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

balls of snow said:
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.
Click to expand...
That would increase the size of the console considerably due thermals dissipation.
 
LakeOf9 said:
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.
Click to expand...
Micro LED Revision?
Cracking Up Lol GIF
 
Ghosting and smearing is almost up there with tearing as a terrible way to destroy image quality.

Who made the display and why did Nintendo cheap out?

Terrible. Need an oled ASAP.
 
I must admit I do not play in handheld mode all that much but it seemed fine to me. The HDR setting on the console screen dows very little imho so I turned it off. But other than that similar to the OLED model. The resolution bump to 1080P is nice.... But why play Mario Kart World on anything less than a 4K screen?. Handheld mode will be reserved for my family holiday.

The DF guys are fine but they do take nit picking to the next level... Most that buy this console will not be aware of these minor issues.
 
Kataploom said:
2 fucking hours... Who are these videos aimed at? Do anybody actually goes through all of it?
Click to expand...
Yes. I could watch ten hour videos if they made them. I usually split up the longer videos over the day(s). If it's not interesting to you then there's plenty of other content for you. Like this one:

 
freakhead said:
Sorry I have a Switch 2 and actually play it with my own eyeballs instead of parroting hot takes and clickbait conclusions.
Click to expand...
See, that's your mistake right there. If you'd use your thumbs, you probably would be able to spot the difference.
 
Last edited:
I guess your mileage may vary depending on your own background and what you need. For my money, these screens entered good enough territory many years ago.
 
Little Mac said:
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
Click to expand...
Thanks for the explanation, from all I can gather by disabling HDR on the Switch 2 you can make the picture pop more as the colours should be less washed out as a result. This is due to how the screen is trying to drive HDR without dimming zones or without using self emitting pixels like OLED (LCDs do leak like and for the small areas of very bright colours the entire screen is pushed by the stronger backlight causing the colours to be washed out more).
 
DenchDeckard said:
Ghosting and smearing is almost up there with tearing as a terrible way to destroy image quality.

Who made the display and why did Nintendo cheap out?

Terrible. Need an oled ASAP.
Click to expand...
HDR in handheld mode does not really work / makes the picture worse, LCD ghosting is worse than the OG ooooold Switch 1 screen even, VRR is disabled on desktop and third parties seem not to be able to make good use of it, internal storage can be slower than the external SD express memory cards, Pro controller and Joy con 2 still do not have analog triggers, CRT effect in their emulator is broken (lowers rendering resolution a lot), etc… all for a much increased cost of device and all accessories.

This feels like they had a target ideal spec and then they started cutting things off, cheapening out on components, and created their roadmap backwards so that they would have arguments to sell each of the revisions with. Suddenly people's attention will be the screen when they unveil their screen refresh revision and flick of fans will start shitting on the current model and be wowed by the new screen.

Notice how all the hands on events had people mostly comparing only to the OG Switch and people pretended not to see any ghosting or washed out picture problems like at all. Good PR job, message very controlled and controlled well.
 
People here are wild. Everyone praises the screen, says it's great and some people don't even notice it isn't OLED. Then DF says the screen is bad and has ghosting. Suddenly everyone has ghosting and say the screen is so bad and it's a crime against humanity. Wtf

My screen is really good and has no ghosting. DF is clearly on a mission here and SonyGaf, I mean NeoGaf, couldn't be happier with this.
 
Anyone saying the screen is good, just install a bunch of games and then move the screen left and right like they did in the video. Detail just becomes a smear. It's objectively bad, and saying you can't notice it doesn't mean the screen is good, it's just means your ability to see it is bad.
 
ハトリス said:
People here are wild. Everyone praises the screen, says it's great and some people don't even notice it isn't OLED. Then DF says the screen is bad and has ghosting. Suddenly everyone has ghosting and say the screen is so bad and it's a crime against humanity. Wtf

My screen is really good and has no ghosting. DF is clearly on a mission here and SonyGaf, I mean NeoGaf, couldn't be happier with this.
Click to expand...
You can pretend you do not see it fine ;).
 
Funny how all the Nintendo specific sites are being very quiet about the DF review...almost as if they don't want to report on anything less than gushing about the precious potato?
 
clarky said:
Not watching on the off chance once whatever they are moaning about becomes noticeable and I can't unsee.

Ignorance is bliss. Happy with the S2
Click to expand...

Im the same. Not watching this video. I can see mild ghosting but I dont need a zoom in and slowdown to show how bad it is that I cant unsee it.
 
Panajev2001a said:
HDR in handheld mode does not really work / makes the picture worse, LCD ghosting is worse than the OG ooooold Switch 1 screen even, VRR is disabled on desktop and third parties seem not to be able to make good use of it, internal storage can be slower than the external SD express memory cards, Pro controller and Joy con 2 still do not have analog triggers, CRT effect in their emulator is broken (lowers rendering resolution a lot), etc… all for a much increased cost of device and all accessories.

This feels like they had a target ideal spec and then they started cutting things off, cheapening out on components, and created their roadmap backwards so that they would have arguments to sell each of the revisions with. Suddenly people's attention will be the screen when they unveil their screen refresh revision and flick of fans will start shitting on the current model and be wowed by the new screen.

Notice how all the hands on events had people mostly comparing only to the OG Switch and people pretended not to see any ghosting or washed out picture problems like at all. Good PR job, message very controlled and controlled well.
Click to expand...
Clever move by Nintendo not letting review units out before launch. Dodgy for end users but a clever move to temper negativity around the switch 2.
 
