OLED Nintendo Switch Announced

https://www.nintendo.com/switch/oled-model/

$349 for an OLED screen and better audio is a bit of a bummer for me, as I don't think this is enough to convince me to upgrade.

Edit: I guess the stand was redesigned, a LAN port was added to the dock, and you also get 64gb internal memory.

Considering all the Switch Pro remours, this is an interesting announcement.

I'm guessing a Switch Pro will be next year then, to coincide with BotW 2 -- I wonder if they were also afraid of an Xbox/PS5 style situation, where it may be better for them to produce and stockpile a whole bunch of Switch Pro's before they release them, to avoid the ridiculous situation of not being able to the new version in stores more than half a year after release.

A half-step upgrade on a Nintendo platform sounds like a fuckin' trap.

Yep considering I a) rarely play Switch undocked, b) rarely play Switch online, and c) already have a hefty MicroSD card in my Switch, this seems like a hard pass for me. I guess good for those who don’t fall into that camp. But looks like for any actual performance improvements (like, oh, I don’t know, their flagship game BotW running at a decent / consistent frame rate) we’ll have to wait for the official Switch successor.

One less purchase to budget for :)

When I initially saw this announcement I was pissed, lol. I JUST bought the Monster Hunter Rise special edition Switch (for a premium, fucking scalpers!). But once I saw that all the improvements where basically for hand held mode, which I hardly play in, I was relieved. This will be GREAT for people that play in hand held mode mostly though.

And there I was, dreading having to buy a potentially essential upgrade... I'm somewhere between disappointment and relief.

I commute a lot, so I would actually benefit from that OLED screen. But not for 350 bucks.

On the one hand, I was disappointed that this upgrade provides no features that I care about (I'm mainly a docked player, already expanded the memory with a SD card, and already bought the wired adapter). On the other hand, I no longer feel compelled to spend 350 dollars on a thing that I barely need and wouldn't be able to find anyway.

Typical revision money grab from Nintendo.

While I don't need it, this is actually well done on their part.

I'm sure there's a lot of people who wanted a switch last year but couldn't get one. Now they can get an upgraded one for a $50 difference.

For anyone that already has a switch, or doesn't use it in handheld mode(me) there is likely no need for this model. But anyone in the market for one or who uses it almost exclusively hand held its nice.

I expect an actual hardware revision to happen 2 or 3 years down the road.

They fixed the kickstand Bakalar!

No interest in buying it, I haven't played my Switch since Animal Crossing came out last year and that only held my attention for a few weeks.

No performance bump, no purchase from me then.

The chip inside these things is absolutely ancient at this point. The OG Switch should have come down to $250 and this one at $300.

This is a really, really hard sell for me given the meager improvements.

The OLED and the MS Surface style kickstand are decent hardware revisions, but it's definitely not enough to justify a new purchase for anyone with a current Switch.

Interesting announcement because a lot of the features in the OLED Switch are geared towards undocked players.

7" OLED screen - Great for commuters, but unnecessary esp for me where I play docked most of the time. (Although I admit undocked was kind of a lifesaver when I didn't have a TV for a few months.)

64 GB internal memory - A meager upgrade from the original 32 GB. If you're obsessed with loading times now you can install more games on internal memory to have slightly faster loading times.

Better speakers - Doesn't make sense for commuting, mostly suited for home/hotel use.

Better kickstand - Even with the improvement, I could barely think of a place to use this thing. Maybe on a regional train or airplane.

Ethernet in the dock - Not a hardcore Splatoon or Smash player. Also file sizes on Switch games are relatively small compared to XBox and Playstation games so don't mind the slower downloads on WiFi.

Silver skin for joy cons - Looks like a similar color scheme to a PS5 or Macbook Pro. It makes the Switch look more classy compared to the Black or Neon/Blue joycons. It is purely for aesthetic purposes which I don't really care about.

Is that the same resolution?

Bigger display with lower pixel density is going to be a look. OLED should make colors more vibrant but not sure how much that matters at the 720 range. And curious how much that hurts battery life

Ah well. I more or less figured out I am done with the switch over lockdown (really right before). Maybe if it had a better processor and could actually play hyrule warriors 2 at decent framerates but... yeah.

After all these years of speculation, this is what we get huh? I was hoping the screen would extend out even farther so that there was hardly any black margin around it all like an iPhone. Maybe if I saw them side-by-side I'd appreciate the difference in the screen. I'd say I was a bit disappointed, but then, I had no real intention of getting an upgrade anyway as I'm pretty happy with my current Switch.

The console looks so beautiful and I hope it can run on 4K resolution!

It looks nice, but as many others have already said here, it's not tempting me to "upgrade" from my launch model, which is kind of a relief tbh! Means I can put that money towards a new gpu (whenever they become available for a reasonable price, that is)

People are saying this is great for commuters/people who play a lot in handheld mode, but wasn't the Switch Lite made for them? If you're lugging a Switch around with you on the way to work or w/e, were you really asking for a bigger console with better speakers?

I'm sure this is great for some people, but it seems like an incredibly weird move to me.

Big womp womp sound.

