Well, it wa poised for a while, but...the Nintendo Switch OLED is finally official, costing $349 and landing this October.
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The Nintendo Switch 2 is poised to launch in 2021, and it will have all of the bells and whistles gamers have been asking for since the Nintendo Switch first launch in 2017.
This yet-to-be-officially-announced Nintendo console will have a 7-inch OLED from Samsung Display, with production slated for July, reports Bloomberg. The actual Nintendo Switch 2 release date would have to be a bit later in the year, of course.
Perks of OLED include offering higher contrast and consuming less battery, with the possibility that it'll also have a faster refresh rate than the Switch's standard 60Hz.
This is a nice upgrade over the original Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite, which currently offer LCD displays in 6.2-inch and 5.5-inch sizes, respectively.
When docked and played on a TV, the Nintendo Switch 2 is reportedly going to get 4K resolution support instead of being capped at 1080p. Given the popularity of 4K TV sets in 2021 compared to four years ago, this is a welcome change.
Nintendo Switch 2 vs the PS5 and Xbox Series X
Nintendo's biggest rivals in the gaming space, Sony and Microsoft, have already leapt to next-generation consoles with PS5 and Xbox Series X in November 2020. While the company's chief competition have been dealing with supply issues (see: all the PS5 restock and Xbox restock setbacks), they may be a credible threat later this year.
Nintendo Switch 2 is the answer, and for fans who feel as if the current Switch is now long in the tooth, they'll have a next-gen console solution to call their own. Just don't expect the specs to measure up to even the entry-level Xbox Series S in terms of horsepower. With the original Switch, Nintendo favored a unique design and cheap price over powerful internals, and that proved successful enough: it sold out during Black Friday four years running.
If the Nintendo Switch 2 release date is truly in 2021, one has to wonder if the much-anticipated Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 will be a launch game released the Switch and optimized for Switch 2. That happened with the first Breath of the Wild, which was developed for the Nintendo Wii U, but came out on the Wii U and Switch simultaneously.
We'll have more Nintendo Switch 2 rumors in the lead up to the official release date, which – if in 2021 like reported – suddenly doesn't seem far away.
