Nintendo makes good {hardware}, however I don’t know if I’d ever personally describe any of it as “beautiful.” The GameDice was cute, I liked the clamshell design of the Game Boy Advance SP and I nonetheless have fond reminiscences of the SNES’s dogbone controller. But the Switch… I’m simply type of “okay” with it. It’s by no means been a chunk of a {hardware} that screamed “touch me” till now, with the upcoming OLED model.

Set to return out October eighth, the massive marquee characteristic of the brand new Switch is its bigger, sharper display. It’s been bumped as much as a 7-inch OLED from the 6.2-inch LCD of the unique. I obtained to spend about an hour and a half with it and, although I couldn’t evaluate the 2 methods side-by-side, I definitely seen the distinction after I obtained dwelling. I fumbled for the brightness settings on my OG Switch solely to sadly notice they had been at max. The OLED is vibrant, crisp and gosh darn stunning. The authentic Switch show nonetheless seems good, however the brand new display is genuinely nice.

The recreation on provide was the upcoming Metroid Dread, which comes out the identical day as principally a “launch title” for the refreshed system. It’s a good selection given the darkish, generally claustrophobic settings of the Metroid sequence. It’s simple sufficient to see each passage and to tell apart the impassable bricks from those you’re imagined to blow up. The recreation will nonetheless be playable on an everyday Switch or Switch Lite, nevertheless it looks like the sport was meant to be seen on the brand new {hardware}.

And it’s extra than simply that bigger show. It’s nonetheless the identical primary form and dimension however by some means feels extra svelte, regardless of being heavier than the unique. The quantity and energy buttons alongside the highest are narrower, a design selection I’m not loopy about though I didn’t discover them notably onerous to press. (I feel I simply want the texture of a round button over an oval-shaped one.)

The new kickstand is fairly nice, stretching all the way in which throughout the again of the system as an alternative of the unique’s flimsy vertical strip that fell off in the event you checked out it humorous. Sure, the brand new one takes a little bit extra effort to drag it out nevertheless it’s value it for the additional sturdiness and reliability. And be nonetheless my coronary heart, it’s truly adjustable, although I didn’t make use of this a lot since I most popular to play the system in handheld mode. It simply felt… good. And the brand new black and white colour scheme seems nice in particular person. I’ve at all times been a sucker for the panda look, and would have most popular this to the all-gray system I began with again in 2017.

All that mentioned, I didn’t have sufficient time to check the battery life with the brand new display, or see what number of video games I can cram onto the 64 GB of storage. Until I understand how lengthy it’ll final within the wild I’m unsure if this can be a must-upgrade, however simply taking a look at a Switch OLED in particular person, I discovered it onerous to withstand.