Nintendo Nintendo Switch (OLED Model) announced, launching October 8th (MSRP $349.99), update: reviews are being released

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Let's check-in with ResetERA to see how they're handling this development.  I have little doubt that it's being discussed in a calm, rational...

 

(looks at 59 page-long thread)

 

So much for that notion!

[Dre801]

Thr tone of that  resetERA thread went from "Woohoo" to "WTF" quickly 

[Brick]

People are going to kill Jason Schrier for this lol

[Keyser_Soze]

 

[TwinIon]

 

 

[Mr.Vic20]

Womp, womp, wooooooomp! 

[stepee]

lol it’s just annoying since they are the only handheld game in town and they are so damn slow with tech. What’s weird is they used to do spec bumps at least on handhelds but now that everyone is is doing a spec refresh they aren’t.

 

Normally it would be whatever at this point because I’d expect a successor in 1-2 years but idk how long they plan to keep running in this tablet now. I guess, this might make it seem more likely for a 22/23 switch 2 at least.

[Keyser_Soze]

6 minutes ago, stepee said:

lol it’s just annoying since they are the only handheld game in town and they are so damn slow with tech. What’s weird is they used to do spec bumps at least on handhelds but now that everyone is is doing a spec refresh they aren’t.

 

Normally it would be whatever at this point because I’d expect a successor in 1-2 years but idk how long they plan to keep running in this tablet now. I guess, this might make it seem more likely for a 22/23 switch 2 at least.

 

[ShreddieMercury]

The whole thing is hilarious because the cycle is: 1. Nintendo reveals nothing and communicates nothing about their plans; 2. Fans on the internet begin speculating; 3. Nintendo continues to say nothing; 3. Fan speculation continues, unabated by Nintendo's lack of communication and well-known history of product revisions; 4. Nintendo announces something and fans absolutely meltdown because it doesn't match their own wild speculation.

 

I must have read about 10 possible configurations for what a "Switch Pro" could be, and all of them don't make any sense based on Nintendo's priorities for hardware and their history of releases.

[stepee]

I have to give them credit though, they had to try really hard to make this something I don’t even want to bother buying. This does absolutely NOTHING for me. Even like a $250 oled lite with a better battery life maybe, but I already switched to the lite for it being more comfortable and all I get is a larger screen to make the 540p up scaled res most stuff runs at now look even worse. 

 

We didn’t need a new screen, we needed power to fill the pixels of the current screen.

 

This was going to be my second half of the year tech toy but now I’d rather just trade in my X and buy a XSX for my room for that price so maybe I’ll do that this holiday instead.

[imthesoldier]

13 minutes ago, stepee said:

lol it’s just annoying since they are the only handheld game in town and they are so damn slow with tech. What’s weird is they used to do spec bumps at least on handhelds but now that everyone is is doing a spec refresh they aren’t.

 

Normally it would be whatever at this point because I’d expect a successor in 1-2 years but idk how long they plan to keep running in this tablet now. I guess, this might make it seem more likely for a 22/23 switch 2 at least.

 

I'm more of the belief that Nintendo realizes how successful the Switch is, and would rather spend the R&D on a next-gen Switch rather than a spec-bump mid-gen upgrade, and ride out the remainder of the system's life. And sure, history has shown with the likes of the GB Color, DSi, and New 3DS that Nintendo has done refreshes that now Sony, and Microsoft do. But I would wager given the Hybrid nature of the system, it makes less of a case. Not to mention history has also shown when Nintendo does do a spec-bump, they do segregate their install base with exclusive titles that only work on the beefier system.

 

I think Nintendo this time around did not want to do that, and thus figured it was a better use of their resources to refine the current Switch with updated screen, improved stand, LAN port for dock, bump in audio, and whatever else. It's not much, and while I, personally consider this to be an unworthy upgrade, Nintendo will sell millions of these. And for those who have waited this long to get a Switch, I think they'll be happy. I mean, OG Vita folks tend to praise the OLED screen on it, so maybe there's something to this new fangled "OLED" tech?

 

I'm also curious how the new OLED screen will look, especially on something like BOTW.

 

Hell, Nintendo could easily patch in a "Pro" version of the Switch by maxing out the clockspeeds if they really wanted to. There's your Switch Pro.

[Brick]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

 

People on Ars Technica are speculating that since this hit basically all the other checkboxes people were thinking, that this was originally going to have a better chip but then didn't because of the chip shortages.

