The Swap 2 is greater, extra highly effective and dearer than the unique Swap, however the tech specs for the brand new console reveal no less than one key manner it is worse: The Swap 2’s battery life is shorter.
Nintendo says that battery life on the Swap 2 varies relying on the sport you play, however that it estimates the console ought to final roughly “2 – 6.5 hours.” That is notably shorter than the battery life you may get out of a present Swap or Swap OLED, primarily based on the corporate’s assist web page. Nintendo estimates {that a} Swap OLED “with a serial quantity that begins with ‘XT'” ought to final round “4.5 to 9 hours.” Non-OLED Swap consoles “with a serial quantity that begins with ‘XK'” are anticipated to final the identical period of time. Even the unique Swap, which has “a serial quantity that begins with ‘XA’,” will get a minimal of two.5 hours of battery life. Apparently, the additional energy of the Swap 2 comes with a value.
Nintendo’s tech specs verify just a few different notable particulars. The Swap 2 helps Wi-Fi 6, which ought to imply you may get sooner web speeds when the console is not docked and related over ethernet. Based mostly on Nintendo’s assure that the console “helps 120 fps when 1920×1080/2560×1440 resolutions are chosen,” it looks like the Swap 2 will not assist HDMI 2.1.
So far as controllers are involved, Amiibo assist stays, however in case you have particular place in your coronary heart for the Wii-esque movement controls you possibly can use on the unique Swap, it appears to be like such as you’re out of luck on the Swap 2. Neither the left or proper Pleasure-Con 2 controllers have an IR sensor, one of many methods Nintendo tracked movement on the Wii and Swap. That does not imply you may’t use movement controls on the Swap 2, simply that Nintendo is not utilizing IR to make them work. (Not less than in Metroid Prime 4: Past, it looks like “mouse management” fills the position movement controls used to on older video games.)
Do any of those modifications dramatically alter the calculus on whether or not the Swap 2 is price shopping for? Perhaps not, however it’s fascinating to see among the compromises and selections Nintendo made to supply what’s successfully “the Swap, however higher.”