I’ve had the Nintendo Switch OLED for about 3 days now because I realized I was playing a lot of Tears of the Kingdom handheld and the standard Switch wasn’t doing it. Here are my thoughts.
The Switch OLED didn’t seem all that impressive to me when it was announced. Oh, it’s OLED? Well so is my iPhone, what else do you have? Well a bit more than I wanted to admit at the time.
After using the OLED and the V2 I realized that the original design felt unfinished. No shade to anyone who isn’t using an OLED but now I look at the previous design as unpolished.
The kickstand is sort of just stuck at the bottom corner and is a 1in tall flimsy plastic stick.
The plastic LCD with thick borders feels tacky.
The joycons don’t feel all that secure when slid in.
The giant eyesore of a logo sort of slapped on the back of the system… etc.
These all make the original feel like a proof of concept rather than the product. Like something the engineers only put together to show what’s possible.
The OLED rectifies these issues entirely and make the system itself feel more premium. If I could compare, imagine an original DS vs the DSi/Lite. The original, while innovative was a ergonomic nightmare, the Lite was so much better.
And that’s not even mentioning the display itself. Yeah, it really is that good, I’ve pretty gone back through my entire library just to see the difference. The vibrant colors and contrast make every game feel better! I’ve actually played more in handheld now just to take in the atmosphere of these games.
My only “complaints” were that the soc wasn’t upgraded AT ALL. I’d have like if it was given a very minuscule bump in performance and perhaps a gig more of ram. Not enough to give it “pro” but something similar to the jump from the version 1 to version 2.
My other “complaint” is even more petty. Why don’t they sell the OLED exclusive joycons? What if one of the white ones need replacing? I bought the Scarlet and Violet edition so if my joycons need replacing I’m gonna have one inconsistent looking piece of hardware.
The Nintendo Switch OLED gets 8 Korok Seeds out of 10! Well done Nintendo!
https://imgur.com/gallery/baSNhtA
by SaiyanC124
11 Comments
you can get used white joycons from gamestop.
Yup, I bought my 3rd switch (after v1 and lite) and now I’m playing on OLED handheld mode almost exclusively. The screen is a huge upgrade and I can’t go back to the older switch anymore. The quality difference is quite significant especially I play in a dim room, the colours just popped!!
OLED can’t be patched to use cfw using only software, v1 is much better.
It’s not just the better screen, OLED Switch runs TotK better than the OG Switch.
Watch the benchmark at Digital Foundry.
> Why don’t they sell the OLED exclusive joycons? What if one of the white ones need replacing?
knowing nintendo there is no way in hell that one of the joycons has any kind of problem
>Why don’t they sell the OLED exclusive joycons?
To be fair, they dont sell any of the joycons that come stock with any switch. You cant even get the standard Red/Blue pair separately. Only a swapped Blue/Red pair.
What score would you give it out of 1000 Korok seeds?
I was kinda “meh” about the OLED, then my wife got me the Zelda edition as a surprise and holy fucking shit. Even with just a display upgrade, it looks SO much better. And now I get to hand my v1 Switch to my 4-year-old, who is obsessed with Mario Odyssey and Lego City Undercover.
I am absolutely NOT a fan of mid-generation upgrades where they start upgrading specs. Either commit to a new console, or don’t. The reason, is how it potentially fractures the userbase and gives the early adopters a worsened experience.
Console games are developed with very specific hardware in mind. Adding a gig of RAM to the Swich would be pointless, unless the game was updated to utilize said hardware improvements (like a PS4 Pro/X1X mode). This has always run the risk of having devs prioritize performance on the higher end system and leave the original console owners with a half-assed experience (or locked out entirely). First game that comes to mind is Last Guardian. Ran rock solid on the PS4 Pro, but the standard PS4 struggled. Another example, would be those exclusive “New 3DS” released near the end of the 3DS lifespan.
Historically, games released at the END of a console’s lifespan were the best performers on the system. They’ve mastered hardware optimization by this time. Now it seems to work in the reverse because of mid-gen refreshes.
Agreed! I upgraded on my birthday last August to an OLED and it’s a huge improvement…
>My only “complaints” were that the soc wasn’t upgraded AT ALL. I’d have like if it was given a very minuscule bump in performance and perhaps a gig more of ram. Not enough to give it “pro” but something similar to the jump from the version 1 to version 2.
Giving it more RAM would increase the cost with zero benefit to existing games.
Developers would still design games around the launch Switch, obviously, so the increase in RAM would do literally nothing except cost Nintendo money.
Nintendo wisely kept all Switch models within 1% of each other in terms of performance. This makes it far easier for developers, and prevents FOMO that earlier adopters could otherwise experience.
If Nintendo wanted to make a faster model that’s 50% faster with a price tag to match, then fine. But a marginal upgrade in specs would benefit nobody and actively harm Nintendo’s wallet.
A 5% faster Switch would be pointless.
If I compare my lite to my launch and oled system the lite actually wins most of the time due to the size and me not caring about it getting beat up.
I made the mistake of buying a limited edition oled so it stays in the case and is handheld only so I don’t scratch it up