Nintendo Switch 2 Hardware Review – Twice as Nice

Eight years ago, the world was a very different place — for me, for you, for video games, and for Nintendo.

When we reviewed the original Nintendo Switch, Nintendo was coming off a failure, and the Switch was an unknown quantity. It was something brand new — something the company hadn’t really attempted before, at least not on the scale it eventually reached. The Switch turned out to be a major success. It transformed and created new markets, brought in new developers and IP, and allowed the industry to flourish in a different direction — almost sideways from the traditional path of simply going bigger, better, and more powerful.

Now we have the Switch 2, which builds on that success by aiming for bigger, better, and more powerful. But this time, it doesn’t feel like a dramatic leap or a total reinvention. It’s more iterative and shares a lot with the original model. But can it replicate that success in a world that’s changed so much?

In my original review of the Nintendo Switch, I mentioned the common belief that Nintendo generally builds solid, well-designed hardware. At the time, it felt like the Switch would carry on that legacy. As we know, things went a bit off the rails during its lifespan. The tablet unit itself was well made, but almost everything that connected to it became a concern. Joy-Con developed drift issues, they wobbled on the rails over time, and the flimsy stand was a frequent complaint — something that was eventually fixed with the OLED model. 

That said, and with the understanding that the future can always surprise us, the Nintendo Switch 2 feels like a step above the original. It feels sleek in hand, the larger size and added heft give it a strong presence, and the Joy-Cons attach securely and stay firmly in place. It’s not without a few issues, though. The kickstand feels slightly less solid than the full-width hinge on the OLED model, and placing the console into the new dock still feels a bit awkward — and potentially scratchy.

The first thing you’ll notice is that it’s undeniably bigger. That’s obvious, but it doesn’t feel excessively large like some Windows-powered handhelds. The increased size could be too much for some younger users — and maybe it still is — but Nintendo has kept the console roughly the same thickness, which helps it remain comfortable, at least as comfortable as a device like this can be. Having silicon grips or a case with little humps on the back helps a lot. The good news is there’s a bunch out there, so find what works best for you.

The Joy-Con rail system on the original Switch was always just good enough. It worked, for the most part, but over time became more and more rickety and flimsy. It was iconic for a reason, and I’m glad Nintendo kept the idea — just improved it. With magnets.

The Joy-Con 2 are fantastic on their own, but even better is the click when attaching them to the system. Better still? Taking them off — just a simple press on the back. Now, magnets, no matter how strong, will eventually part with enough force. But the amount of force needed to pull a Joy-Con 2 off without pressing the release you just wouldn’t do. Like the original Switch, we’ll have to see how they hold up over the years, but right now, at the outset, these are perfect.

The Joy-Con 2 themselves, magnets aside, are in a much better place now. Whether they’re attached to the system, in the grip, or just held in hand, the bigger size and chonkier SL and SR buttons mean they’re actually usable by anyone over ten. The analogue sticks, while not hall-effect, are buttery smooth and feel great to push around. Will they hold up over time, or end up plagued by Joy-Con drift-style issues? Only time will tell — but out of the box, it’s fantastic stuff.

Let’s get the easy point out of the way first: the screen on the Nintendo Switch 2 isn’t an OLED panel. If you’re coming from the OLED model, that might be a deal breaker. But even though it’s not OLED, the screen here is better in several ways. It’s a night-and-day improvement over the original Switch and Lite models.

The panel used here is a high-quality choice. It supports HDR, which brings brighter colours and deeper contrast to supported games (it will never have the black levels of the OLED, however). It also includes VRR (variable refresh rate), allowing the screen to sync with the game’s frame rate. Without it, you’re more likely to notice screen tearing when frame rates are inconsistent. When you’re playing something at native resolution, it feels like a completely different experience compared to the old 720p panel. Display tech has come a long way in eight years, and while we’ll probably see an OLED model eventually, this screen is more than good enough for now.

When the original Switch launched, we marvelled at Breath of the Wild’s graphics and scope. Playing Mario Kart 8portably? A dream. Over the life of the console, we saw so many “impossible ports” — games made well beyond the system’s graphical limits somehow running on it. Some worked perfectly. Others… didn’t. As the system aged and game development moved on, even Nintendo started to struggle with what they wanted to do versus what the system could handle.

Now we’re in the Switch 2 era, and we’re finally back on track. With potential output of 4K docked and 1080p in handheld, Nintendo and other developers can now deliver the experiences they couldn’t before. It’s not just a raw numbers game, either — many titles won’t hit native 4K but will instead run at lower resolutions with more visual effects turned on. There’s also DLSS, thanks to the Nvidia chip onboard. Games can render at a lower resolution while AI upscaling fills in the blanks. It’s not perfect, though. Games like Fast Fusion seem to use it, and you do get that artefacting and shimmering the tech can be known for.

That said, I’m happy with where the Switch 2 has started. Mario Kart World is a beautiful game and runs silky smooth. Even Cyberpunk, while not as advanced as its PS5 cousin, still shows off what this hybrid system can do. It’s just nice to have everything look clean and crisp — and hopefully we’re done with that vaseline-smeared look for good.

