Metroid Prime 4 (Switch 2) Digital Foundry tech review - Brilliant at both 60hz and 120hz, Amazing HDR

Samsung always was about "pop" while Sony has always been the kings of accuracy. I cant lie though. Im a Samsung guy and I do like "pop". Gimme that vibrancy.

I get it, I've been a TV salesman for a long time, you like what you like.

If thats the case, next time buy a Hisense 8 series (or 9 if you can find it) because right now they're blowing Samsung out of the water for value + image pop (+ built-in sound quality if that matters). 9/10 people picked the U8Q over the QN90D/F when I did side by sides and its down Hisense using a higher native contrast panel and showing in a comical amount of dimming zones, which Samsung has stagnated since your TV. QN90B/C/D/F are all essentially the same TV PQ wise.

Value isn't a bad thing in this case, you can buy a fucking 100" U8Q for the price of a 85" QN90F in the UK right now:


On top of that the 100" U8Q is almost like a different SKU to the lower sizes since they put 6000+ dimming zones in it, while the 98" QN90F has no official zone count its not anywhere near that I'm sure, Samsung spend all the money on making the TV <30mm thick, to the detriment of many other aspects.

Regarding design the U8Q is 44mm thick, so its not exactly a fat boi anyway, sacrifice the 17mm of thickness to win in almost every other area. Maybe you won't even have to because Hisense will have attained Samsung thickness by the time you need a new TV anyway.

TCL should also be considered but a problem they have right now is upscaling lower quality content which might be a factor if you watch cable or older video sources. They want to be the cheapest brand overall, even less than Hisense so they aren't pushing the chipset technology (Mediatek chipsets) every year like Hisense are so in 2025 they're sitting behind them on top of just not having as good dimming algorithm (Hisense has a decent balance of pop like Samsung and accuracy like Sony, see Vincent Teoh videos on the House of the Dragon beach scene, I think that was about the Hisense U8N), but TCL just wants to be Samsung and "compete" with OLEDs on the shop floor so they crush small highlights and alter the creators intent to a point where it starts to affect the viewing experience in a very negative way. Eg you can't see parts of the image you need to be able to without making some change that fucks something else up.

The only reason to not buy Hisense or TCL is fear of losing software updates when WW3 breaks out, that or the TV breaking down but you should be taking extended warranty on every TV you buy anyway (or credit card protection or similar, but not your contents insurance), especially in the US where you usually only get 1 year by default. Anything can break down no matter the brand, it doesn't matter if "Sony use better quality components", a lot of it is coming from and manufactured in China and its pot luck with 10s of millions of TVs made every year.

Just protect your TV with (good quality obviously) extra cover and if anything happens, be in Sony, LG, Samsung, Hisense or TCL, let them take care of it.
 
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Are you new to video games or something?

Almost every single video game releasing on consoles is using upscalers to run games in 4K.

1: you are probably conflating upscaling with reconstruction. 2 different things. every game that runs at a lower res than your display gets upscaled, but not every game uses reconstruction.

2: this game does not use reconstruction. it renders the scene at 1440p, renders the HUD at 2160p, and then displays it exactly as is.

3: I don't care, I think it should be illegal to advertise any resolution unless it's accurately advertised. which in this case would look something like "1440p 60fps with 4k HUD" as that is the reality you get. Blizzard did it right when they gave Overwatch a PS4 Pro patch. that patch added a 4k HUD, so they advertised it as 1080p with 4k HUD.
saying this game runs at 4k is like saying the DVD you are watching is 4k because the TV overlays that come up when you change the volume are 4k
 
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Finally watched the video, very excited now. The presentation looks stellar in SDR in that video, I'll still reserve my judgement til I see the HDR on my own display due to my aforementioned worry about DFs ability to identify truly great HDR, I'd say he gets it right a lot of the time but sometime he's said stuff is great thats really not and his own HDR videos being oft subpar, thats a separate issue though.

I can see how if the SDR looks like that then the HDR will be amazing as long as the black floor isn't fucked with, I can't wait til next week now. Might try and convince my folks to come up early with my birthday copy of it under some complicated pretense: "Turns out my friend planned a whole day of birthday prostitutes as a surprise! You'll need to come up a few days earlier now!"

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Unfortunately, the game looks very last gen. You can see it in the lighting, textures, shadows, and geometric quality. It's good for a nintendo release but not up to par by industry graphics standards. Hopefully, the gameplay can carry hard.
 
Unfortunately, the game looks very last gen. You can see it in the lighting, textures, shadows, and geometric quality. It's good for a nintendo release but not up to par by industry graphics standards. Hopefully, the gameplay can carry hard.

