Nintendo Switch OLED review
Our Verdict
The Nintendo Switch OLED sports a gorgeous screen, an improved kickstand and lots of storage space. It's an piece of cake recommendation for beginning-time Switch buyers — and an extravagance for current Switch owners.
For
- Beautiful OLED screen
- Handful of minor, useful upgrades
- Handsome blackness-and-white color scheme
- Retains splendid Switch features and library
Against
- No 4K capabilities
- Display still 720p
- Shows its age compared to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S
Tom'due south Guide Verdict
The Nintendo Switch OLED sports a gorgeous screen, an improved kickstand and lots of storage space. It's an like shooting fish in a barrel recommendation for first-fourth dimension Switch buyers — and an extravagance for current Switch owners.
Pros
- +
Cute OLED screen
- +
Scattering of pocket-size, useful upgrades
- +
Handsome black-and-white colour scheme
- +
Retains excellent Switch features and library
Cons
- -
No 4K capabilities
- -
Display still 720p
- -
Shows its age compared to PS5 and Xbox Series X/South
Nintendo Switch OLED: Specs
Release Date: October 8, 2021
Cost: $350
Chipset: Custom Nvidia Tegra X1
Storage: 64 GB (expandable)
Brandish: 7-inch OLED
Max Resolution: 720p handheld/1080p docked
Max Framerate: 60 fps
Ports: USB-C, three.5 mm audio, microSD, HDMI (docked), LAN (docked)
Size: ix.five x 4.0 ten 0.6 inches
Weight: fourteen.ix ounces (handheld)
Battery Life: 4.five – 9 hours
The Nintendo Switch OLED is an amazingly easy product to recommend — and to recommend against. Are you lot looking to buy a Nintendo Switch for the showtime fourth dimension? Get the Switch OLED. At $350, information technology more than than earns its $fifty premium over the $300 base Switch model. Practise yous already own a Nintendo Switch? It's probably not worth upgrading.
On the one paw, it's like shooting fish in a barrel to honey the Switch OLED, because information technology accomplishes what it sets out to practice and so well and makes the all-time Switch games look not bad. On the other paw, it'southward easy to exist frustrated with the Switch OLED, because it'due south such a mild upgrade at a time when the Switch could really employ a full 4K variant.
The Switch OLED is quite like to the base model, save for its prettier screen and a handful of design improvements. And while the screen is, indeed, very pretty, it doesn't radically alter the feel of playing the Switch in handheld fashion. If you lot play your Switch in docked way, and so the Switch OLED doesn't change anything at all.
Notwithstanding, taken on its own merits, the Switch OLED is a strong automobile. Information technology still has a killer hybrid design, a terrific library of games and an beauteous focus on gaming, first and foremost. If yous've been on the fence nearly a Switch, the OLED is the model to get. Read on for our full Nintendo Switch OLED review — and once you've bought one, bank check out our Nintendo Switch OLED starter guide for tips on how to get the nearly from it and our nearly anticipated Nintendo Switch games for 2022 list.
Nintendo Switch OLED review: Pattern
Kickoff things first: The Nintendo Switch OLED is, for the most part, exactly like the panel's base of operations model. If yous desire to know how the system functions overall, I recommend you check out our Nintendo Switch review, which covers the system'south general size and shape, portable functionality, idiosyncratic controllers, uneven online features and all-encompassing game library.
The first thing I noticed about the Switch OLED was that it's the aforementioned size as the base of operations Switch: 9.5 x iv.0 x 0.6 inches. This is a bit bigger than the handheld-simply Nintendo Switch Lite, only it's a comfortable size for near teens and adults to hold for long periods of fourth dimension. (Information technology'southward probably a fleck too big for small children.) This may seem like a minor betoken, simply because the Switch OLED retains its analogue's physical pattern, all of your existing accessories should still work. Stashing the Switch OLED in my regular Switch'southward carrying example saved me a big headache right off the bat.
To be off-white, the Switch OLED is a tiny scrap heavier than the base of operations model: 14.nine ounces, as opposed to 14.1 ounces. I didn't find the OLED less comfortable to hold for long periods of time, but when information technology comes to handhelds, lighter is better.
Nintendo Switch OLED review: OLED screen
From a physical standpoint, the Switch OLED makes two big deviations from the base model, and ane small-but-significant deviation. The most noticeable modify, of course, is the seven-inch OLED screen, compared to the 6-inch LCD screen on the base Switch.
