Rumors have been flying for some time about Nintendo's long-awaited successor to the Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo Switch 2. While the Mario Maker has promised to announce new hardware by the end of the fiscal year in March 2025, exactly how the Switch successor will evolve from the original is still a matter of speculation.
Thankfully, leaky informants have been providing a steady stream of new rumors, painting a fairly clear picture of the upgrades to be expected in Switch 2. We at Tom's Guide love the original Nintendo Switch, but eight years after its release, it is starting to show its age.
As such, we've compiled a list of the biggest upgrades rumored to be coming to Nintendo's next-generation console, and from improved Joy-Cons to better storage, it looks like the Big N has a lot in store for the Switch 2.
In recent weeks, several legitimate leaks about the final design of the Nintendo Switch 2 have surfaced, depicting a larger, taller console while keeping the same thickness as the Nintendo Switch OLED. Most recently, device skin and customization company Dbrand released a 360-degree mockup of the “Killswitch 2” case for the new system, giving the best look yet at the Switch 2's dimensions.
Based on the case, the Switch 2 measures 270 x 116 x 14 mm. This is a bit chunkier than the OLED's 242 x 102 x 13.9mm, but still relatively small compared to major handheld PCs like Valve's Steam Deck (298x117x49mm) and the Asus ROG Ally (280x111x21.2-32.4mm). The SwitchUp YouTube channel has published a 3D printed mockup of the Switch 2 based on the same information provided by a third-party case manufacturer.
As for other design changes, the Switch 2 is said to upgrade to an 8-inch display from the 6.2-inch and 7-inch screens on the original and OLED models, respectively. Nintendo also appears to have added a second USB-C port on top of the console. In theory, this could indicate that the Switch sequel will support a second screen of some sort. At the very least, it would finally allow for charging in tabletop mode, which blocks the only charging port on the bottom of the console.
The Switch 2, if the rumors prove true, could be Nintendo's most powerful gaming console, with three times the power of the original Switch; leaked information from May indicates that the Switch 2 will have 12 GB of RAM, up from 4 GB for the current model, and will be powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 239 SoC, which is expected to support NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution and Ray Reconstruction for significantly sharper visuals than the Switch's capabilities.
However, recent leaks suggest that the Switch 2 may not be as next-gen as we had hoped: a leaked spec sheet for the Switch 2 shows an 8-core Cortex-A78AE processor, 10 streaming multiprocessors (SM), 8GB of RAM, and just 64GB of eMMC storage. While this is a significant upgrade over the current Switch model, it will still be inferior to other current game consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X. A larger screen may also be a downgrade, and a recent VGC report states that the Switch 2 will stick with LCD panels rather than OLED panels to keep costs down.
At one point there were rumors floating around that the Switch 2's dock would include a co-processor to improve performance when the console is docked for play, but we have not heard much about that in recent months. The same goes for rumors of the Switch 2 supporting 4K gaming while docked.
The original Switch launched in 2017 with just 32 GB of storage, but Nintendo doubled that to 64 GB in 2021 with the Switch OLED. Despite improvements, modern games are notorious for their huge file sizes, and while the Switch's best games are small compared to new releases on rival consoles, they still don't have a ton of space to work with.
Thankfully, Nintendo seems ready to preempt this problem with its next console; the Switch 2 is said to have 512GB of onboard storage, enough to store all your games without having to juggle files between the console and the cloud There is.
Nintendo has confirmed few details about the Switch 2, but one thing is known for sure. Mario Maker announced at its November investor presentation that the Switch successor will be backward compatible with existing Switch software.
When the Switch launched, it did not support Wii U games for obvious reasons. However, given that the Wii U was backward compatible with its predecessor, the Wii, it was likely that Nintendo would do the same with the Switch 2 and Switch. Still, the official confirmation is good news for Switch users, who have built up a vast game library over the console's eight-year lifecycle. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa also suggested that users will be able to transfer their existing Nintendo accounts between consoles, making for a smoother transition.
Nintendo's console makeover appears to extend to the Joy-Con controllers themselves. According to leaked mockups, the Switch 2's Joy-Con will be rounded and larger, making it more comfortable to hold for extended periods of time.
Other rumored upgrades include redesigned SR and SL buttons, an auxiliary button on the right controller, different LED placement, and most interestingly, a magnetic component connecting the controller to the Switch 2. This is a major change from the rail system used in the original Switch.
The downside is that the Joy-Con will likely not be compatible with the Switch 2. This is an unfortunate development, given that backup Joy-Cons are expensive. It is also unclear how this will affect certain Switch accessories like the Ring Fit Adventure and external controllers.
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