Switch 2 battery life
Image: Nintendo

As details continue to flood in about Nintendo's Switch 2 console, it's been confirmed that the battery, whilst having a larger overall capacity than that found in its predecessor, won't actually last as long in play.

During a Q&A with the Switch 2 developers, producer Kouichi Kawamoto stated that the battery was a factor that was very important, and that it needed to have extra capacity in order to power the Switch 2's processor, saying that;

"The battery life was another factor we had to balance. A high-performance processor and large system memory consume a lot of power, which reduces battery life.
However, as we were finding that balance, we also needed to keep in mind that people will be playing on the go. We made various efforts to ensure the battery life wouldn't be reduced significantly, such as increasing the battery capacity to 1.2 times that of Switch."

Takuhiro Dohta, the console's senior director added;

"We carefully considered the balance between processing capability and system memory capacity, and we believe we’ve managed to create a system that players won’t feel is outdated later down the line."

It stands to reason that, with the beefier all-round specs, the Switch 2 is going to require a much better battery in terms of its overall capacity, and on the official documentation, shared as part of the Direct, we get all the juicier details, as shown below;

Switch 2 battery life
Image: Nintendo

So, between 2 - 6.5 hours of playtime. For Nintendo Switch OLED, as a comparison, this same data from Nintendo states approximately 4.5 to 9 hours. So there's a notable drop-off there, although a Switch Lite comes in at 3-7, and older models of Switch are stated as having between 2.5 - 6.5hrs, so we're looking at similar stats starting out, at least. Is this impressive given the newer console is much beefier in terms of what it's gonna be able to output, though?

In terms of the Steam Deck, by way of comparison with another popular handheld of the moment, Valve reports their machine to have a battery life of between 2 and 8 hours. So this all seems fairly reasonable given that the Switch 2 and Steam Deck are very close on specs.

Switch 2 battery life
Image: Nintendo

Of course, it's gonna depend a lot on the games you're playing, just like the original Switch, too. Expect to get the higher end of that time-scale with smaller games, and light indie fare. Also, and this is important, the Nintendo Switch 2 will have big AAA games designed entirely and specifically around its architecture, so some battery issues that you could have with a more open platform, should be avoided. Should be!

So, although at first glance it does seem like a case of "oh, the battery is worse!", overall, and all hype aside, it does actually seem to be coming in with performance that would be expected, given all the specs involved.

How do you feel about the Switch 2 battery's specs and estimated playtimes? Let us know in the comments!