Switch 2 vs OLED: Nintendo Gamers Face an Impossible Choice

The long-rumored Switch 2, as we’ll call it for now, is widely expected to launch in late 2024 – but Nintendo fans waiting for an upgrade to their existing console may find the Switch 2 something of a poisoned chalice.

On January 26, Bloomberg reported that the Switch 2 would seemingly ship with an 8-inch LCD screen, citing Omdia analyst and small display expert Hiroshi Hayase. That prediction matches up with previous reports, but this is our best sign yet that the Switch successor will indeed ditch the 2021 model’s OLED panel to help bring down production costs.

That 8-inch LCD panel still marks a noticeable size upgrade over previous iterations of the console – the 5.5-inch Switch Lite, the 6.2-inch original Switch, and the 7-inch Switch OLED. It’s also an upgrade over the biggest Switch competitors out there, like the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally, which both feature a 7-inch display. And it’s likely the larger screen will host a higher resolution than any Switch consoles to date. 1080p in handheld, here we come!

But the news will no doubt dampen the hopes of gamers who bought the Switch OLED back in 2021, and are now faced with an impossible choice – jump to a new console to play next-gen Nintendo games, or stick with old hardware for the sake of the visuals.

I was thrilled to trade in my original Switch for an OLED upgrade, and could immediately appreciate my favorite games like never before – the heightened contrast, improved brightness, and rich hues made every visual asset truly pop in ways that weren’t possible on the LCD screen version. I was midway through Dead Cells, my top choice of a punishing roguelite at the time, and the difference was very, very noticeable: whether the colorful pulses of attacks and enemies, or minute visual details like falling leaves or cracked brickwork all grabbing my attention in whole new ways. After all that, the idea of going back to LCD tech for my Switch game library is… not particularly tempting.

The Overwhelming Pros of OLED

OLED is an exceptional panel technology, thanks to its self-emissive pixels, which emit their own light instead of having a backlight wash through the pixel layer. These pixels can even be turned off individually, allowing for sharper contrast between light and dark sections of the screen, and only funneling light to the areas, objects or colors that need it.

Blacks on LCD screens can also have a slightly grayer tint, due to the backlight, and the difference is even more noticeable when you’re playing in a dark room – OLED is certainly a better shout if you’re partial to snuggling up in bed with a handheld console (not a euphemism).

Games particularly benefit from OLED displays because they’re a high contrast medium – often using pure blacks in character design or HUD elements; as well as needing colors and objects to pop against the background to help you distinguish between them. It also helps you better appreciate the design and animation work that goes into the game.

The Switch 2 returning to LCD makes business sense, of course – ditching the premium OLED display to reduce costs amid a host of other, next-gen technical improvements. The main complaint against the Switch OLED is that it enhances visual quality without boosting internal performance, and it looks like the Switch 2 will do the reverse.

One caveat is that while the OLED model was 2023’s most popular Nintendo console, at 4.69 million units sold – on top of 9.22 million units sold the year before – that number is still a fraction of the 132 million Switch consoles sold since 2017. Which means almost every Switch gamer out there has the original LCD console, and for them the move to an LCD Switch 2 shouldn’t register as anything but an improvement.

So, what should a discerning Nintendo gamer – the kind who opts for a mid-cycle OLED upgrade – do? A larger screen is nothing to sniff at, of course, and we should be getting improved resolution in handheld mode, alongside other unknown improvements to the console. 4K in docked mode? An AR camera? Some foldable cardboard? You can never tell with Nintendo.