Topic: WSJ report: Nintendo to launch two new Switch models in 2019

I'm really curious as to how small the Switch Mini might be.

I hope Nintendo doesn't go too small, because the text for a handful of Switch games is really tiny.

I think something comparable to the size of the PS Vita would be right on the money.

Put this way the more you shrink the Switch the harder it will be to read txt in any language. Smaller doesn't equate to better gaming especially for games with txt since you still need to read to play the games. That will be the biggest downside. 3DS XL is probably the smallest it can get without affecting game play.

I find it pretty much impossible to play Mario Odyssey in handheld mode, so I can't imagine playing on an even smaller screen. Especially since most games are made with a TV in mind; so text becomes almost impossible to read on a small screen.

@Octane I never had any problem playing Super Mario Odyssey in handheld mode. In fact, I pretty much played the entire game that way.

The only game I won't play in handheld mode is Super Smash Bros. I have to use the GCN controller. lol

Mario Odyssey looks great in handheld mode, but the gimped controls mean that it's not the ideal way to play. They need to put the motion gestures and forced waggle (when you're transformed) to bed permanently.

Smash is AMAZING in handheld mode, though. I played the entire game undocked.

Yeah I played 50 hours of Odyssey handheld. Never had an issue with it either.

@Octane THIS, finally someone understands that a smaller screen would make text unreadable. It's not the games, it's the UIs (and in some games detecting the small objects you're supposed to see) that would be brutal at less than 6". I still want an 8" Switch.

I don't remember having to do any of that while playing Mario Odyssey in handheld mode. I remember that it was a way to control Mario, but I just controlled Mario in the standard way without any motion control/gyroscope nonsense and never had any problems playing the game whatsoever.

@NEStalgia It works if the UI is scaled accordingly, but I haven't seen that yet. Maybe they already do that, but I still find it difficult to read at times. It could also be the limitations of a 720p screen.

@Harmonie I think there were a few Moons that required you to shake the controller, or use Cappie's spin attack. Both require motion controls iirc.

@Harmonie The spin throw is awkward but doable with buttons (but much easier with a flick of the joycons, which is understandably near impossible in handheld mode). Same with the downward throw. The homing cap throw requires the player to shake the controller after throwing Cappy.

The two big problems are the upward throw, which is almost impossible in handheld mode, as it requires motion gestures, and the actions you can perform when possessing different creatures. The frogs high jump requires shaking the joycons, for example, to nab at least one moon. The cheep cheep can only perform its spin attack with waggle as well, forcing the handheld player to furiously shake the system in certain segments. There are a variety of moves in this game that are reliant entirely on waggle, then.

Aside from the upward cap throw, none of this is impossible to pull off when playing in handheld mode, but having to shake your system around understandably throws off some players when they're trying to do precision platforming. Also, as mentioned, some of the more advanced moves are more difficult to pull off in handheld mode.

I have finished Super Mario Odyssey last year in Handheld Mode by mostly.
It took 2 weeks for me to finish the storyline.

It would probably do even worse than the 64DD and 32X, because modern chips are so well integrated that having some of the computing power as an external device would introduce all sorts of problems.

I play everything in handheld mode, so I guess I'm used to small text. The only game that annoyed me in handheld a bit was Xenoblade, and that was because of the small text AND the super grainy graphics.

Oh, wait, DOOM also had some crazy small text in handheld. But I was ok with it overall.

Hyrule Warriors and This is the Police come to mind when I’m thinking of text. And that’s even on the huge tv

Wargroove is the opposite, text is tiny in docked but large in handheld mode.

Thoughts on the leaked photo today? Looks like it’s an empty shell. If it’s a fake it’s a good one. Looks believable.

That image has been discredited because it has the same model number as a stock Switch.

I can't really discount a Lite but without specs that is hard to know how Lite is really Lite? And if so at least it's got a Dock option but beyond that speculations are rampant here. As for a Hi-Power NSW only known thing is a screen update but I have yet to see that anywhere. I think the problem lies in having a Hi-Power GPU in a Switch hardware making for a challenging cooling system. I doubt it's only software but GPU cooling specs problem.

A Switch Lite with a third more or even double the battery life of the original, even at a sacrifice in screen size or perhaps capacitive touch (that would be my preferred sacrifice, though it would rule out very particular games), I would totally go for. Especially if it would be 250 or even 200 bucks.

I mean, gawd can you imagine how many Switches they would sell if they came out with a Lite version for 200 bucks? It would be weird to make the screen smaller, though, especially if it uses the same dock. I would say maybe just step down the screen quality, but it's only an LCD display to begin with, so I don't really know how you can go under that lol

I guess they could simply package it without a dock and just a charging cable to save cost, stressing that it CAN be put into a dock if you want, but hyping up the added battery life to push for the mobile people. But at that point, there's really not much different from the original model other than better battery life, so it wouldn't be "lite" at all lol

You are overly worried about something that's inconsequential. The power draw of the stock Nintendo Switch is 18W with the custom Tegra X1 currently inside. The Switch Pro is currently rumored to be using a custom Tegra Xavier. Now if Nintendo were to set it to run games on par with PS4 or Xbox One, then it would consume 30W. However, I doubt Nintendo and Nvidia would set it that high.

The power consumption from the stock Switch to the Switch Pro will be the same. The question is, will Nintendo use a better quality battery in the Switch Pro? Probably not, again to keep costs as low as possible.