Nintendo Switch 2 Review

The Switch 2 is the least surprising console Nintendo has released and probably the most sensible. Everything that was wrong with the original is addressed: the chip is finally competitive, upscaling gets docked games to 4K and handheld ones to a clean 1080p, the screen is larger and faster, the kickstand is a proper one, the controllers attach magnetically and one of them works as a mouse, and eight years of software comes with you.

Build quality and the feel of the machine in the hand are the best Nintendo has managed. What critics keep circling back to is what it costs. Four hundred and fifty for the console and eighty for a first party game is a jump the audience noticed, the display is an LCD whose contrast and brightness make the high dynamic range badge close to decorative, and battery life under load is short. The launch software was thin and the year since has filled it out rather than transformed it. A very good machine that changes nothing, from the company that used to change everything.