INTRO

As most of you probably know, 2020 is the year of..well..self-isolation but also the year of new Games Consoles. We got the last major release back in 2013, with the PS4 and the Xbox One, and now we’re waiting on two big releases in the PS5 and Xbox Series X. Then, we have Nintendo as the third player in this console war.

Some of you might say that Nintendo’s not really a player because, performance wise, the Nintendo Switch is far behind the PS4 and the Xbox One, not even to mention the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X. While that is indeed true, you can not argue with the fact that the Switch has now outsold the Xbox One, making the Switch the second best selling Console out right now, right after the PS4.

The demand is definitely there and the interest from the hardcore & casual gaming community is also there. The Switch came out in 2017, three years ago, so while it is still technically in the middle of its’ life-cycle, it is significantly underpowered when compared to even the PS4 & Xbox One. We’ve seen a lot of leaks that Nintendo is working on a Nintendo Switch Pro, so here is everything we know about it and also why I think this could just be the surprise contender to the PS5 and the Xbox Series X.

The Original Switch

We’ll be honest, when the Nintendo Switch came out, we weren’t fans at all. We did like the idea of having a console that can be used in so many ways, from hand-held to table-top to having it connected to a TV, but we were not a fan of how underpowered it was.

We kept comparing the Graphics on the Switch to the PS4 and the Xbox One in third party games, but there was just no comparison. Whilst other games such as Fortnite and Witcher 3 are playable on the Switch, they look significantly worse than on the PS4 and the Xbox One. But then, in late 2019, Apple launched Apple Arcade. I signed up for the free trial on my iPad and when I was on the road and travelling, I gave it a shot. It was pretty good but it was heavily lacking any big Triple-A titles. Which made me think, what if I actually gave the Switch a try?

So, I bought my first Switch in late 2019, less than six months ago, and I simply fell in love with it! It felt amazing in the hand, the games were just unbelievable, playing Triple-A games on the go is just something that you cannot do on anything else right now. This is unless you count Game-Streaming but unfortunately, when you’re traveling, the connection is very poor so it’s not really doable.

But what sold me right away were the first party games such as: Link’s Awakening, Pokémon Sword, Super Mario Odyssey, Animal Crossing and others. These are some of the best games that I’ve ever played and the fact that I could play these on the go, as well as on my TV, on the same device was absolutely outstanding. The Switch has actually now become my favourite console ever. Also, we’ve seen a lot of leaks & rumors on Nintendo’s upcoming Switch 2, or Switch Pro, Console.

A Mid-Cycle Upgrade

Nintendo has actually released two new Consoles in 2019. One of them was a newer model of the original Switch, with significantly improved battery life. The other was the Nintendo Switch Lite, a brand new Switch, which was specifically designed for hand-held play and does not support TV output.

A console built purely for hand-held gaming, that supports AAA Titles. The Switch Lite was released in 2019.

It’s pretty safe to assume that the next Switch would have some resemblance to the Switch Lite, in terms of its design. This is how we modelled our very own ZONEofTECH concept of the Nintendo Switch Pro. We thinned out the Bezels considerably to the point where they’re even thinner than on the Switch Lite. The Switch Lite already had much thinner Bezels, when compared to the original Switch. We modelled ours with a 7.3” Display, up from the current 6.2” panel, but kept the exact same Form Factor with the same thickness, height and width, just with a larger Display. The current Switch has a plastic Display which is very easily scratched. It’s an LCD Display but the Colour Reproduction is quite poor, so we’ve equipped ours with an OLED panel, a glass panel which would be perfectly suitable for this Switch Pro.

The reason why this might be called a Switch Pro, rather than a Switch 2, is because rather than this being the next generation Switch, it will be a spec bump to the current model, similar to what Sony and Microsoft have done with the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X. It will have a higher price point, but it will offer more premium features that the current Switch isn’t able to, such as higher Frame-Rates and especially a higher Resolution for games.

We have seen reports that Nintendo is finally considering releasing a Switch with 4K output support, something that the PS4 Pro introduced back in 2016. This also implies that we would very likely get a bump in handheld Resolution, from 720p to at least 1080p. Even with a more powerful chipset, which we’ll cover in just a second, it would be quite difficult for the Switch to be able to do 4K gaming, considering that it also needs to be a hand-held Console. And while the hand-held output would still just be 1080p, the Switch would require significantly more power when docked, in order to be able to do 4K.

If Nintendo were to add something like a Thunderbolt Port and a dedicated GPU in the dock itself, this would easily solve all of the performance related issues. This way, you can still have a very good hand-held experience in 1080p, but then also get full 4K the moment you dock the console in. At the moment, on the current Switch, aside from a bump in Resolution from 720p to 1080p, there’s isn’t really that much that you’re getting by docking the console. A dedicated GPU in the dock itself would solve this issue.