The OLED screen is the centerpiece of the Switch OLED, and where most of Nintendo's praise is due. The larger screen renders well-baked images with vibrant colors and deep blacks. When yous play a game with nighttime, detailed levels — such as the alien caverns of Metroid Dread or the foreboding castles of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — the experience feels even more immersive than before. While the paradigm quality isn't vastly different betwixt a vii-inch OLED and a vi-inch LCD, the color richness is.
When y'all play a game with night, detailed levels — such as the conflicting caverns of Metroid Dread — the experience feels even more immersive than earlier.
At the same time, it's worth pointing out that your optics become acclimated to just about annihilation afterwards a while. When I starting time jumped from the base Switch to the OLED model, I found the bigger screen and more lifelike colors stunning. Subsequently half an hour, I'd tuned them out to focus exclusively on gameplay. Likewise, going back to the base Switch felt like a large stride downward at first, and a nonissue shortly thereafter.
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For this reason, amongst others, I'd caution existing Switch owners against running out to buy the OLED model. It looks good, but it'due south not a night-and-24-hour interval difference from what you already have. The screen nevertheless maxes out at 720p resolution; the panel yet chugs during demanding gameplay sections sometimes.
Nintendo Switch OLED review: Kickstand and speakers
The Switch OLED'due south other upgrades are more subtle, but even so useful. The kickstand now runs the length of the device, rather than being a unproblematic, flimsy piece of plastic. This makes it easier to stand up the Switch OLED up on a variety of surfaces, without worrying nigh it taking a sudden dive.
Furthermore, the Switch OLED's dock possesses a built-in Ethernet port, and so you no longer have to buy a separate adapter.
So in that location are the speakers, which don't look much unlike, but sound considerably better. On the Switch OLED, the speakers are slightly bigger and accept more than of a rectangular shape.
The more of import change, though, is that they audio much better than before, with a clearer, more than nuanced soundscape, even at lower volumes. The ambient audio in Metroid Dread felt sufficiently ominous; the strong melody of the Hyrule Castle theme in The Fable of Zelda: Breath of the Wild felt sufficiently heroic.
Nintendo Switch OLED review: Interface
The Nintendo Switch OLED's interface is exactly the same ane you lot'll find on the base Switch and Switch Lite with the aforementioned Bone. That means that you'll all the same go the easy-to-navigate game card on the habitation screen, with separate sections for Nintendo Switch Online, news, the Nintendo eShop, saved photos and videos, controller options, brightness and other system settings.
The Switch OLED's navigation is arguably non as robust as the PS5 or the Xbox Series X/S, only it'south also arguably much simpler and more than straightforward. All Switch systems — including the OLED — now support Bluetooth audio, thanks to a recent firmware update, which is a nice bear on.
Nintendo Switch OLED review: Performance
If at that place'south ane expanse where the Switch OLED falls a flake short, it's in performance. That'due south not considering the Switch OLED is whatever worse than the base of operations model; in fact, information technology'southward well-nigh exactly the aforementioned. But the fact is that the Switch is a four-year-old console, and the manufacture has fabricated some pretty significant strides in hardware since 2017. To put it bluntly, later on playing the PS5 and Xbox Series X, information technology's hard to go back to a Switch, OLED or otherwise.
To put it bluntly, after playing the PS5 and Xbox Series X, it's hard to go back to a Switch, OLED or otherwise.
Like the base Switch, the Switch OLED features a custom Nvidia Tegra X1 chipset. This is similar to what's inside a high-finish streaming device; the Nvidia Shield uses one besides. The Switch OLED has 4 GB RAM and 64 GB flash storage. (The base model has 32 GB flash storage, so that'due south improved, at least.) The result is a handheld hybrid that can brandish 720p at up to lx frames per second in handheld manner, and 1080p at up to 60 fps in docked style. 4K resolution and 120 fps frame rates are a pipage dream — not to mention the near-instantaneous loading times that SSDs can facilitate.
While Nintendo didn't blueprint the Switch to incorporate cutting-edge components, the device felt a little underpowered in 2017, and downright outmoded at present. In handheld mode, yous'll notice long load times and low resolutions; in docked mode, yous'll observe dated graphics and inconsistent frame rates.
