Another day, another 'Nintendo Switch Pro' rumour – but with supposed listings on the website of French retailer Boulanger and repeated claims of components already being in production, this time there may be more to internet rumblings than a round of wishful thinking.
Rumours of a 'Pro' version of Nintendo Switch have surrounded the hit console since it launched back in 2017. With the Switch's release sandwiched between the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, both of which offered significant power boosts over their respective baseline consoles, some have perceived the Switch as underpowered from day one.
It was a 1080p console that arrived as its competitors were stepping into the dazzling world of 4K HDR experiences, with a measly 32GB of storage compared to an impressive 1TB drive on its rivals, all centred on a glorified smartphone processor. Surely, Nintendo was kneecapping itself at the starting line.
There's a touch of naiveté to that view, though. Historically, Nintendo has never played the numbers game when it comes to tech specs, with the company preferring to focus on quality of experience and software that is uniquely rooted on its hardware. To a great extent, it doesn't care what its competitors are doing, and often that pays out – by hybridising at-home and on-the-go gaming experiences into one device with both phenomenal motion controls and the option for touchscreen input, the Switch has attracted a host of developers and sold just shy of 70m units, with the Switch Lite adding a further 14.7m sales to Nintendo's ledger. "Underpowered" or not, the hardware has been an undeniable success for Nintendo.
However, the Switch is starting to show its limits. Some newer or higher end games, such as Hitman III or Control, are only playable on the console via cloud streaming, while others offer lower performance than their Xbox, PC, or PlayStation releases. If Nintendo wants to keep enjoying the level of third-party support that the Switch has attracted, the platform needs an upgrade.
What would that look like though? While speculation of an imminent reveal at E3 mounts, here's what we think the much-mythologised Switch Pro needs to succeed.
First of all, there's still a lot to love about the Switch as it is. We'd expect any mid-gen upgrade to keep what works best, meaning it needs to stay a hybrid console that can be played on the go, then docked at home to continue your gaming sessions on the big screen. Similarly, it needs to retain the versatility of play, with the removable motion-sensing Joy-Con controllers usable in a variety of configurations – attached to the console as a handheld, micro-controllers for multiple players, waved about as motion input, or clipped onto the 'Grip' controller brace for TV play – alongside touchscreen controls and the existing Pro controller.
Or at least more power. The current Nvidia Tegra X1 SOC that powers the Switch has served it well, and even exceeded many expectations, but it's nowhere close to cutting edge, especially four years on from release. A revised model, the Tegra X1+, has been used in Switch and Switch Lite consoles produced since 2019, offering slightly improved performance and increased battery life, but we'd hope for a bit more oomph still if the Switch Pro is to have any hope of bringing some of those cloud games offline.
A better, more powerful core will also help deliver 4K visuals. This is, in fact, one of the most common of Switch Pro rumours – that it will be capable of outputting 4K content when docked. While we can't see the likes of Splatoon really benefitting much from a resolution boost – although it would, of course, be nice – the thought of playing the Breath of the Wild sequel in 4K HDR is scintillating.
Again, Nintendo has never really played the specs game, but as 4K screens are making their way into more and more homes – and with OLED 4K TVs finally starting to come in at less than 55in, making them even more accessible – Nintendo's audiences are going to start wanting that greater fidelity. A repeat of the Wii, which failed to offer 1080p output at a time when HDTVs were already firmly established, is the last thing Nintendo needs.
There is also the matter of whether the Switch Pro might offer true 4K or opt for a 'checkerboard' 4K as the PS4 Pro did. We'd expect the latter, as the former would require even more power and resources that would massively drive up the cost of the hardware, but even an upscaled form of 4K would be a big improvement.
Already rumoured to be in production through Samsung, an OLED screen on the console itself could bring numerous benefits – and not just that it would deliver a sharper, richer display when playing in handheld mode. OLED would allow for more screen real estate without necessarily having to increase the physical size of the hardware.
On the current Switch, the full screen area measures 18.5cm diagonally, but only 16cm of that is usable screen. The rest is a wide, black bezel. A switch from the current LCD tech to OLED could allow for an up-to-the-edge screen, providing bigger, bolder gaming on the go. We'd also hope to see a boost to at least full 1080p HD in handheld mode as a result, up from the current 720p display.
The trade off with OLED is that it's more power intensive than other screen technologies. However, with it being so thin and light, that could make way for more battery space. The Switch is already pretty solid on this front – depending on the game, you'll get between three and six hours play time before needing a charge, and up to nine hours on the 2019 model with the Tegra X1+ chipset. We'd like to see this reach into the double digits if possible though – a solid 10 hours would make the Switch Pro even better for taking on long trips.
The existing TV dock for the Nintendo Switch is easily the worst aspect of the console. An ugly vertical brick, it's fiddly to slip the actual Switch console into – especially if you want or need to fit the console into a media unit – and can even smudge the console's screen. A Switch Pro dock should be a front-loading cradle, allowing you to simply place the console on it for charging or to resume play on your main TV.
One of the most baffling omissions from the existing Switch is the lack of Bluetooth connectivity for audio – even though it uses Bluetooth 4.1 to connect to controllers. Wireless earphones are commonplace now, and having to buy a third-party adaptor to use them with the Switch is both frustrating and makes the console feel dated. That said, in an ideal world we'd keep the 3.5mm jack, too, though – being able to plug in a wired pair remains incredibly useful, as anyone whose earphones have run out of juice with nowhere to recharge will know. At least give us the option, Nintendo.
The issue of the Switch Joy-Cons 'drifting' is a long and storied one – and for owners affected by the problem on wandering controller inputs, a frustrating one, too. We're not entirely convinced that the Joy-Cons need a wholesale reinvention. There are still features baked into them that developers have barely used, such as the infra-red sensor, but a revision that finally resolves the problem of drift for good would be very welcome.
Simply put, the 32GB of onboard storage that the Switch comes with isn't good enough. It's not good enough now, when just a handful of some of Nintendo's best titles will fill it – Breath of the Wild, Animal Crossing, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe max out the capacity – and it's definitely not good enough for a hypothetical 4K future, which is already seeing install sizes surging on other platforms (although checkerboard or upscaled 4K would lessen the burden here). A modest bump to 64GB would be the bare minimum we'd expect from a Pro console, ideally 128GB onboard.
Of course, the ability to expand storage via microSD card should be retained, but we'd suggest a tweak here, too. While the current Switch can technically support up to a 2TB microSD card, such high capacities essentially don't exist yet, certainly not in the consumer realm. A 1TB card will set you back around £220 at time of writing, so they're not economically viable for most, either. Instead, a Switch Pro should support multiple microSD cards at once – two 512GB cards will currently set you back around £130, for instance, which would provide all the storage you would need for a much more affordable price.
Finally, we'd hope the (we must stress, still hypothetical) Switch Pro would be a touch sturdier than the baseline console. The existing Switch is hardly flimsy, but in handheld mode there's just a bit too much give at the points where the Joy-Cons slide onto the tablet section.
A tense gaming session where you might grip that bit too tight can conjure nightmares of accidental snappage, while throwing it in a backpack, even in a case, can feel like a roll of the dice as to its continued survival.
Following the smartphone trend of ever thinner, lighter forms could backfire with a console like the Switch – whatever comes next has to be tough enough for hours of intense gaming.
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
