Topic: Bluetooth headphones on the Switch 2

When I'm playing on the Switch on a train/bus/plane/boat/etc., I mostly use noise-cancelling bluetooth headphones, so I was really interested to see how those will work with the Switch 2. The good news is that unlike the Switch 1, the Switch 2 isn't limited only to the SBC bluetooth audio codec, which is the most basic codec with the lowest audio quality and latency.

For some reason the Switch 2 technical specs on Nintendo's website don't mention what bluetooth codecs it supports, but I've read some discussions online where people have tested it, and Switch 2 seems to work with the AAC codec besides SBC. AAC has a better sound quality than SBC, so if your headphones also support that codec the sound should be somewhat better than on the Switch 1. AAC also has lower latency than SBC, which is obviously quite important when playing videogames.

Now it would be great if the Switch 2 supported even better codecs like aptX or LDAC, but since most of those require the hardware producer to pay a license fee, and since most Switch 2 consumers probably don't care that much about bluetooth audio quality (nor do they have headphones that support such higher-quality codecs), I doubt Nintendo is ever gonna add those codecs.

The bad news, however, is that just like Switch 1 the Switch 2 doesn't support the microphone function in bluetooth headphones. With the addition of Gamechat I was certain they would add it, since chatting with the headphones' inbuilt microphone rather than with the console microphone would seem like a natural option in handheld play, so it's kinda baffling this feature is still missing.

Since the Joycons and other controllers also connect to the console via bluetooth, I can sorta understand why they want to save bandwidth for them, but most of the times if you're using the Gamechat, you're probably the only person playing on that console with just two Joycons or one regular controller connected to it, so you'd think the hardware would allow the bluetooth microphone to also work with this configuration? I hope Nintendo will add this option in a later firmware update, I really don't get why they didn't have it there to begin with considering how much they've advertised Gamechat as a new feature for the Switch 2.

Yep, Switch 2 only supports AAC at best. Got my new Sennheiser Momentum 4 and the app shows AAC as used codec when connected to Switch 2. I am seriously thinking about getting a genki audio lite adapter to get that aptx codec. With Switch 1 that was a no-go as you "needed" the full size adapter to get passthrough charging. With Switch 2's 2nd USB-c port that is no longer mandatory and you can go for the slicker lite version.

I picked up the SteelSeries Arctis Gamebuds which comes with a 2.4 GHz dongle.

No delay, good battery life, portable — highly recommended.