Is a new Switch model going to be announced this year after all?
It feels like people have been talking about a Switch Pro/Switch Advance, Super Switch, SWITCH+ since the day the Switch launched, exactly four years ago. Every few months, a new report comes out that seemingly proves that a new console is on the way, whether it’s in 2018, or 2019, or DEFINITELY in 2020, and now ABSOLUTELY in 2021.
We don’t know what Nintendo has planned — no one but Nintendo and a few of their production partners do — but here we are, again, discussing an upgraded Switch.
The latest news comes from Bloomberg, which cites sources familiar with the product, that states the upgraded Nintendo Switch will have a 7″ OLED screen (the current Switch is a 6.2″ LCD, while the Lits has a 5.5″ LCD). The screen resolution would remain at 720p, but the contrast, brightness, color and sharpness would be improved, allowing for things like more legible text, for example. The thought process is that bumping that up more than 720p would lead to diminishing results and unnecessarily drain battery life. The OLED panels are said to be manufactured by Samsung.
It’s unknown if the Switch itself would be changing in size, as Nintendo has sold a bajillion Joy-Cons to consumers and creating a new line could complicate and frustrate end users. More likely, the screen would grow within the Switch, thinning the bezel (the plastic around it) by about 1/8 of an inch around it.
More interestingly enough, however, is that the Switch’s dock would be improved, and capable enough to now output 4K. This would help with making the visuals look a lot better on modern TV sets, but the gap between the handheld and the docked visuals grows, potentially creating more work for developers who now need to accomplish more optimization for the undocked screen. There’s no word on if the brains/GPU will be upgraded to compensate for the upgrades, but theoretically it would seem like that would happen.
The report also states that production on the panels is set to begin in June, with a ramp up to produce 1 million new Switches per year. The console would then be announced later this year for sale in the 2021 holiday season, to better take on the Xbox Series and PS5.
Our own sources have corroborated on similar notes, with the possibility that the dock would potentially have more computational power inside of it to alleviate the draw on the Switch itself. This would help the company release the Breath of the Wild sequel to comparative visuals on handheld modes, but much improved visuals when docked. This is why we at SideQuesting have been referring to it as a Switch+ and not a Pro, as it’s seemingly not the type of an upgrade that necessarily adds an additional SKU but a direct replacement for the current OG Switch. The Switch Lite would remain as-is.
Again, this is all rumor and speculation, as this dance has been going on for a few years already. But who knows, MAYBE THIS TIME IT’S FOR REAL, GUYS.
Source: Bloomberg
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