Nintendo Switch 2 - DF Hardware Review - A Satisfying Upgrade... But Display Issues Are Problematic

Topher said:
So it doesn't affect you. That's fine. Doesn't affect me either from what I've played so far. But @Fafalada makes a good point that the screen should be better than it is. There is nothing wrong with pointing that out and obviously should be pointed out by folks like DF.
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Yeah it doesn't affect me and in my experience it isn't going to affect 99% of people. It's only people who want to compare numbers that care.
 
I already posted this a week or so ago in another thread, but I got to test out Zelda on a S2 next to a Switch OLED, and a Legion Go. The 120hz is nice but the image quality and colors are such a huge downgrade. Wait for an OLED S2.

G7GPjJDhYuAYvW1b.jpeg
 
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The screen is objectively worse than a lot of other LCD displays on the market. Pointing out the facts should be commended, not ridiculed because you cannot notice the difference.
 
Honestly switch 2 screen is pretty great. It doesn't feel like Nintendo cheaped out on it as in went to the bottom of the barrel. If you're an enthusiast the way these DF guys are sure you can find issues with it. For the average consumer it's good enough.

Plus if it was perfect, how would they upsell you on the inevitable oled refresh later on?
 
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The Switch 2 overall is great, and I enjoy using it. But the display is bad. I think it's better than the LCD Switch and Steam Deck overall (though its shocking to hear the ghosting is worse) but compared to the OLED Switch and Deck, it's a huge step down

But display aside, it's been a great system. Nintendo developed something truly great here. The build quality is great, the controllers feel great, I had originally intended to use Game Chat as a joke but was surprised at how easy and slick it is, and Nintendo's games obviously continue to be great.

Hopefully an OLED revision (or a micro LED revision) is coming up some time soon on a smaller node, it will fix the only two issues with the system – the screen and the battery life.
 
Little Mac said:
I already posted this a week or so ago in another thread, but I got to test out Zelda on a S2 next to a Switch OLED, and a Legion Go. The 120hz is nice but the image quality and colors are such a huge downgrade. Wait for an OLED S2.

G7GPjJDhYuAYvW1b.jpeg
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Can you repeat the rest after disabling HDR please? Unless you already turned it off in the system settings :).
 
Very cool hardware. It's so wild to me that the thing is only pulling 20w-22w max even while docked, and yet it's capable of this performance at that power draw. I was guessing 35-40w while docked given the node.

I would credit three things:
1) Ada Lovelace power gating back port to Ampere. Bog standard Ampere would not have come close to this efficiency.
2) Fixed hardware target not needing to execute on general unoptimized x86 PC code.
3) Not needing to run a translation layer (like Proton).

And despite the Samsung 8nm-10nm process node. Pure craziness. A future 5nm refresh will almost certainly happen in a few years which will probably double battery life (OLED model probably)

I'm now wondering the viability of a Switch 2 Lite. I mean, if it only needs to pull 8w at the current node, then whatever the node refresh will be will probably not even need but 4w or 5w. Couple that with a small 1080p screen, that could be really neat. But maybe drop Game Chat altogether on the lite model?
 
freakhead said:
The info seems more alarmist than good.
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If you actually watch the video it "seems" like someone who likes Switch 2 and wanted to like its screen put it through its paces. I was excited about 120hz but I'm less so if the screen has worse ghosting than the Switch 1 LCD. I was excited about HDR but less so if the screen doesn't even have enough brightness to use HDR. These facts are indeed useful information.
 
BlackTron said:
If you actually watch the video it "seems" like someone who likes Switch 2 and wanted to like its screen put it through its paces. I was excited about 120hz but I'm less so if the screen has worse ghosting than the Switch 1 LCD. I was excited about HDR but less so if the screen doesn't even have enough brightness to use HDR. These facts are indeed useful information.
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It comes across as more alarmist than useful. I played it with my own eyeballs. MKW is smooth as silk and looks great and it's a big open world. That's why I can confidently say it's a nice screen.

Whether or not the screen is going to be a gold medal winner in Milan next year doesn't negate this.
 
Well I just tried to compare the ghosting on Switch 1 and 2 by running Sonic 2 on both at the same time.

I was able to create a situation to watch in both versions that kept repeating itself where I could tell the difference and can confirm Switch 2 is worse. Quite a margin worse in what I was able to notice -Switch 1 has the same effect but 2 exaggerates it. This is in the context that the whole effect isn't that huge a deal - in normal circumstances, without putting both side by side, I wouldn't have caught it. It's something that makes a tiny difference, doubling its effect, so now it's a slightly less tiny difference. I don't think it's some huge scandal, but it's probably reasonable to expect it would have been as good as Switch 1 lol
 
For those that claim the screen is good/nice/great, what TVs do you play on at home? Because while the screen is serviceable I've never looked at it and thought that's some high quality right there.
 
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So VRR doesn't even work correctly in portable modes? Fuck...

Looks like it doesn't have low framerate compensations (LFC), so below 40fps it doesn't work - almost all games are 30fps or 30+ fps but not above 40. Useless feature in current state.
 
Panajev2001a said:
Can you repeat the rest after disabling HDR please? Unless you already turned it off in the system settings :).
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It's not my S2. It's a gym buddy's of mine that has practically every console. We also compared it to a Steam Deck OLED but Zelda wasn't on it so I didn't include it in the previous picture. It just doesn't compare to OLED. Not even close. The 120hz is nice but because the nits are so low the image quality looks bad and colors look muddy imo. Here is another pic.

YVw6pzeRBTUM7ozt.jpeg
 
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There's quite a bit more ghosting on my S2 LCD screen compared to my 1st year OG Switch 1 LCD screen

It's a bit disappointing that the S2 screen is actually worse in multiple objective measured metrics than my S1 screen from 8 years ago now
 
I'm honestly more surprised that people defended the whole virtual game card fiasco. Its a fucking disaster and all I hear is praises for it. Its good that DF was critical about it, but being critical is not enought. You guys need to make a case of it, specially John who relies on a bloody physical card.
 
I'll get one regardless, i'm not overly fussy on pixel perfect screens etc, this game key bollocks though has really pissed me off

I'm not rushing out to buy one yet.
 
The efficiency/power consumption is something else. Shame Ninty cant be arsed to put a 40Whr battery. That would surely get the Switch 2 within spitting distance of the Swoled battery life.
The real test is seeing what an Unreal Engine 5 game can run at with those wattages.
 
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