Topic: Nintendo Switch 2 Lite in 2026 (Hear Me Out)

In 2019, Nintendo released the Nintendo Switch Lite shortly before the release of Pokemon Sword and Shield which came with one of the first special editions of the model.
In 2013, Nintendo put out the Nintendo 2DS on the exact same day as Pokemon X and Y with the clear intention of attracting kids and children with a cheaper console redesign.
You can go back to 2006, when Nintendo put out the DS Lite in Europe and NA shortly before Diamond and Pearl were released.

I'm not saying its an exact science, but Nintendo has historically paired their Lite console redesigns with a new Pokemon generation. If they're looking to expand the Switch 2's audience, shiny new pokemon games are a fine time to push a smaller, less expensive model and attract kids and parents.

If we reference the teraleak, we can expect Gen 10 by this time next year. I'll go one step further and predict that the Nintendo Switch 2 Lite will release around the launch of Pokemon Pokopia to try to tap into the casual market as well. It all seems to be lining up.

That's actually a really good theory!
Also your profile picture is hilarious

Switch 2 Lite will be likely having weaker battery life than OG Switch 2.
Not a good idea.

@Anti-Matter That's not the point of my post, but okay dude...

The Switch 2 is currently on a very old and cheap fabrication process from 2020/2021 the Samsung 8Nm fabrication process but really its actually a 10Nm fabrication mainly. The T239 chipset was designed back then to use the Samsung 8Nm process with the aborted Switch Pro model. It feels like Nintendo will want to have many millions of Switch 2 consoles sold before they make the huge investment in an improved fabrication needed for a lite model maybe 40 million. Component prices have been rising too and moving the Switch 2 to later technology may be much more expensive that it used to be. Nintendo could bring out a OLED model without improving the fabrication of the chipset. They just need to have a better display panel and perhaps a slightly larger battery pack to make it a more premium model. So I feel we will get a OLED model first. Maybe next year but I feel a Lite model will come much later. However its fair to say there is commercial pressure in Japan to bring out a smaller model. They loved the lite model more than any other market with a higher percentage of Switches sold being Lite models than other countries. My guess is 2028 for a lite model. I think my Switch lite is my favourite Switch model just because its the Switch I carry about more and use more so I would certainly like to see a Switch 2 lite sooner.

@BonzoBanana
With the way prices are these days, I think getting an OLED variant first that will inevitably cost way more than the original Switch 2 is a rather bad idea.

The Switch 2 is, crazily enough, going to be the “bargain” console for the next couple years due to price hikes Sony and Microsoft have taken. And the PS6 is going to almost certainly retail for over 500 dollars. I think Nintendo is trying everything possible to stay the “affordable” option on the console front, even if that term doesn’t mean much these days lol

In CPU performance the Switch 2 is between PS4 and PS4 Pro and this surely will be a limitation bringing many games to Switch 2 from other formats. Yes DLSS does a brilliant job of upscaling games rendered as low as 640x360p up to 720p and beyond but ultimately any game engine that requires significantly more CPU resources will need to be cut back a lot to run on Switch 2. This situation will obviously get far worse in the future as games need more and more CPU resources. I personally don't think the Switch 2 should be compared to PS5 or a fast PC. Even the steam deck which has been out a couple years has about 4.5x the CPU resources of Switch 2 and 4GB more memory with a quad channel memory arrangement that gives significantly more memory bandwidth in portable mode than Switch 2. Of course we know the Steam Deck isn't a fixed platform so doesn't get fixed platform optimisations but still I question how far the Switch 2 can go competing with PS5 and later PCs for more CPU demanding games and at what cost for those games that need all that extra optimisation and you still get a version of the game inferior to other more powerful platforms where the game is often much cheaper.

What was the difference in price between Switch OLED and normal Switch and it wasn't just the panel there was an improved dock and 32GB extra flash memory. I think in the UK it was a premium of £50-70 approx. An extra 20% on the retail price roughly. I feel a Switch 2 OLED is a realistic product to come out in the short term assuming they can source a suitable panel at a reasonable price. There is also the possibility of an improved Switch 2 that simply replaces the current model at the same sort of pricing that just has a improved LCD panel and maybe a small battery capacity increase. It may not be possible to source a cheap 120Hz OLED panel suitable. I do feel like something will come out within the year that will improve the existing panel as the current one is a bit rubbish and cheap and needs improving.

@BonzoBanana When a cheaper model is incoming, there's usually a lot of handheld franchises present meanwhile when a more expensive model is incoming it skews towards home console franchises. Right now almost all of the confirmed 2026 games are from franchises most associated with handhelds.

@BonzoBanana
I don't know what that first paragraph is getting at - you're trying to say the price hikes of PS/Xbox don't matter because their consoles aren't directly competing with the Switch 2?

