Nintendo Switch 2: What we know (and what we don’t)

It feels like yesterday but the Nintendo Switch announcement was nearly eight years ago (when we first met Antisocial Karen.) Besides the Nintendo Switch Lite and Nintendo Switch OLED, there haven’t been any meaningful hardware upgrades to the hybrid handheld console since it first came out; certainly nothing that would be classified as a next-gen follow-up. 

Before the Switch OLED’s release, rumours about a ‘Nintendo Switch Pro’ ran rife. Back then, a few Switch OLED details were accidentally thrown into the mix with the Switch Pro rumours. However, some of those original Switch Pro rumours, like 4K TV output, still seem likely for what everyone is comfortably calling the Nintendo Switch 2, for now. 

As we creep further towards the end of the year, we move closer towards the one thing we know about the Switch successor, its April 2025 due date. Here’s what we know about the Nintendo Switch 2, what we think we know, and what we’re still not sure about.  

• There is a Switch successor coming
• It will be revealed by April 2025 at the latest

Although there have been the occasional flurry of rumours and leaks, Nintendo has managed to keep most details about the Switch successor under wraps. In fact, at this stage, almost four years after rumours first surfaced, we still only know two things for sure: a Switch successor is coming, and it will be revealed by the end of the first fiscal quarter of 2025 (30 May 2025) at the latest. That much was confirmed in a post on X from the President of Nintendo Shuntaro Furukawa. Though recent whispers claim the reveal has been pushed forward to late 2024 in anticipation of an early 2025 release, this could be wishful thinking.

Recent 3D renders leaked to Twitter (via VGC’s Andy Robinson) gave us our best look so far at what the Switch 2 could be. While Robinson encouraged readers to take these leaks with a “grain of salt,” the hardware boffins over at Digital Foundry have since commented that the hardware leak is “almost certainly real.”

As previously expected, the runaway success of the Nintendo Switch (relatively late in its life cycle,) will likely result in an upgrade to the familiar form factor, rather than a complete overhaul. 

So the Switch 2, as we’re currently calling it, will remain a handheld-TV console hybrid, with detachable controllers for moving between couch-based gaming and handheld gaming. The rumoured upgrades seek to improve both styles of play. Here’s what the leaks currently tell us about the Switch 2. 

First, let’s get the most obvious concern out of the way. It’s almost guaranteed that the Switch 2 will be backwards compatible with Nintendo Switch games. For one, Nintendo Switch games are still selling like hotcakes so it wouldn’t make sense for Nintendo to block early adopters from purchasing and playing Nintendo Switch cartridges. The recent leaks included a handful of specs, which included descriptions of a microSD card slot and a cartridge slot. That lines up with everything that’s been rumoured so far so Switch owners shouldn’t worry too much about losing their library when it comes time to upgrade.  

One of the most widely corroborated leaks about the Nintendo Switch 2 is that it will have a larger 8-inch LCD screen. That might not seem like a huge upgrade but even the jump from 6.2 to 7 inches with the standard Switch and OLED upgrade made a huge difference in reality. The 8-inch display makes it more comparable to the PlayStation Portal than the Steam Deck, which rocks a 7-inch display. Rather than listen to me tell you about the size difference, check out the video below where one creator has printed a 3D model of the Switch 2 based on the leaked CAD designs.

Seeing the leaked design next to the bigger OLED model drives the difference home. 

Speaking of the screen, one of the most frequent and disappointing rumours regarding the Nintendo Switch 2 is that it will launch without an OLED display. That’s mostly disappointing to people who upgraded to the Switch OLED; regular Switch and Switch Lite users won’t miss out on anything. As someone who had to revert to the regular Switch after leaving my Switch OLED on the roof of my car, this one hurts. Hopefully, the extra screen real estate softens the blow of losing OLED. It makes sense, though, as a cost-cutting measure. Given the list of rumoured upgrades, there’s not an outcome where the Nintendo Switch 2 gets an OLED display on top of every other upgrade without it costing a mint. 

I don’t doubt there will be an OLED upgrade eventually– it was, after all, the highest-selling Switch model last year, making up roughly 60% of all Nintendo Switch sales– but I’d believe the rumours that the standard Switch 2 will launch with a backlit LCD. 

Another detail the recent 3D renders support is the existence of magnetic Joy-Cons or at least some sort of magnetic locking mechanism. The rails on either side of the leaked images suggest backward compatibility with old Joy-Cons, but another report from earlier in the year already hinted towards some sort of magnetic upgrade to the controversial controllers. 

