After first being announced a month ago, the revised Nintendo Switch is now hitting store shelves. Look for the box with more red on the package and you’ll get the model with a vastly superior battery life. It’s even better than the upcoming Nintendo Switch Lite while retaining the ability to dock. However, if you recently bought the old Nintendo Switch and are feeling suckered, cheer up. According to a Reddit post reported by GameXplain, Nintendo is offering to replace old consoles with the newer model, at least in America. The catch is the deal only applies if you bought a Switch after the revision was announced on July 17. So early adopters will just have to pay up.
When it comes to new Nintendo Switch hardware, everyone is still buzzing about the Nintendo Switch Lite. The recently announced September revision strips the console part out of Nintendo’s hybrid and leaves you with a smaller machine you can only play in handheld mode. The upside is the battery is better, the system is sturdier, there’s a real D-pad, and it’s a $100 cheaper.
But there are plenty of reasons to still get a regular Nintendo Switch, including the fact that it still docks to a television. And later in August, Nintendo is also rolling out a subtly upgraded version of the original Switch.
Nintendo Switch model number HAC-001(-01) (just look for product serial numbers beginning with “XKW”) will feature the mildly upgraded components. Rumors and FCC filings had suggested Nintendo was revamping the Switch’s Nvidia Tegra X1 processor. Some were hoping this was a hint of some kind of Switch Pro that many still claim is coming next year.
But instead of improving graphical performance Nintendo opted to improve battery life. That makes sense. Previously the Switch’s battery life was a bit weak for a handheld device. But this new model ups the range from 2.5-6 hours to a whopping 4.5-9 hours, better than the Switch Lite. Nintendo says expect 5.5 hours of play with a game as intensive as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Along with this Switch revision Nintendo also dropped a few other random announcements. They’re releasing some new Joy-Con colors (suspiciously timed with news reports of current Joy-Con controllers experiencing debilitating analog stick issues). Snap on purple, blue, and orange controllers to the sides of your Switch that still supports Joy-Con, aka not the Switch Lite.
Luigi’s Mansion 3 also got a spooky release date for October 31, Halloween itself. I enjoyed my recent hands-on demo with the game and am looking forward to the final version. For more on Nintendo Switch here are a bunch of cool games to play right now.