One benefit of all this extra power is how much it helps original Switch games. Some, like Breath of the Wild, are getting paid upgrades — but there are also free updates for a lot of Nintendo’s biggest titles, letting them take advantage of the extra grunt, the HDR display, and even GameShare. And even if your favourite game hasn’t been patched — or the developer has no plans to, or doesn’t even exist anymore — there’s a good chance it now runs better, looks better, and loads faster. Honestly, there’s no better way they could have made this work (as long as your favourite game does still work — but that list of incompatible titles is getting smaller by the day).

Speaking of GameShare — how great is this? You can let another Switch owner (and it doesn’t even have to be a Switch 2) play two-player with you by streaming the game to their system. It’s not just streaming split screen; it’s an entirely separate feed. For example, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker now has online play where it didn’t before. Locally, GameShare uses the same tech as the Wii U to stream a feed of the game to another console — truly proving that system was way ahead of its time.

The thing with the Switch 2, after having it for a while, is that almost everything has been tweaked or adjusted from the original console. Yes, it’s a console that clicks together and can be played handheld or on the TV — but it’s the small, nice changes (or annoyances fixed) that really stand out.

One area that will take a lot longer to get used to is the battery life. It’s now much more dependent on what game you’re playing than before. Off the dock, we’ve noticed it needs charging a lot more often than the original console. We knew this — Nintendo has said it would last 2 to 6 hours, which is a lot lower than the 4.5 to 9 hours of the OLED model. It’s not great, but at the same time, look how good these games look now. Hard to be too upset about it.

Ah, the new C button on the controller — surely Nintendo isn’t finally adding voice chat to the system, right? Oh, they are? And it’s like Discord? Terrific! While Nintendo might still be a bit cautious compared to other consoles when it comes to voice chat, Game Chat is a pretty good way to start exploring that world. One tap of the C button and you can start or join a Game Chat session. It doesn’t have to be in a game, but it does have to be with friends. You can chat with your mates no matter what they’re playing, then figure out what you want to play together. Just don’t be late to the party — if you miss the initial invite, there doesn’t yet seem to be a way to join a chat in progress. One thing to note is that GameChat will eventually be gated behind Nintendo Switch Online. That does make sense—it is an online feature—but it also means you’ll be left with a button that does nothing if you don’t have a subscription. Thankfully, you can just remap it using the new button remapping functions and move on.

Out of the box, voice chat is supported through the built-in microphone on the Switch 2 itself. The mic is pretty smart — while the sound quality isn’t studio quality or anything, it more than makes up for it by filtering out background noise. If that’s not your thing, you can always plug a headset into the (bloody excellent) Pro Controller and use voice chat that way. Speaking of speakers — they’re great too. Punchy and bassy, still tablet speakers but way better and louder than what we’re used to. The kickstand, though, is probably the only step backward for me. The one on the OLED was perfect and stable; this one feels a little more fragile. 

A couple more little annoyances: the dock’s USB-A ports on the side — couldn’t one of them at least be USB-C? Luckily, USB-A to C adapters exist, so you can fix that and avoid having a camera plugged into the top of the system, which gets annoying if you dock and undock a lot. Also, the dock just feels a bit cheap. You won’t often touch it, but like the plastic on your Mum’s Corolla, it feels scratchy, hollow and unlike everything else in the box.

One of my favourite parts now is the OS and the eShop. Again, like everything else, it looks pretty much the same as before — at least in screenshots. But once you actually use the system and see how everything bounces and flows, and just loads so quickly, you’ll get it straight away. It’s no longer a horror show to browse the eShop, and the Nintendo Switch Online menu — well, someone might actually want to use it now. Features like Game Chat are so tightly integrated that just pressing the C button to start a session takes no time at all. It just gets out of the way and lets you play, buy, and chat — all we could ask for. Oh, maybe just more than two themes.

Just quickly on the new Pro Controller — what a delight. People will ask, “Is it worth upgrading? It looks pretty much the same.” Like John Travolta working at Itchy McScratchy — yeah, it just looks like that. But no, this thing certainly a step up. It’s got the same great texture as the system, the buttons are all responsive, and the D-Pad feels terrific. Plus, there’s now a headphone jack on the controller, which will probably reduce battery life somewhat if you’re piping audio through it all the time, but it means you can avoid cables running across the room or relying on Bluetooth headphones if you want.

We’ll find out how the Nintendo Switch 2 fares over its lifespan. At the start of the original Switch, we didn’t know where it would go. And even though there’s so much more about the Switch 2 that feels familiar and like a known quantity, this could still go anywhere.

Nintendo’s put together a very slick piece of kit, improved and refined in all the right places — a true realisation of the Switch concept. The Switch is my favourite console ever: the literal hybrid of everything I’ve ever needed from a Nintendo system, now caught up the power to back it up and the quality to enjoy it. I can’t wait to play whatever comes our way on it.

A Nintendo Switch 2 unit and accessories were provided by Nintendo Australia for the purposes of this review.