Specifications

Speaking of specs, we have seen reports that Nintendo and Nvidia are working together in order to develop the new CPU & GPU for the next generation Switch. As you probably know, the current Switches both use Nvidia’s Tegra X1 chip, an extremely weak SoC (System on a Chip) that contains both the CPU and the GPU. It was developed in 2015, five years ago, originally for the Nvidia Shield TV Smartbox, which in 2019 got upgraded to the new TegraX1+ Chip.

Will a potential Switch Pro get more current, high-end hardware?

The X1+ is about 25% more powerful than the original X1 from 2015, but even a 25% bump in performance would be extremely disappointing for the next Switch. This is the Processor that both the 2019 Switch and the 2019 Switch Lite should have included but instead, we just got a more power efficient version of the original X1. This makes us think that maybe ,and hopefully, Nintendo and Nvidia are indeed planning a very big performance upgrade for the next Switch, with an SoC designed specifically for the Switch.

Essentially, when the Switch was launched, Nintendo didn’t know how well it was going to sell, especially after the disaster that was the Wii U. So, instead of creating a Custom Chip, they just repurposed the best Mobile Processor that Nvidia had, which at that time was the two year old Tegra X1. But, considering how well the Switch has done in terms of sales, it is extremely likely that the reports stating that Nintendo and Nvidia are working together on as Custom Chipset are indeed correct. Japanese website ‘Gamepeida’ reports that the RAM would now be doubled to 8GB, compared to the 4GB we have now and the Storage will also be bumped to 128GB, up from the current 32GB. We don’t think the Storage was ever an issue, as you can indeed expand that via a microSD card, but you couldn’t really do anything about the Display or the performance.

A new report from ‘DigitTimes’ claims that the Switch Pro would enter mass production in Q1 2020, but this is likely not the case anymore, given the recent outbreak throughout the world. Also, Nintendo themselves have indeed confirmed that there will be no new Nintendo Console in 2020. So, this Switch Pro would very likely release in early 2021, rather than 2020. This is mostly because it won’t be able to compete with the PS5 and Xbox Series X, at least when it comes to the performance.

Another report claims that Nvidia is working with Nintendo, on developing a new SoC on their new Volta architecture. But even Volta is quite old as it was released in 2017, it was replaced by Turing which itself will soon be replaced by Ampere. We wouldn’t be surprised if Nvidia ends up using an older architecture again, but given the success of the Switch, it would make more sense to design something that is at least set in the present, when it comes to raw power. Nintendo also showed us the trailer for ‘Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2’, but they haven’t said anything about a potential release date. I would expect ‘Breath of the Wild 2’ to launch at the same time as this new Switch, this way they can promote the capabilities of the new Console whilst also promoting the game itself.

Backwards Compatibility, Remote Play & Design

Speaking of games, Backwards Compatibility has been reported to be happening numerous times and I wouldn’t really expect otherwise. The PS5 and the Xbox Series X will both support current generation games, while the Xbox will go as far as supporting Xbox 360 and even original Xbox games. Not supporting Nintendo Switch games, especially considering that this will be a Switch Pro, rather than a Switch 2, is looking extremely unlikely.

This wouldn’t be the first time Nintendo & Sony have teamed-up. (Image: Archyde)

Now something interesting that we were not expecting to see, is that Sony was surveying their users on Remote Play support for the Nintendo Switch. I don’t think any reasonable person would say no to this, so it might be the case that by the end of 2020, we could start seeing Remote Play support on the current Switch Consoles. This isn’t really a next-gen Switch feature, but it is something that we did want to mention.

One of our complaints with the original Switch was that it was quite uncomfortable to use in hand-held for long periods of time. This was indeed fixed with the Switch Lite, but it does remain an issue on the regular Switch. You can buy some grip attachments to solve this, but they only end up making the Console thicker and heavier.

With the Switch Pro, we’ve modelled our concept as a mix between the Switch Lite and the regular Switch. Aside from the Display, we’ve also replaced the Arrow Keys with a proper D-Pad, just like on the Switch Lite. We’ve made the Joysticks a bit bigger and also applied the same colour options as we have on the Switch Lite. This would be a single colour for the entire device, but Joy-cons would still be removable and replaceable, in case you do want to make it look a bit more unique.

Conclusion

In the end, this is how this Switch is looking so far, with a brand new CPU & GPU that are both based on a more modern architecture from Nvidia, which is finally capable of doing 4K gaming when docked.

If you think about it, Nvidia actually needs this more than Nintendo does. They’re doing well in the Laptop space but AMD is completely taking the Console space. Both the current generation PS4 and Xbox One, as well as the next generation PS5 and Xbox Series X, are all running on AMD hardware. Nvidia has to release something ground-breaking for this next generation Switch.