Nintendo Switch OLED Review
This isn’t what we’re all waiting for…
A little over 5 months after the refreshed Switch OLED launched, I finally decided to get one. I wasn’t excited about the larger screen or the redesigned dock. Honestly I kind of just liked the clean white color and my house has a Switch sharing problem if you catch my drift. Now after having it for a month, I can’t believe I didn’t upgrade sooner.
Dat Screen Doh
My first Switch was the original model I got around launch in 2017 and I almost never played it in handheld mode. For one, my hands cramped up whenever I held it for more than 10 minutes. Secondly, I never invested in a grip because the screen was so washed out and devoid of color, it always left me wanting more for the console’s launch titles. Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey both felt like games that were meant to be played from a couch to adore their beautiful new worlds. That tiny dull screen just really took me out of it.
Within the first 10 minutes of gameplay on the new Switch OLED, I ordered same-day delivery of an ergonomic grip from Amazon. Since then I’ve gone from 100% docked mode usage to probably 40%. I love playing this thing on my long NJ Transit commute into the city. It’s enabled me to get so much more screen time and oh boy that screen. It is over saturated and at times a bit garish, but if you can look past that nitpick, it makes a night and day difference over the previous model. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend checking it out at your local GameStop or Best Buy to really see the difference side by side.
Still Disappointing
While the screen has single handedly transformed my experience with the Switch, it comes with a notable disappointment. The graphics hardware is at least two generations behind outgoing PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles. Although graphics fidelity is typically less critical for Nintendo games, which don’t aim for ultra-realistic visuals, the outdated hardware still impacts frame rate stability and overall graphics performance. For instance, in Kirby’s Forgotten Land, background characters move at a comically low frame rate, reminiscent of a stop-motion film. Similarly, in Pokémon: Legends Arceus, the landscape looks dated, akin to GameCube-era graphics. Nintendo could have and should have done more.
In past console generations on other platforms like Xbox, you saw game developers get better at optimizing their games to take full advantage of the limited 360 hardware. They got so good in fact that the first few Xbox One titles really didn’t seem to take a generational leap. I’m surprised Nintendo devs haven’t achieved the same graphics sorcery in the past 5 years, but if they haven’t yet I don’t think they ever will.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, the screen is pretty, but Nintendo still needs to update the hardware under the hood to make a generational improvement that fans have been waiting for. The elusive “Switch Pro” remains only a rumor and continues to live rent free in our heads.
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