How else do you expect to get 120 fps from a weak handheld console?

They sacrificed graphics for performance

IMO it is a good call for this kind of game
 
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How else do you expect to get 120 fps from a weak handheld console?

They sacrificed graphics for performance

IMO it is a good call for this kind of game
That's fine for sure however, it doesn't invalidate anything i said. They made the trade offs to get the result they wanted.

The cost of that is last gen graphics. It is what it is 🤷🏽‍♂️. If you like the trade offs, thats great. If you don't, that's great.. All i'm saying is that the graphics don't measure up. Its merely a statement of fact.
 
That's fine for sure however, it doesn't invalidate anything i said. They made the trade offs to get the result they wanted.

The cost of that is last gen graphics. It is what it is 🤷🏽‍♂️. If you like the trade offs, thats great. If you don't, that's great.. All i'm saying is that the graphics don't measure up. Its merely a statement of fact.

I don't get what you are trying to say here...

Switch 2 hardware limits are known

So the real question should be:

Could they make the graphics better than this considering the hardware it HAS to run on? Keeping locked 120 fps as well?

I very much doubt they could

If this weren't a Nintendo exclusive then it would be a completely different story
 
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That's fine for sure however, it doesn't invalidate anything i said. They made the trade offs to get the result they wanted.

The cost of that is last gen graphics. It is what it is 🤷🏽‍♂️. If you like the trade offs, thats great. If you don't, that's great.. All i'm saying is that the graphics don't measure up. Its merely a statement of fact.

They made the trade offs to get a switch 1 version then they threw together a 120 mode because it was easy.
 
That's fine for sure however, it doesn't invalidate anything i said. They made the trade offs to get the result they wanted.

The cost of that is last gen graphics. It is what it is 🤷🏽‍♂️. If you like the trade offs, thats great. If you don't, that's great.. All i'm saying is that the graphics don't measure up. Its merely a statement of fact.
It's an up-rezzed Switch 1 game. That invalidates everything you said.
 
Cant claim 4K is all. Cant brag about something you dont have. That would be considered lying, not just to yourself but all these fine young people.

Actually caught up to reviews tonight, had watched DF's video at job but probably not focused

I thought he said it was upscaled, but its not, its 1440p with SMAA

So you're right, that's iffy. If upscaling was used like DLSS I seriously wouldn't give a shit, but this is 3D world in 1440p with SMAA, with hud/visor 4k.
 


- Nintendo Switch 2 offers a 60fps quality mode and a 120fps performance mode. The first Switch only offers a 60fps mode.
- The most substantial differences between Switch and Switch 2 are in the rendering resolution, the resolution of some textures and shadows, and slightly in the LOD at times.
- Otherwise, the two versions are very similar. Keep in mind that this game was probably already in an advanced state of development on Switch before work began on the Switch 2 version.
- Between the quality and performance modes of Switch 2, the visual differences lie in the resolution (we go from 1440p scaled to 4K to 1080p) and in the resolution of the textures.
- Switch normally runs at 900p in dock mode, dropping to an average of 540p in handheld mode.
- Very stable performance on both platforms and modes. One of the best I've seen in a long time. I wish all games performed like this.
- Loading times are 5 times faster on Switch 2.
- I can only rejoice and congratulate Retro Studios for the outstanding technical work on Metroid Prime 4. Wherever you play it, you're going to have a great experience.
 
I only skimmed but didn't see much regarding the difference between portable and docked. Is portable only 1080p60 so native to the screen or is it lower or can it also go 120 hz (with or without lower res but it hits the battery harder, does it mitigate the noted screen's low response at all) or what?
 
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It's an up-rezzed Switch 1 game. That invalidates everything you said.
And? I said it looks last gen and you're agreeing with me? Why are you quoting me?
They made the trade offs to get a switch 1 version then they threw together a 120 mode because it was easy.
The tradeoffs made in to get the switch 1 running is making the whole game a corridor shooter outside of the pointless biking area. I haven't seen level design this cramped since ps360. The whole game outside of the bike is just running down beautifully decorated hallways.
I don't get what you are trying to say here...

Switch 2 hardware limits are known

So the real question should be:

Could they make the graphics better than this considering the hardware it HAS to run on? Keeping locked 120 fps as well?

I very much doubt they could

If this weren't a Nintendo exclusive then it would be a completely different story
Non Nintendo studios have already delivered graphically superior efforts that makes this game look 2 generations behind. That's why i said, it's a good effort for nintendo especially since technical competency is not their forte. Regardless, it's still very last gen even in the 60 fps mode.
 
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