DenchDeckard said:
Clever move by Nintendo not letting review units out before launch. Dodgy for end users but a clever move to temper negativity around the switch 2.
Click to expand...
Yes, they controlled access and you bet the content people put out. Smart and to be expected the true believers had 0 problem with it / are still in denial about now.
 
Most part of Switch Buyers don't know or give a fuck about screen quality

And Nintendo knows that very well, even if they try to sell Switch 2 as a great improvement from Switch 1

The only ones who can't face it are online fanboys who need to "Win"

It's good but not like they want or like they hope
 
Dunno whats so bad about the screen, Im habing a great experience with It. I can't honelsy say its worse that Swich 1 in any way.
 
Esppiral said:
Did they kill your cat? Or do you feel super cool with this kind of comments?
Click to expand...
Both.

I lost any respect for DF that I had years ago when they couldn't even explain, on a basic level, how ray tracing works and what the difference between path tracing and ray tracing was. Yet they gaslight people into thinking that they know what they're talking about. DF make very good videos when it comes to comparing performance of different versions of a game on different consoles. Anything beyond that, I would take with the largest grain of salt the Earth has ever seen.
 
I noticed the smearing straight away, and was shocked so many didn't mention it at first...but then I remembered that some people swear they can't see above 30fps. Over the years I have been amazed by people watching TV on some really poor displays with ghosting so bad you can see multiple frames at a time, and when I mentioned how they can stand that, they respond with complete bemusement claiming they have never noticed it. So its a thing which Nintendo is aware of. Luckily I play 90% docked and I don't they I have even played more than ten minutes of TOTK in handheld on the switch 1.
 
ハトリス said:
People here are wild. Everyone praises the screen, says it's great and some people don't even notice it isn't OLED. Then DF says the screen is bad and has ghosting. Suddenly everyone has ghosting and say the screen is so bad and it's a crime against humanity. Wtf

My screen is really good and has no ghosting. DF is clearly on a mission here and SonyGaf, I mean NeoGaf, couldn't be happier with this.
Click to expand...

DF review is very late. We know that screen is garbage since this video:



It has all typical IPS LCD problems, that fake HDR was completely unnecessary. What DF added is very low pixel response time, even worse than original Switch and this is WILD. Nintendo is again using the cheapest components to make the most $, if you don't see issues with the screen then good for you I guess.
 
Whats annoying as they will probably secretly update the screen to something better over the next 18 months or so and the launch day users will be left high and dry.
 
Hudo said:
Both.

I lost any respect for DF that I had years ago when they couldn't even explain, on a basic level, how ray tracing works and what the difference between path tracing and ray tracing was. Yet they gaslight people into thinking that they know what they're talking about. DF make very good videos when it comes to comparing performance of different versions of a game on different consoles. Anything beyond that, I would take with the largest grain of salt the Earth has ever seen.
Click to expand...
The purpose of this review is precisely to evaluate how games and software perform on the system. And as far as I can see DF are the first outlet to discover that LFC is broken in shipping games. And also the first outlet to measure the pixel response time of the screen. And the first outlet to measure the performance impact of Game Chat.
 
ハトリス said:
DF is clearly on a mission here and SonyGaf, I mean NeoGaf, couldn't be happier with this.
Click to expand...
Bojji said:
DF review is very late. We know that screen is garbage since this video:



It has all typical IPS LCD problems, that fake HDR was completely unnecessary. What DF added is very low pixel response time, even worse than original Switch and this is WILD. Nintendo is again using the cheapest components to make the most $, if you don't see issues with the screen then good for you I guess.
Click to expand...


Apparently you are a part of "SonyGAF" now.

Trying Not To Laugh Rooster Teeth GIF by Achievement Hunter
 
Last edited:
DenchDeckard said:
Whats annoying as they will probably secretly update the screen to something better over the next 18 months or so and the launch day users will be left high and dry.
Click to expand...
Well, they might as they did with Switch 1 LCD update. But that fixed the security issue that allowed easy mod of the consoles as well.

I suspect that Nintendo will just release an OLED model, maybe throw in a bit larger battery and/or storage, charge $50-100 more and call it a day.
 
DenchDeckard said:
Ghosting and smearing is almost up there with tearing as a terrible way to destroy image quality.
Click to expand...
Well - in fairness the first two go hand in hand with TAA/DLSS and their kin, so for games that use temporal stuff, pixel response can in fact - be less important. Basically the display and postprocessing end up working hand in hand to hide each other's problems (and this 'does' happen - it's part of what made TAA revolution so easily accepted - most of us were used to poor temporal resolution displays in 2013).
Notably though - it's not always the case (two temporal amplitudes can double each other instead of cancelling out - making the issue worse), and most Switch 1 games aren't using TAA treatment of any sort - so no excuse there.

Perhaps more importantly, it's a freaking gaming display. I can live with worse response on things that primarily display static (web) or nearly static (tiktok / youtube) content - but this isn't a phone or a laptop.
 
I would remove 2 points of NS2 because the LCD in fucking 2025 and those stupid Virtual Game Cards, so 8/10.

Nintendo know they will release in future a OLED model, but for now the cheap they can make.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Nintendo - Switch 2 Upgrade Packs are $9.99
2
93
4K
Woopah replied
  • Locked
DF - Nintendo Switch 2 - DF Direct
Analysis 
26
2K
Killjoy-NL replied
No Mans Sky Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Trailer (Free Upgrade)
37
567
Holammer replied
[Digital Foundry] Switch 2 Unveiled - Games, Hardware, Specs + More - A DF Direct Special
News Analysis Hardware  2 3
122
6K
Robb replied
Mii characters are genderless on Nintendo Switch 2
2 3 4
167
825
Boss Man replied
Top Bottom