Nintendo Switch Lite Reportedly Arrives This Fall With A More Powerful System To Follow
Nintendo's gamble that gamers would be interested in a hybrid console that both connects to a big screen TV and can be played on the go paid off in a big way. The Switch, despite being relatively under powered compared to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, has proven immensely popular. Surely there will be another iteration at some point, and perhaps two more.
According to a Japanese-language report at Nikkei, Nintendo is prepping a more affordable version of the Switch for a release this fall. There are not a ton of details to go on, but the Switch Lite, as we will refer to it, is said to be more compact. The smaller design will up the portability factor, as is the focus, though according to the report, it will still be able to be plugged into a TV.
As for the underlying hardware, that is not known. A smaller size alone would not necessarily make it cheaper than the original Switch. Nintendo could also downgrade some of the core components, though the company has to be careful—the Switch is not exactly a high powered console to begin with, so there is only so much wiggle room.
Future Nintendo Switch consoles will not be available at Toys R Us (*sniff*)
Nintendo is also said to be working on a more powerful version of the Switch. Unlike the Switch Lite (or whatever it ends up being called), the beefier version will be the true successor to the current Switch, which released just over two years ago.
Details are light on this one as well, except that a launch is further down the road. The report claims development on that one has been "postponed," though something may have been lost in translation. Either way, it will come out sometime after the Switch Lite.
It will be interesting to see what the upgraded model eventually brings to the table. One possible avenue Nintendo could explore is 5G connectivity, depending on when the followup model comes out. The current Switch lacks cellular connectivity, but adding it to the Switch's successor could open up new doors, especially if 5G networks get fleshed out.
There is also the SoC to consider. The current Switch is powered by NVIDIA's Tegra X1 SoC, which launched in January 2015.
