a dock that connects to your television.
But the idea has been refined. The Switch 2 is much bigger, for one thing. It now has a 7.9-inch LCD panel, up from the original’s 6.2 inches, making it great for playing text-heavy games. It also means the entire device has become larger as a result, now weighing in at a comparatively hefty 1.18 pounds with the controllers attached. The larger size hasn’t bothered me, though your mileage may vary. My 12-year-old keeps stealing it to play Pokémon and hasn’t complained. But she’ll do anything for more screentime.
There are some other nice upgrades. Like the most recent OLED model of the original Switch, the Switch 2 has a kickstand that can prop the system up at a wide range of angles, and the updated version feels a little sturdier to me, making it great for playing in tabletop mode. It’s a huge improvement over the original Switch’s flimsy kickstand. The Switch 2 also adds a second USB-C port to the top of the console, which enables you to plug in a webcam for online play. It’s handy for attaching a charger or battery pack whichever way is most convenient, too.
What you get with that larger and heavier device is games that look and run better. The handheld’s screen has a 1920 x 1080 resolution, which supports HDR10 and VRR up to 120Hz. It’s bright and crisp, and games look a lot smoother thanks to the higher refresh rate. But I do miss the more vibrant OLED display of the most recent iteration of the original Switch, which featured deeper blacks and more contrast-y images. The new screen is a huge leap from the original, but it isn’t an all-around improvement if you’ve been using the OLED for a while.
The story is different when connected to your TV: the Switch 2 can finally output at 4K, with support for HDR10. You’ll need to play supported games to really take advantage of this, but it’s immediately noticeable how much crisper everything from text to gameplay is. HDR promises to make games more vibrant, though there doesn’t seem to be a standout game to show this off just yet.
Games are bigger this generation, too. Nintendo has increased the internal storage size to 256GB, but you’ll need to be diligent with how you use it; Cyberpunk 2077, for example, takes up 59GB on its own. Expanding that storage means buying a new and relatively expensive microSD Express card; your old microSD cards won’t work.
More annoying is that the battery life is worse than the original Switch. Nintendo estimates between two and six and a half hours of gameplay on a single charge, and I found my device dying around the lower end of that spectrum, especially when playing more intensive games like Cyberpunk. That’s not a great sign for the future if the Switch 2 continues to get more demanding games.
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