Will Switch 2 Even Be the Best Handheld of 2025?
2025 looks to be a huge year for handheld gaming. After many years in the wilderness, pushed aside by the rise of mobile games and the departure of PlayStation from the handheld market, there’s now a medley of portable consoles and gaming PCs enjoying a renaissance in quality on-the-go gaming experiences.
The biggest name among them: the Nintendo Switch 2. The company pulled off an incredible comeback with 2017’s Switch, reversing its fortunes after a limp response to the Wii U, selling 150 million units over the next seven years, recycling its underutilised Wii U library, and launching two of the best Zelda games ever made. With a new version expected in early 2025, everyone is waiting with baited breath to see what Nintendo has up its sleeve, though it’s likely Nintendo will play things safe to continue its current winning streak.
The Switch 2 looks to be less of a revolution, and more of an evolution, with backwards compatibility for Switch games and a similar form factor to the 2017 console. However, while we’re low on official details, we are high on leaks.
Reports so far suggest an expanded 8-inch LCD screen, 1080p output in handheld mode, 4K upscaling in docked mode, electromagnetic Joy-Cons that ditch the current Switch’s rail attachment system, and a custom version of Nvidia’s T234 mobile processor that should at least beat the PS4 and Xbox One for performance. You might even be able to use a Joy-Con as a mouse!
While I’ll personally miss the benefits of the Switch OLED’s display, I can’t deny the draw of a more powerful LCD Switch, and it’s very likely to be a hot purchase for many years to come. It’s just worth asking whether the Switch 2 is going to be quite as successful, or desirable, in a market now crowded with excellent handheld competitors,
Alongside the ongoing success of Valve’s Steam Deck, we’ve just seen a fleet of new gaming PCs unveiled at CES, many of which build on previous 2024 devices and have allowed manufacturers to iterate faster than
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