Topic: If Switch 2 games had a battery saver mode would you use it?

When you are playing on laptops or pc gaming handhelds you often choose simpler graphics, lower resolution, lower frame rates etc in order to get longer play time. If you have the option you would often choose a lower TDP. Maybe it gives you 4 hours runtime instead of 2 hours. Would you use such a portable mode if Switch 2 games had a battery saver option, i.e. uglier games with slower frame rates? Maybe when the battery gets down to 20% you get the option to choose battery saver?

Negative.

Buy the Genki portable battery with built in magnetic magsafe ring and comes with adhesive magnetic rings to attach to back of your NSW2 and a built in attached USB-C cable. Triples your battery life and is still lighter than the original Steamdeck even with the battery attached.

Can even attach a ring on NSW1 OLED and use it for both. Heck, could use the 3rd ring on a NSW1 Lite or SteamDeck if desired.

Honestly the power draw is so low I'm not sure how much you'd gain. Thing is, it's not as simple as saying half the power half the pixels. It gets to the point where it's more like drop the power by 10%, drop 20% performance. Drop the power by 20% get system instability

Hard to tell without actually opening up the OS, setting clocks and literally testing it. But I would imagine they would have done these power/performance curves and figured out what clocks and voltages were the most optimal

I think you'll just have to wait for a node refresh a couple of years down the road. Or just do as @JaxonH said and get a battery bank

Or again, for anybody who hasn't tried it, turning off the HDR and the 120 refresh rate gave me significantly more handheld time. Like, not just another 15 minutes, more like close to another hour. I was shocked how much difference it made.

@rallydefault
True, and the fact that you saw such significant gains by changing screen settings kinda says something about how low the power consumption of the SoC is. Relatively speaking. And I think people who are concerned about the battery life of Switch 2 just generally don't realise how efficient it actually is

The reason it looks "bad" in comparison to Switch OLED is partly because of the more power hungry screen, partly the additional power it can deliver. The reason it compares unfavourably to something like the Steam Deck however, that's purely a function of significantly smaller raw battery capacity which offsets pretty much all of the efficiency gap

But throw a battery pack in your bag, lower the screen brightness or refresh rate. These things give you a LOT more time

@skywake well they could have just had a oled 60 fps screen and it would have been better for the consumer but they wanted to sell us 120fps even if nothing is going to use it and then resell us oled in a year or so. Awesome.

@sixrings
And if they had sold an OLED screen at launch you would've found something else to complain about. Like the higher price, or the lack of VRR or whatever. And then additionally a revision would still come that improved the process node, maybe adding VRR, maybe making the screen bigger or something. And then you'd be in the same position anyways

They released the product they did. There's no use complaining about it, it's what it is. If you don't like it don't buy it

edit: It's also just the standard tech purchase dilemma. There's always going to be something newer and better just around the corner. So you can wait for it, complain about the inevitably of it. Just sit around being constantly annoyed that your thing you got is outdated or never buy waiting for the next thing.... or you can just buy only when you see value in it and make the most of what you have when you get it

@_747_
Yup. Right here. It's $70 but there's a 5% off coupon offer if you've never ordered before. Pops up on the page, at least for me it did.

But it's so worth it. The magnet is so strong. It will not shake off on accident or even by trying. And with 3 magnetic rings you're covered. I cut one for my NSW1 OLED so the hinge could still swing open when the battery isn't connected.

But I use a thicker even stronger magnet on my NSW2, got a pack of 2 for $10 on Amazon. But the included rings are good enough.

https://www.genkithings.com/products/energy-pack