@mindbullet: The switch lite is still a completely insane purchase considering the joycon stick issues. Rather than having to RMA a joycon or just spend another 70 (?) bucks every year you would need to RMA an entire console with no guarantee you get your data or saves back because Nintendo.

Also, looked it up: Same resolution so yeah, will be curious how this actually looks. I know with a lot of the handheld PCs there were issues like that but a lot of that ALSO boils down to win10 not being 720p friendly.

There is no reason for anyone with a functioning switch to buy one of these. 50 bucks more for a bigger better screen, and that’s effectively it. They won’t learn a lesson unless we don’t reward their hubris with money. They didn’t even fix the joy-cons. DONT BUY THIS.

To reiterate here: NO 4K,NO upgraded SOC, NO fixed Joy-cons, just a larger much improved screen speakers and internal memory. And there charging 50 dollars more for it. PLEASE DONT BUY THIS

@krelmoon: Ironically, the switch is a shoddy enough design that there ARE reasons to grab it

Odds are by now anyone who has used theirs in handheld mod extensively has damaged rails (joycons sometimes lose connection) and a degraded battery. I actually did a trade in for the last refresh SKU for that reason. Was like 50 bucks to get new joycons, fix my rail, and fix my battery life. Haven't used said revision as extensively but imagine it is in the same mess.

Which sort of gets to what Jeff Grubb was saying about how nintendo uses their fans to subsidize things. The Real Fans will buy the latest nintendo seal of approval thing and then either trade in their old units or give it to a friend. Which is insane to me but also... it is their model.

I don't see any issues for those who still own the function Nintendo Switch vanilla model and wanting to purchase the Switch OLED model because, in this world, everybody wants to collect whatever gaming products on what they want.

As another person who doesn't ever play his Switch in handheld mode I'm excited not to be tempted to buy this thing. At this point I use my Switch to play a handful of games every year; some Nintendo first party and some indies, and am fine with that. I don't play it enough to really want to buy a new system, and I'm glad that whatever comes out for it won't run even worse than the current games do because it's targeting a new, faster, model. I mean if Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity already runs like it does on the Switch, imagine how Hyrule Warriors 3 would run on the base model Switch if there was a true Switch Pro. We might see actual single digit frame rates.

Not that it's really needed...

I’ll probably just get a razor Kishi or Backbone and use my iPhone and Gamepass to game. Or use stadia since they let you stream games (forever?) that you own.

Does anybody know data usage numbers. I’m on 5G and will probably play the occasional beat’em up or game like Minecraft Dungeons?

With Nintendo this move makes since. The scalpers will flip these for months. Then there will be a special edition that gets flipped next. Gaming needs to sort out their supply chain to their loyal customers that have/had active accounts (haven’t played my Xbox One in 6 months because of bitterness over console availability) I could probably get away with gaming on all the previous gen consoles and my iPhone exclusively out of spite. And I can be a spiteful SOB.

So glad we FINALLY have clarification. Now all these nonsense rumors can die and I can look forward to new games without every other comment being "Not buying, waiting for Switch Pro!"

It helps that I never thought the original Switch needed an upgrade in the first place.

With the no upgraded internals, Nintendo maybe finally realized that splitting their user base (and development base) would be a stupid idea at this point in the cycle. Switch has been out 4 years. I would say they could keep going on this hardware for another year or two and put out its successor and not bother with a half-step like a PS4 Pro. I mean, they keep making money hand over fist with this thing and the new one is even $50 more. At this point in a cycle, we normally are taking about price cuts, not new more expensive models.

Nintendo has never been about graphics or raw power for their hardware or games. But eventually devs are going to start demanding more powerful hardware. Not that they are trying to put out new blockbuster, AAA games on the Switch, but it does become a bottleneck to innovation when you are developing for tech that was already outdated when it was released 4 years ago. It's like when the Atari 2600 was still getting games put out for it well into the late 80s. Like, yeah there's a huge install base of systems, but a lot of people want to move on to something better.

@nicksmi56: For better or worse, the OLED Switch releasing now doesn't necessarily mean the Switch Pro isn't also releasing fairly soon.

Based on the information, it is pretty much a Switch Pro as advertized. You get the OLED screen which will look better than the VA panel used on the original Switch, and improved audio. But just like those whom owned an original PS4, there really isn't much of a reason to upgrade to the PS4Pro, unless you're the type of person who must have the latest in tech and are willing to pay the premium for it. However, the PS4Pro did give the consumer more of an upgrade than the SwitchPro. I myself, will likely stick to my original Switch. I'm actually glad for this, because I really believed I had to upgrade after owning my switch for nearly 2 years and feeling kind of cheated. Now it really doesn't matter. BOTW 2, Metroid 4, and Bey 3 will pretty much run the same, the Pro will just have a prettier screen. Once again, Nintendo doesn't go all out on its tech. And why should they? They know their audience and know it will still sell a ton.

@mindbullet: People have been pushing this nonsense since the day the Switch hit the shelves.

If it does exist, great (as long as we don't have the PS4 Pro problem of games running like trash on the original model). But until we get an actual announcement and not just people's fantasy hopes and dreams, people need to let it go already.

