Nintendo Switch 2 Tipped For An 8-Inch Non-OLED Display And 2024 Launch
Omedia analyst Hiroshi Hayase says a proper followup to the Nintendo Switch handheld game console is coming sometime later this year, and it will arrive with an 8-inch liquid-crystal display (LCD) rather than an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen, Bloomberg reports. If true, the Switch 2 will debut with the biggest display yet for any Switch device.
The Switch has gone through several iterations already, starting with the original model with its 6.2-inch LCD touchscreen featuring a 1280x720 resolution. Nintendo later released a version with an IGZO display sourced from Sharp, as well as a Switch Lite console, and then finally the Switch OLED with a larger and more vibrant 7-inch display.
Under-the-hood changes have been minimal—Nintendo switched to a more power-efficiency Tegra X1+ SoC versus the original Tegra X1 on its Switch consoles, which helped increase battery life, and doubled the built-in storage on the OLED model. Otherwise, the features and capabilities have stayed the same.
The eventual Switch 2 or Switch Pro (or whatever Nintendo ends up calling it) will be a more substantial upgrade, though to what extent remains to be seen. Hayase, who researches small and medium displays, only commented on the upcoming console's screen. According to Hayase, the Switch 2 will be directly responsible for doubling shipments of what are dubbed amusement displays.
That's the extent of the information he shared. It's a little disappointing that the Switch 2 will revert back to an LCD screen instead of OLED, assuming the analyst's information is accurate. Presuming the internal hardware is a decent upgrade, though, it should prove to be yet another popular console.
To put it in context, the last official numbers shared by Nintendo showed that the Switch family had surpassed over 132 million units as of September of last year. That put it in second place all-time among Nintendo's consoles, behind only the Nintendo DS and over 30 million units ahead of the the Wii.
As an aside, a recent survey of over 3,000 game developers revealed that a lot of devs are both excited about and already working on games for the Switch 2. Additionally, a recent press release by Altec Lansing stated it was working a product launch that is "planned to coincide with the Nintendo Switch in September 2024," though it later removed the time frame, claiming it was an educated guess rather than a slip-up.
