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The Swap OLED is a powerful contender for many beautiful handheld ever

Written by Jeff Lampkin

Nintendo makes good {hardware}, however I don’t know if I’d ever personally describe any of it as “lovely.” The GameCube was cute, I liked the clamshell design of the Recreation Boy Advance SP and I nonetheless have fond recollections of the SNES’s dogbone controller. However the Swap… I’m simply kind of “okay” with it. It’s by no means been a bit of a {hardware} that screamed “contact me” till now, with the upcoming OLED model.

Metroid Dread, Samus Aran shooting at blobs

Kris Naudus / Engadget

Set to return out October eighth, the large marquee characteristic of the brand new Swap is its bigger, sharper display screen. It’s been bumped as much as a 7-inch OLED from the 6.2-inch LCD of the unique. I bought to spend about an hour and a half with it and, although I couldn’t evaluate the 2 techniques side-by-side, I definitely observed the distinction after I bought residence. I fumbled for the brightness settings on my OG Swap solely to sadly understand they have been at max. The OLED is vivid, crisp and gosh darn lovely. The unique Swap show nonetheless seems to be good, however the brand new display screen is genuinely nice.

Left Joy-Con with screen and hand visible

Kris Naudus / Engadget

The sport on provide was the upcoming Metroid Dread, which comes out the identical day as principally a “launch title” for the refreshed system. It’s a good selection given the darkish, typically claustrophobic settings of the Metroid collection. It’s simple sufficient to see each passage and to tell apart the impassable bricks from those you’re alleged to blow up. The sport will nonetheless be playable on a daily Swap or Swap Lite, however it seems like the sport was meant to be seen on the brand new {hardware}.

Narrow power and volume buttons

Kris Naudus / Engadget

And it’s extra than simply that bigger show. It’s nonetheless the identical primary form and dimension however in some way feels extra svelte, regardless of being heavier than the unique. The amount and energy buttons alongside the highest are narrower, a design alternative I’m not loopy about though I didn’t discover them significantly exhausting to press. (I feel I simply favor the texture of a round button over an oval-shaped one.)

Back of Nintendo Switch with wider kickstand

Kris Naudus / Engadget

The brand new kickstand is fairly nice, stretching all the best way throughout the again of the system as a substitute of the unique’s flimsy vertical strip that fell off if you happen to checked out it humorous. Certain, the brand new one takes a bit of extra effort to drag it out however it’s value it for the additional sturdiness and reliability. And be nonetheless my coronary heart, it’s really adjustable, although I didn’t make use of this a lot since I most well-liked to play the system in handheld mode. It simply felt… good. And the brand new black and white coloration scheme seems to be nice in particular person. I’ve at all times been a sucker for the panda look, and would have most well-liked this to the all-gray system I began with again in 2017.

All that mentioned, I didn’t have sufficient time to check the battery life with the brand new display screen, or see what number of video games I can cram onto the 64 GB of storage. Till I understand how lengthy it’ll final within the wild I’m undecided if it is a must-upgrade, however simply taking a look at a Switch OLED in particular person, I discovered it exhausting to withstand.

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About the author

Jeff Lampkin

Jeff Lampkin was the first writer to have joined gamepolar.com. He has since then inculcated very effective writing and reviewing culture at GamePolar which rivals have found impossible to imitate. His approach has been to work on the basics while the whole world was focusing on the superstructures.