 

That would suck if that's the case, but I also think the likely possibility is simply that Nintendo does not care about power. Even the DSi and 3DS XL were only marginally more powerful, really just to make download speeds and online a bit faster, nothing really to speak of the way the One X or PS4 Pro were nice bumps up in power to get higher frames or resolutions. I knew a Switch Pro just didn't seem like something Nintendo would do, even if yeah I had hoped for one. 

 

Nintendo does not care about power, and they haven't for the last decade and a half. People need to just come to terms with that. The more powerful Switch will come when it's true successor is out, and is hopefully backwards compatible and can bump up performance of the older games. 

[Keyser_Soze]

11 minutes ago, imthesoldier said:

I'm also curious how the new OLED screen will look, especially on something like BOTW.

 

The screen will look great. The game, not so much.

[imthesoldier]

2 minutes ago, Brick said:

 

That would suck if that's the case, but I also think the likely possibility is simply that Nintendo does not care about power. Even the DSi and 3DS XL were only marginally more powerful, really just to make download speeds and online a bit faster, nothing really to speak of the way the One X or PS4 Pro were nice bumps up in power to get higher frames or resolutions. I knew a Switch Pro just didn't seem like something Nintendo would do, even if yeah I had hoped for one. 

 

Nintendo does not care about power, and they haven't for the last decade and a half. People need to just come to terms with that. The more powerful Switch will come when it's true successor is out, and is hopefully backwards compatible and can bump up performance of the older games. 

 

My thinking is the next-gen Switch will have at least PS4 to PS4 Pro-like power, and Backwards compatibility with all Switch 1 titles. And given what is known about the current Tegra Xavier chip, that's not out of the realm of possibility. I doubt Tegra Orin would be used as it's too new, and likely too expensive. Provided Nintendo continues the Hybrid approach with the Switch line of systems, don't expect 1:1 parity with what Sony, and Microsoft do, which I'm sure most people these days are already aware of that.

 

Realistically, if Nintendo continues to use nVidia, it stands to reason DLSS will be featured, and thus, resolution will become less of a concern, especially after the new recent 2.2 Update. We'll see I guess.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

67 pages

[stepee]

24 minutes ago, imthesoldier said:

 

I'm more of the belief that Nintendo realizes how successful the Switch is, and would rather spend the R&D on a next-gen Switch rather than a spec-bump mid-gen upgrade, and ride out the remainder of the system's life. And sure, history has shown with the likes of the GB Color, DSi, and New 3DS that Nintendo has done refreshes that now Sony, and Microsoft do. But I would wager given the Hybrid nature of the system, it makes less of a case. Not to mention history has also shown when Nintendo does do a spec-bump, they do segregate their install base with exclusive titles that only work on the beefier system.

 

I think Nintendo this time around did not want to do that, and thus figured it was a better use of their resources to refine the current Switch with updated screen, improved stand, LAN port for dock, bump in audio, and whatever else. It's not much, and while I, personally consider this to be an unworthy upgrade, Nintendo will sell millions of these. And for those who have waited this long to get a Switch, I think they'll be happy. I mean, OG Vita folks tend to praise the OLED screen on it, so maybe there's something to this new fangled "OLED" tech?

 

I'm also curious how the new OLED screen will look, especially on something like BOTW.

 

Hell, Nintendo could easily patch in a "Pro" version of the Switch by maxing out the clockspeeds if they really wanted to. There's your Switch Pro.

 

Yeah, I get it and there is no reason Nintendo actually needs to release an upgraded switch right now, but I want my fucking new faster toy damnit!

[imthesoldier]

11 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

Yeah, I get it and there is no reason Nintendo actually needs to release an upgraded switch right now, but I want my fucking new faster toy damnit!

 

Couldn't agree more. I also haven't really upgraded my PC since 2014, minus a ram upgrade recently. Still rockin' a GTX 770 (...and an AMD FX 8320 baby). I want a fricking 3060 Ti, Damn it!

[GameDadGrant]

The salt in this thread is delicious.

[chakoo]

 

I should quote myself from the other thread.

[Brian]

 

*actual image from my Switch 

[Brick]

1 hour ago, imthesoldier said:

history has shown with the likes of the GB Color, DSi, and New 3DS that Nintendo has done refreshes

 

Small correction here, but the Game Boy Color was not a refresh; it wasn't simply a Game Boy with a coloured screen, it was a next generation successor to the Game Boy. A lot of people seem to have this misconception.

[chakoo]

12 minutes ago, ManUtdRedDevils said:

 

*actual image from my Switch 

Accurate, I've been playing Ys 8 on my switch in portable mode and it keeps doing that every cutscene. It's maddening because it causes the image to keep shifting around. 

