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The best new tech heading your way
1 NINTENDO SWITCH 2
£TBC, nintendo.co.uk
The worst kept secret in tech has finally been confirmed, following sneaky pics dribbling onto social media of the motherboard, the newly-enlarged joycons, the rear of the machine, the dock, the logo, and even the entire console courtesy of a careless accessory manufacturer at CES. Loose lips won’t sink Nintendo’s ship, of course, but let’s be clear: the big N’s initial announcement of the Switch 2 basically amounts to little more than ‘yes this exists’, ‘yes, it’s called the Switch 2’, and inevitably ‘yes, you want it’.
With Nintendo not letting on with many specifics, let’s talk what we think we know. Pics of the system suggest it’s about 15% larger than the original, and now likely features an 8in screen. Scuttlebutt suggests that’ll be an LCD in the original batch, presumably to make room for a later OLED upgrade and keep the price down for early adopters.
Motherboard pics indicate that the Switch 2 will feature an Nvidia Tegra T239 processor originally designed for automotive applications, offering a ten times performance increase over the Tegra X1 in the original Switch. That’s power similar to a last-gen console like the Xbox One or PlayStation 4, with the potential for its CUDA AI cores to take on the task of upscaling older 720p Switch games to juicy 4K.
All credit to Nintendo for keeping the baby and the bathwater together, and potentially bucking the good console / bad console cycle it’s followed since the SNES. Roll on the full unveil in April.
JOYCON UPGRADES The Joycons are not only larger, they’re completely redesigned, with a new click-in attachment method which should feel stronger than the rickety slide of the original. Hopefully we’ll get drift-free hall effect sticks, and there’s what looks like some kind of 3D mouse sensor built in to the edge, which should make for interesting interactions.