First Impressions of the Nintendo Switch 2 from a Switch OLED Owner
This wasn't the post I had originally planned to write this week. But, after one of my regularly scheduled Saturday Target runs, I am the proud new owner of a Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World Bundle.
Forever a Nintendo fan
I'll always be a Nintendo Fan, for better or worse.
That said, as of late, my Switch consumption has been relegated to first-party Nintendo titles and exclusives only. Anything outside of that, I pick up on Steam assuming it's sufficiently Steam Deck capable.
The ol' Switcheroo
We've had a lot of Switch devices come into our house. We even had one leave with our less than ideal foreign exchange student.
The OG Switch was the first to grace our home at or around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. When Animal Crossing New Horizons came out, we realized that sharing one island with [my wife][jen] kinda sucked, thus a few Switch Lites were procured while masked up at the Target.
Fast forward a bit, and the OLED came out. It was a noticeable upgrade for me from the Switch LCD and a massive upgrade from the wife's Switch Lite.
While this wasn't always feasible for us financially, at this point making sure our nuclear family has their own personal devices tends to be what we do. We did it with the 3DS and Switch. Over time, we'll probably do it with the Switch 2 as well.
Skipping the pre-order
You can in fact be a fan and also practice some restraint.
So saith Patience the Puritan
I honestly wasn't all that excited about the Switch 2. Having the Switch OLED it seemed like it could be a downgrade. Sure, larger screen, but also crappier.
Also, I have a pretty epic backlog of those Nintendo exclusives that I'm still working through. If there had been a new Mario Odyssey game, I probably would have done the pre-order.
I do like the chase though. I figured if I just so happened to run into one in the wild, I'd grab it. Going into the holiday season, I figured I'd end up with one early next year, and not a mere month after launch.
Probably should have picked up a lottery ticket while I was out.
Initial setup and system transfer
The first stop after unboxing is to transfer from my Switch OLED to my Switch 2.
I'm not going to go into details, but the process was fairly smooth, aside from not knowing if my Switch memory card worked in my Switch 2.
Spoiler: it won't work because it's not an express card.
System transfer completed quickly, but there was still over-the-air downloads to do, including the digital copy of Mario Kart World.
The Nintendo store felt about as crappy as on the Switch, but as somebody that primarily sticks to physical copies of games, this doesn't matter much to me.
Feelin' this
The Switch 2 is a larger device than the Switch and Switch OLED. The screen is larger than that of the Steam Deck, making the overall device feel larger in my opinion.
So large that I think it falls into the same category as my Steam Deck. It's going to be great for couch play, but not necessarily a device I'd personally want to travel with.
This is also why I keep a few of those retro consoles around, as they are "pocketable" and can be shoved in my carry-on man bag easily.
In comparison to the Switch, the Switch 2's got a few sharper edges. They are doing this whole flat front, curved back thing. It's even baked into the design of the dock. Not a deal breaker, but somewhat noticeable.
Switch 2 vs. Switch OLED
As previously mentioned, I was concerned that going from an OLED screen to an LCD screen was going to feel like a step down. I can confidently say that I'm not sure I can tell a difference.
I think at this point, larger screens are going to feel better than smaller ones, because I'm old.
I'm also not over here taking measurements on pixel brightness or anything, and I guess the blacks probably aren't as black as they could be?
French vanilla roast (dying dying)
Games like Mario Kart aren't really known for their drab palettes, and the colors seemed vibrant enough. Mario Kart was fun, I wasn't going to nitpick over the nits.
Anecdotally, I did notice that Diablo III (yes, third-party, I'm still hoping for a Steam release) did appear a bit fuzzy compared to it on the OLED screen. I'm guessing this is probably why a lot of titles are getting seemingly trivial free updates to "optimize visuals".
I'm not rushing out to get rid of my Switch OLED, so there will probably be some games that I play on there if they look like ass on the Switch 2.
Conclusion
I'm going to miss the chase, but I'm definitely happy with the purchase.
I suspect my observation of the less than stellar graphics from Switch titles will be limited to third-party titles. This is fine for me, as I only buy Nintendo exclusives at this point.
The screen is definitely nice, and my initial fears about it have been quelled. I'm sure it's a technical downgrade, but I'm sure they'll be shaking the tin cup for me to buy a Switch 2 OLED at some point in the future too.
How I used AI on this post
I don't shy away from the fact that I do use the crap out of generative AI. I am also very intentional with my usage on this site, and am extremely passionate about writing and producing my own content.
The poor grammar, run-on sentences, unnecessary use of the word "fuck". That's all 100% unapologetically me.
Here's a quick rundown of how I used AI on this particular post.
Input Prompt
don't school me on grammar, just looking for blatant typos... double words, obvious misspellings
[initial draft of this post, sans images]
LLM Response
🔍 Found Issues:
- "New Horizon's" → should be "New Horizons" (no apostrophe)
- "the OLD came out" → did you mean "the OLED came out"?
- "not mere a month" → should be "not merely a month" or "not even a month"
- "Spoiler, it won't work" → comma splice-ish, but really just consider: "Spoiler: it won't work"
- "over the air downloads" → hyphenate: "over-the-air downloads"
- "carry on man bag" → maybe hyphenate: "carry-on man bag" (up to you—less about correctness, more about clarity)
- "Blacker than the blackest black" / "French vanilla roast (dying dying)" → not a typo, just checking that second line isn't accidental nonsense (I know what you're going for vibe-wise, just flagging in case)
âś… Looks Good:
- No repeated words.
- No egregious spelling mistakes (nice job keeping it clean).
- Tone and phrasing feel intentional—nothing reads like a legit accident outside the above.
Let me know if you want it polished for publishing or if this is just a vibe check!
Ship It
I fixed a few of those, by hand in Neovim, maybe not exactly like the robot suggested. No additional prompting, just a second set of "eyes" to help me from looking like a complete jackass.
This tends to be my typical flow after I write a post. It's not really any different from using spelling and grammar checkers within your text editor.
If we use these tools for good, maybe the tools won't factor us out of the equation at some point. Here's to hoping.