The official reveal of Nintendo Switch 2 details has come as a flurry, and all the information at once can be pretty hard to handle. Now that the dust has settled, there are a few things that are worth knowing about this console that were either glossed over in the main video, or relegated to supplementary material.
There are still plenty of questions concerning Switch 2 hardware and software that remain unanswered for now, but I think these features may have been overlooked by most people interested in Nintendo’s latest hybrid gaming system.
I barely used my Switch Joy Cons in single-con mode, but when you do you have to slide that wrist-strap thingy on so that the auxiliary SL and SR buttons are actually usable.
If you want to set up an impromptu multiplayer game using your Switch 2 in desktop mode, you no longer have to worry about schlepping those wrist strap things around, because the new Joy Cons have big metal buttons that are perfectly usable as is.
While I don’t know this for sure, I think this is partly because it helps with the magnetic attachment system the Switch 2 uses in lieu of rails, but it’s a win-win for convenience too, given the cons are bigger overall now. I enjoyed playing games like Street Fighter II against people I met while travelling, so perhaps these new cons will make me more eager to use this unique controller mode.
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It Works With Your Existing Switch Controllers
The new Joy Cons 2 and Pro Controller 2 have received substantial redesigns to make them more durable and comfortable, but apart from the new “C” button, and extra programmable back buttons on the Pro Controller 2, they don’t fundamentally have any new abilities compared to the originals. For example, Nintendo has sadly decided to skip analog triggers again this generation, which sucks for racing game fans like myself!
The upside of this is that your original Switch controllers will all work with the Switch 2, so if you already have a Pro Controller, for example, you don’t have to fork out for a new one if you don’t want to.
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5
The Pro Controller Has a Headphone Jack
The original Switch is easy to use with wired headphones, since there’s a jack right on top of the unit. However, once you’ve docked the old Switch, getting headphone audio was tricky. The optimal solution was to use a pair of headphones with proprietary USB audio, and simply plug the dongle into the dock. Alternatively you could use your TV or the Switch’s built-in Bluetooth, but both are inherently laggy in my experience.
With the Switch 2 Pro Controller, there is now a headphone jack on the controller itself, which brings Nintendo in line with Xbox and PlayStation. Presumably, this will be a lag-free proprietary solution as well.
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The Kickstand Has Infinite Angles
The kickstand on the launch Switch was a great idea, but it was cheap, nasty, and completely unreliable. With the OLED Switch Nintendo figured it out, and gave us a quality stand that could be adjusted to any angle with zero risk of it popping out at a moment’s notice.
The good news is that Nintendo has opted to go for the better design in the Switch 2, and we’re getting a kickstand that can be freely set in any position, which will really open up the possibilities for tabletop play.
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DLSS Technology
While everyone assumed that, given the Switch 2 uses an NVIDIA RTX GPU, it would support technologies like DLSS and ray tracing, Nintendo itself made no mention of this during any of its Switch 2 announcements so far. However, NVIDIA confirmed this in a blog post, which means there is no doubt that the Switch 2 has access to the premier AI-upscaling technology of the day.
That doesn’t mean that every game on the Switch 2 will implement DLSS, and as of this writing there’s no confirmation of any games using this feature, but I would be seriously surprised if developers ignored DLSS on the Switch 2 without a very good reason.
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Performance and Quality Options in Games
With the original Switch, performance horsepower wasn’t abundant even at launch, but with the Switch 2 some launch titles will give you the option between a high-fidelity mode and a high frame rate mode. The big one here is Metroid Prime 4, which offers 4K 60fps performance or 1080p 120fps performance when docked.
Given the 120Hz LCD panel in the Switch 2, you also have the option of playing at higher frame rates in some games in handheld mode, at the cost of resolution.
While there were a handful of games on the original Switch (e.g. Fire Emblem Warriors) that offered similar mode toggles for 30fps and 60fps, this sort of option has been exceedingly rare, and I expect to see it often on Switch 2. Particularly when it comes to “Switch 2 Edition” games that were originally Switch titles.
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You Can Use Any USB Camera
Anyone who saw the Switch 2 announcement video knows that there’s an official camera accessory for the new chat functionality, and that there’s at least one third-party option that looks like a piranha plant from Mario, but it turns out you can use pretty much any USB-C camera.
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The Switch 2 includes a camera testing utility so you can check if a camera you already have works or not, so maybe hold off buying one until you’ve tried cameras that you already own.
The material from Nintendo specifically mentions USB-C cameras, but there’s no technical reason you can’t just use a USB-C adapter with a USB-A camera, unless Nintendo has prevented this somehow. So even if you only own USB-A cameras, it’s still worth waiting to see if they work or not. It could save you quite a bit.
This isn’t new ground for Nintendo, since on the original Switch you could use a variety of USB accessories, including USB audio dongles for wireless headphones. So the accessory ecosystem is not quite as walled-off as you might imagine. I hope that, now we know about the Switch 2 mouse features, we’ll also have the option of using any USB or Bluetooth mouse we like, but as yet there’s no confirmation of this.
I’m pretty sure even with all the information that’s been released so far, there are probably even more neat features hidden away in Nintendo’s latest console, but we’ll have to wait and see.