It's also worth noting that if you own a base Switch and play primarily in docked fashion, the Switch OLED has almost nothing to offering you. One time y'all plug the console into a dock, the OLED screen, larger kickstand and amend speakers are meaningless. And if y'all need an Ethernet port, you tin get a perfectly practiced adapter for $30.
The skilful news is that there is a way to become visuals from your Switch with an external accompaniment. We've tested the Marseille mClassic upscaler ($79 on Amazon) on games like Metroid Dread, and it does deliver cleaner, crisper graphics when using a larger 4K TV.
Nintendo Switch OLED review: Controller
Much similar its interface and components, the Nintendo Switch OLED's controller options are identical to those of the base Switch. The Joy-Cons are still competent when attached to the console, and a fleck off-middle and uncomfortable when plugged into the controller base of operations.
They're also great for impromptu multiplayer sessions. I still recommend the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller if y'all're going to sit back and play games on the couch for hours on end.
This time around, you can get the Joy-Cons in either the traditional blue-and-reddish, or a stately black-and-white. I admire the Switch OLED'due south new color scheme, just I practice wonder how easily information technology will get dirty over time.
Nintendo Switch OLED review: Game library
The Nintendo Switch OLED offers a robust and eclectic game library, just like the base of operations Switch and Switch Lite. The game pick is exactly the same amidst the iii console variations. But be aware that yous'll be able to play beloved offset-party Nintendo fare, such as Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, also as more contempo third-party hits, such as Doom (2016) and Dragon Ball FighterZ. The Switch OLED is also a fantastic place to play older games, from venerable classics similar Mega Human being Ten, to newer favorites like The Elderberry Scrolls 5: Skyrim.
I would exist remiss, however, if I did non mention Metroid Dread: the outset original side-scrolling Metroid game in 19 years. Coming out alongside the Switch OLED, Metroid Dread is arguably the console's flagship game. Samus Aran'southward latest adventure does indeed look gorgeous on the OLED model, peculiarly the deep reds and dejection of her power armor, and the stately blacks of the dangerous Planet ZDR. If y'all have whatever affinity for side-scrollers, Metroid Dread is among the best Nintendo Switch games, and therefore should be your first Switch OLED game purchase.
Nintendo Switch OLED review: Battery life
Nintendo claims that the Switch OLED tin can get betwixt iv.five and ix hours of gameplay on a single charge, depending on which games you play. The Switch OLED employs the same bombardment equally the base-model Switch, so the battery life may not exist tremendously unlike. In our testing and so far, Metroid Dread ate through a fully charged battery in near 5 hours, which is in line with Nintendo's predictions.
It's difficult to come up upwardly with a standardized gameplay test for the Nintendo Switch's bombardment life, as different gameplay activities taxation the bombardment to dissimilar extents. Instead, we selected a colorful YouTube video with a lot of movement, then ran it on four different Switch models with the screen brightness at 100% and the volume at l%. Here's how each Switch variant performed:
| Nintendo Switch OLED | Nintendo Switch (2019 Model) | Nintendo Switch (Launch Model) | Nintendo Switch Lite | |
| Battery Life (Hrs:Min) | 5:00 | iv:40 | iii:28 | 3:19 |
The Switch OLED performed just as Nintendo promised, offer a solid 5 hours of bombardment life. A launch model Switch provided 3 hours and 28 minutes, while a Switch Light lasted for 3 hours and nineteen minutes. Nintendo implemented a improve battery in the base Switch in 2019; one of those models lasted 4 hours and forty minutes on a unmarried accuse.
Nintendo Switch OLED review: Verdict
Overall, the Nintendo Switch OLED is a great organization. This is primarily because the base Nintendo Switch is still a great system, and the Switch OLED makes a handful of smart additions. The OLED screen looks equally impressive as we'd hoped. Smaller improvements to the kickstand, speakers, dock and storage also address shortcomings in the base model.
Withal, there'southward something decidedly unsatisfying about the Switch OLED. Later iv years, it nevertheless has the aforementioned components, the same resolution and the same controllers, none of which were perfect to begin with. With a whole new generation of consoles on the market, even an OLED screen tin can't make the Switch experience especially slick or powerful.
If you take it for what it is, the Switch OLED is a solid system, and an piece of cake bet for gamers who haven't taken the plunge on a Switch yet. But if you lot consider what it might have been, the Switch OLED may simply be a stopgap before Nintendo takes some other big take chances on some other inventive idea.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/nintendo-switch-oled
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