Anyway, I'm just saying that the complaints about prices are everywhere these days for everything. For Nintendo to pop up with a 20% more costly version of the Switch 2 right away? That would be an incredibly bad look, even for Nintendo lol

However much people might want a "Switch 2 Lite", its not going to happen until and unless Nintendo can actually make a Switch 2, that is both smaller and cheaper. And especially with how the Switch 2 had to cut battery life pretty tight? That's not going to happen anytime soon. Nintendo isn't going to bother making a portable-only console with an hour of battery life, and that's the only feasible way to make one anytime soon.

I do feel there is a core number of gamers that would love a better Switch 2 and have the money to pay for it. What percentage of sales it makes up is another matter. I do understand where you are coming from though as the only market so far to have a much slower uptake in Switch 2 sales is Europe and that is where the pricing is least competitive so I guess there is much more resistance to current pricing in Europe. I certainly feel that in Europe an even more expensive Switch 2 would certainly fail to sell in large quantities. Europe is already paying the price of what a premium OLED Switch 2 would cost in Japan already plus even more on top but just getting a standard Switch 2.

We can all guess what fabrication process Nintendo needs to make a really good Switch 2 lite model but of course Nintendo is looking for profitable hardware. I might say 4Nm would be fantastic and deliver an amazing Switch 2 lite model but Nintendo migh say 7Nm is all you are getting which is still a huge improvement on the current mainly 10Nm fabrication process of the Switch 2.

I was looking at a android tablet with a Mediatek Helio G99 chipset which delivers twice the CPU performance of the Switch 2 (much inferior GPU performance though) and that is on a 6Nm fabrication process and some tablets go sub £100. I bought my Doogee T30 Pro for £60 from Amazon warehouse. It has a passmark CPU score of over 4000 just over twice that of the Switch 2. That has been a relatively cheap chipset from 2022. The Switch 2 is compared to the PS4 level of CPU power and is only a little bit stronger but PS4 CPU power was a bit pants even when it was released. The Jaguar cores were not highly rated at all.

I hate to be glib, but with nearly every single game having a switch 1 version... The Switch 1 is the switch lite. There's almost no games that can only be played on the squeal console. Let's face it the kite was made to be the cheaper version for parents to buy and now that role simply can't exist.

I don't think a budget version will happen until a large amount of games are not available for the OG.

@Misima
Mario Kart World, Zelda Age of Imprisonment, Donkey Kong Bananza, Kirby Air Riders, Cyberpunk - all are amazing games that are worth experiencing for almost any gamer. And those are just the fully-on-the-cartridge games; the Switch 2 exclusives on game key cards and digital-only are also insane, like Star Wars Outlaws and Street Fighter.

I'm sure Nintendo will eventually release a "S2 Lite" version of the S2 but first they need to tackle the battery life, perhaps they'll add a bigger battery to the Lite than the S2 has that may 'bulk' out the back of the console a bit.

Then again if they do manage to greatly extend the battery life on the S2 Lite I think a lot of people may look at it and think, "Hey, hang on a minute, why does the S2 Lite battery last far longer than that of my S2 at twice the price? - I want that battery in my S2!"

I like your prediction but I'm not sure it will be available any time soon, I mean there's also the recent price increases of RAM etc to consider as well, creating a cheaper console may be too expensive... if that makes sense : Unless they've already done it and currently have millions of S2 Lite consoles stashed in warehouses for the last several months and they're just sat waiting for the launch reveal, like they did with the Switch 2 lol.

Switch2 Lite probably exists but most likely we will hear about it in March 2026....

Not gonna happen until they do a die shrink down to 5nm, similar to how Switch Lite/OLED released after a die shrink from 20nm down to 16nm. The smaller size = smaller battery which means it needs to be more efficient.

Don't expect a Lite until 2028 at the earliest.

@rallydefault
Ya, Switch 2 has waaaay more NS2 only games on it after 6 months than NS1 had after 6 months. Not only in terms of 1st party but 3rd party as well. We've got more current gen AAA on NS2 than the Switch saw in its first 2 years on the shelf, with no sign of that slowing down any time soon (on the contrary, it's starting to increase and, games are even coming day and date, something we never saw with NS1).

Not that that has anything to do with when a Lite would release amyways.

You have made the point that the Switch went from 20Nm to 16Nm quite a small jump in the scheme of things so to go from 10/8Nm to 5Nm would be a considerable update. I feel knowing Nintendo's history 7Nm would be far more likely but 6Nm at a stretch but 5Nm is still a considerably more expensive option and probably still will be in 2 years time. Nintendo likes to go cheap and I feel they would get a good price on 7Nm compared to superior fabrication processes. Lets not forget the Switch 2 is on a mainly 10Nm fabrication process, same as the Nvidia GPU's from 2020/2021 when it was designed.

TSMC: TSMC's 7nm process (N7) offers about a 40% power reduction compared to its 10nm technology when operating at the same performance level.
Samsung: Samsung's 7nm node can reduce power consumption by as much as 50% relative to its 10nm process.