There are likely two outcomes to this rumour: either the Switch 2 comes with a premium set of Joy-cons that can magnetically attach to the sides of the Switch or the magnetic mechanism simply locks in and reinforces the Joy-cons when they slide in. We’ve all had drift issues with the Nintendo Switch but one of my most common complaints would be that the Joy-cons would slip out in handheld mode with the slightest movements. 

Either outcome is a win, in my opinion. 

A rather new piece of intel revealed as part of the big 3D render leak is that the new Nintendo Switch 2 will have two USB-C ports. One is the charging/docking USB-C port that we all know and love but the second is a bit of a mystery. 

There are a few possibilities. The first and most obvious is that it would allow you to comfortably charge the Switch 2 while in tabletop mode. There’s a whole market for mounts that let you use the kickstand and the USB-C charging port at the same time, but out of the box, you can’t charge the Switch while using it in tabletop mode– it can also be a bit annoying in handheld mode at times too.

I’d be happy enough with that, honestly, but the additional USB-C port also opens up some more creative options if you use your imagination.

Nintendo recently submitted a new wireless device to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that isn’t a game console or a game controller. The Verge recently highlighted the filing, which is only described as a “wireless device” that is powered by USB-C(!)

The filing also lists a humble 2.4GHz WiFi radio and a 24GHz mmWave sensor, which Verge points out could be a “radar sensor to track movement.” It seems like a simple piece of tech that could open up some fun opportunities; Nintendo could finally make Kinect happen.

ond when the Nintendo Switch 2 is docked. As long as those rumours have been alive, there’s also been talk of an upgraded Nvidia DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) chip. DLSS is a proprietary technology used by Nvidia in its high-end graphics cards (e.g. the RTX 20 and RTX 30) that uses a deep-learning algorithm to enhance the resolution of low-quality images in real-time. There are a few benefits to using DLSS. For one, it would allow the new Nintendo Switch to upscale 1080p video to 4K when docked in TV mode. However, the AI-upscaled resolution also wouldn’t require as much GPU bandwidth as a console with native 4K output (like the PlayStation 5), leaving more room for it to dedicate resources to other heavy-load tasks, like higher frame rates.

This much, at least, seems almost certain. 4K gaming is the natural next step for Nintendo’s hardware, which was already behind the curve when the handheld hybrid first launched back in 2017. 

More hotly disputed is the nitty gritty of the Switch 2’s processing power. The talk of the town is that AMD pitched Nintendo to power the Switch 2 but that Nintendo, ultimately, opted to stick with NVIDIA due to power efficiency concerns. It sounds like pairing with AMD would have required Nintendo to manufacture a bigger battery, resulting in a heavier, bulkier handheld experience.  

A year ago, the rumour was that NVIDIA was cooking up a custom T239 processor for the Switch 2, based on the existing NVIDIA Tegra T234 system on a chip (SoC.) You can read a lot more about that over at Eurogamer if you’re interested in the finer details. But in short, whatever was demoed behind closed doors at Gamescom 2023 showed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild running with no load times as well as Epic’s The Matrix Awakens demo, a technical showcase designed to showcase the power of Unreal Engine 5. For context, the PlayStation 4 would not have been able to run The Matrix Awakens demo, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the Switch 2 would be more powerful than the PS4.

My biggest question remains whether Nintendo will release Switch 2 exclusives, or whether it will maintain a consistent catalogue across both consoles ala Xbox Series S and Series X. 

There’s allegedly a more polished Breath of the Wild out there running with no load times and that might suggest otherwise but it’s not out of the question that Nintendo could offer those upgrades through a downloadable update with a price tag. 

In the old days, this wouldn’t even be up for debate. Nintendo would release a new console that could play new games exclusive to that console. But the company’s ongoing loyalty to Switch players, thanks to a mid-life surge in sales during COVID may push Nintendo to maintain a consistent lineup between the two consoles, for the foreseeable future, at least. Nintendo also has a couple of titles planned for when we would expect the Switch 2 to have been announced; most notable of all being Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. There’s no way that game isn’t coming to Nintendo Switch but it’s also unlikely it won’t take advantage of the Switch 2’s hardware this late in the game.

Well, a recent report from Taiwan’s Economic Daily News (via Reddit) estimated the console would cost about US$400. The article doesn’t name sources so it’s hard to know for sure where this information comes from. With that said, it’s a fair price. That would put the Switch 2 in the $600 ballpark– maybe even cheaper-here in Australia. The Switch OLED currently retails for around $450 to $499 in Australia so a $599 price tag would be pretty fair. Then again, you can never trust currency conversions to estimate the price of tech. Just look at the iPhone 16, which costs roughly 20% more in Australia than it does in the US at the current conversion rate.