[Brian]

Just now, chakoo said:

Accurate, I've been playing Ys 8 on my switch in portable mode and it keeps doing that every cutscene. It's maddening because it causes the image to keep shifting around. 

Happens time from time playing Mario Golf in handheld mode. It’s fucking golf. My dumb Mii isn’t even moving.  The first couple of times, I thought I was having a seizure. 

[Reputator]

1 hour ago, ShreddieMercuryRising said:

The whole thing is hilarious because the cycle is: 1. Nintendo reveals nothing and communicates nothing about their plans; 2. Fans on the internet begin speculating; 3. Nintendo continues to say nothing; 3. Fan speculation continues, unabated by Nintendo's lack of communication and well-known history of product revisions; 4. Nintendo announces something and fans absolutely meltdown because it doesn't match their own wild speculation.

 

I must have read about 10 possible configurations for what a "Switch Pro" could be, and all of them don't make any sense based on Nintendo's priorities for hardware and their history of releases.

 

 

[Dodger]

It does look sweet, I’ll give them that.

[stepee]

I mean yeah people believe rumors and set expectations but my disappointment comes from this just existing and obviously showing they do not plan a spec update in the next year.

 

It’s not that I set expectations based on the rumors, it’s I set my expectations based on tech progress, how the system is able to keep up with running games, and how long it’s been out. Like if it’s another 3 years for the big upgrade, that’s just too damn long having no major improvement in the handheld gaming space.

 

Really don’t need hype and rumors to disappoint me here.

 

All I wanted from them was a bump to allow actual 720p/30, tried to set my sights super low for the new model, but getting pretty much nothing sucks.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

I hope people like the HUD for BOTW2, they’re gonna be seeing on every game. 

[Paperclyp]

I will purchase if I can find.

[imthesoldier]

1 hour ago, Brick said:

 

Small correction here, but the Game Boy Color was not a refresh; it wasn't simply a Game Boy with a coloured screen, it was a next generation successor to the Game Boy. A lot of people seem to have this misconception.

 

I see your point, although I think it could be argued we're both kind of right. While it's certainly true that by the time the Game Boy Color had launched in 1998, it was already 9 years since the release of the original GB in 1989. That said, the Game Boy Color still used an 8-Bit processor much as its previous iteration had done, albeit with more powerful hardware for sure. Mind you, the GBC CPU was the same exact processor as the GB one, but with double the Mhz. Memory was doubled in VRAM, and quadrupled in normal RAM. Even the screen's resolution was the exact same. Truth be told, by this logic, the Nintendo Wii is a mid-gen refresh to the Nintendo Gamecube since they use very similar CPU, and GPU but with higher clocks, and more memory, not counting for the motion controls of course.

 

But like you said, it was a Game Boy with a Color screen, which is still a huge improvement over OG Game Boy. But then Nintendo went full bore into 16-bit territory with the GBA, so it felt like a much greater leap compared to GB to GBC, at least that's how I interpret it. And compared to the launch gap between GB, and GBC, GBC to GBA was only 3 years, which is a rather short life span between generations. GBC felt more like a stop gap system as Nintendo went into development with GBA.

 

I think you're still correct, but GBC always felt more of a mid-gen system compared to lets say GBA to DS. Ultimately, I'm also fine calling it a next-gen system in the eyes of what the system could do at the time. Heck, some games even had built-in rumble paks, which I thought was amazing at the time.

 

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

80 pages

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

 

are they intentionally making it look significantly larger than the other switch models? I mean obviously if you analyze the image you can tell it’s the same size, but it could mislead people into thinking it is quite a bit bigger. 

[cusideabelincoln]

I'm glad about this news because I just bought a Switch last year.  The only thing this interests me is the LAN port.

 

3 hours ago, stepee said:

 

Yeah, I get it and there is no reason Nintendo actually needs to release an upgraded switch right now, but I want my fucking new faster toy damnit!

 

Time to throw some money at these emulator devs.

[stepee]

1 minute ago, cusideabelincoln said:

I'm glad about this news because I just bought a Switch last year.  The only thing this interests me is the LAN port.

 

 

Time to throw some money at these emulator devs.

 

Yeah emulation is actually coming along nicely and soon we should be able to use auto hdr as well, but no good portable hardware to run a switch emulator.

[Zaku3]

2 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

Yeah emulation is actually coming along nicely and soon we should be able to use auto hdr as well, but no good portable hardware to run a switch emulator.

 

Can the GPD Win and the like do it?

[Biggie]

I play my OG Switch on a 55' OLED LG TV so ......yeah.......keep that small ass screen