The Switch is fine as it is. Want a more powerful console? Go buy one and leave those of us who are satisfied alone.

@timoneous: Devs go where the users are buying games. AAA publishers aren't really interested in innovating (more graphical fidelity is not innovation) and smaller devs often aren't even pushing the Switch's hardware to begin with. At this point it's much more about what users are willing to accept than devs wanting to push the tech forward.

So far the Switch is still selling and people are still buying games for it, so there's no reason to move on. Developers also get a massive advantage from the underpowered hardware because it's much cheaper to develop for. You can't compare it to the Atari 2600 because most gamers moved on when the NES arrived. A better comparison is the 3DS. By the end of the 3DS lifecycle it was massively underpowered compared to the consoles of the time, and even the Vita completely wiped the floor with it in terms of power. But developers were happy to keep making games for it because users were buying them and they were cheap to develop. You didn't see some massive developer backlash against the 3DS, and even when the New 3DS came out most developers continued targeting the base version because they cared more about customer bases than pushing the hardware.

The Switch is not just a handheld but it is currently the only dedicated handheld on the market, and as long as people keep buying games for it developers will be more than happy to keep churning out new software for it, whatever shape that takes. Age of Calamity is the best selling Warriors game of all time. Trust me that Koei Tecmo isn't thinking "man I wish the Switch were more powerful so we could actually realize our full vision instead of this framey slowdown riddled mess." They're thinking "We're making so many yen right now! Let's crank out some DLC and talk to Nintendo about when they'll let us put out the next sequel!"

My thoughts summarized in 5 seconds:

@av_gamer: Not really

This is closer to the silent refresh SKUs consoles (including the switch) have over their life time. The better display (that may have a lot of issues if nothing else changed) is a bit different but didn't the Vita have like six different displays? But it was still the same device under that. Maybe you got better power consumption or slightly faster loading because they used newer stuff but it was nothing special.

The PS4 Pro (or even New 3DS) was different because it was actually significantly improved hardware. How well that was utilized is very much up for debate but there were already PS4 games where reviews strongly discouraged playing on a base PS4 (I want to say Control is one of them?) and I think there were even one or two "new 3ds only" games?

Whether you think the switch needed a power boost is up for debate (I very much lean toward it needing one when a launch game from the wii u ran like shit...). But this is nothing like the mid-gen update SKUs that have become the norm.

As much as I wanted a new SOC for potentially better frame rates, I'm glad that I don't have to buy new hardware just to end up not using it as often as I'd want to.

More like quarter of an inch.

I wonder if people being stuck inside during lockdown has effected their decisions at all. Something like "Well, if people are stuck inside, should we really go all out on making a supped up handheld right now"? I wonder if these are just the parts they can get their hands on now, at a price they like, and something with better chips comes later, when those chips become more available, and as more and more people start to leave the house.

Is there no official word that they're going to phase out the existing model of the Switch in favour of this one? Because yeah, this OLED version isn't a new iteration like a DSi or *New* 3DS. It seems to be a minor hardware revision like the Switch already had, or like the Vita had a zillion of. It doesn't even seem worth marketing it as a separate product from the regular Switch, but I guess the marketing department disagrees.

I guess the costs are what they are, but launching this OLED Switch at higher than existing Switch MSRP seems nuts. The internal hardware is getting outdated by 2021 standards, but I could at least forgive the pricepoint of the original model because that was set when it first released. Adding a new Switch model with the same old chipset at $50 higher MSRP is a bit of a steep ask, even if the screen/internal storage/network port situation is slightly improved.

I feel like most of these improvements are only related to handheld mode only though. I agree though that I bet chip shortages may have impacted what this is

@bisonhero: The official trailer shows 3 machines (Switch Lite, Switch, Switch OLED) all together so it seems like they're keeping the old model around. It would make sense for them to cut the price $50 or something but it's Nintendo so they won't.

This is a weird thing even for them.

Whatever it takes for the base Switch to get a fucking price drop, this shit is ridiculous.

I hope the older Switch will go on sale now. I will just get that instead.

Well...as long as Metroid Dread runs good on the current model, which is maybe the only Switch game I'm interested in for the rest of 2021, I don't need a Super Switch. I also don't need this model, since my Switch is almost always docked, so...money that I might've spent on a new, beefy model...saved for now, I guess?

Look most Switch owners are exciting to play gba enhanced games like Advance Wars and a Metroid Fusion sequel. They don't need a high tech console

We know Nintendo are perfectly happy to delay new hardware as long as the old one is still selling. Also, COVID-19 has probably significantly delayed whatever launch lineup they are planning for the followup device.

I wonder how long they'll keep the base Switch model around for. My own guess is that it won't remain in the lineup past Christmas.

Reading online at all the heart broken people who are describing emotions akin to nintendo shooting their dog is pretty hilarious. How are people disappointed in a company that didn't promise anything in the first place? Guess I got something to entertain myself with during the rest of my shift today.

I haven't seen it stated anywhere, but will the original dock also work with the new Switch?