The upcoming Switch Lite may not satisfy all mobile gamers, but if you crave more battery life on the Switch, a quiet update should get you that.
There’s no big or flashy announcement this week from Nintendo, but that doesn’t mean the company is making some changes.
Last week saw the outing of Nintendo’s next take on its mobile gaming system, the Switch Lite, which manages to make its current portable gaming system a little more portable and price friendly, but it’s not the update all were hoping for.
While rumours begin to swell about the prospect of a “pro” version of the Nintendo Switch, the current focus for the makers of Mario is to deliver an improvement to its standard switch, albeit rather quietly.
An update to the Nintendo Australia website now points out two variants of the Nintendo Switch, each with different product numbers. The original, the one with a serial number beginning with “XAW” is the one out in stores up until now, offering between 2.5 and 6.5 hours of battery life. Meanwhile, a new model begins with “XKW”, and offers almost double that, closer to between 4.5 and 9 hours.
To Nintendo’s credit, the text more or less implies a game known to drain battery should see an improvement on the new model, with “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” improved from approximately three hours to 5.5 on the new console.
That’s good news for gamers hoping for more, and yet also bad news because it means they’ll have to buy a new console when it starts making its way out to stores.
As for how you’ll be able to know the difference between the model that has the lower battery life — the older one — and the Switch with better battery life — the new one — Nintendo says the boxes are a little different.
That means you really just need to look for the more red Nintendo Switch boxes (above) instead of opening each box to scour for the new serial.
Representatives from Nintendo in Australia told Pickr that “aside from a longer battery life and the new box, the systems are identical” and that you should start to see the upgraded model in stores from early spring, which probably means you have a few weeks before you’ll find them anywhere. Expect them some time in August or September.
