Everything we currently know about the Nintendo Switch 2

The Nintendo Switch 2 is still a bit of a mystery, but this is everything we know about it right now.

Nintendo

The Nintendo Switch 2 has been officially announced, and we’ll know what it looks like at some point within the next fiscal year. Yeah, that’s pretty much everything that has been officially announced, but there have also been some fairly credible announcements, leaks, rumors, and speculation that, when combined, begin to form a solid picture.

We’ve gone around the internet and collated the latest and most important rumors about the Nintendo Switch 2 – or whatever its real name is. If you want the unofficial lowdown on all the Nintendo Switch 2 details we have, just read through our breakdown below.

The Nintendo Switch 2 has been officially announced

The Nintendo Switch 2 has now been officially announced, confirmed, and we will see it within the next year. This is basically the only official information we have on the new console – everything else is rumor and speculation.

Estimated Switch 2 release date

We can only speculate on what games the Nintendo Switch 2 will have. / Nintendo, GLHF

This has been speculated on for literally years at this point, but some concrete rumors emerged in February saying that the Switch 2 would not launch in 2024, and that was followed up just over a week later by a report that said the Switch 2 would launch in March 2025.

Thanks to the official confirmation that we’ll see the Switch 2 this fiscal year, a March 2025 release date seems pretty likely. March 2025 would mark eight years since the launch of the Switch, and leave plenty of marketing time following an October unveiling.

Estimated Switch 2 reveal date

Right now we know that the Nintendo Switch 2 will not feature in the June 2024 Nintendo Direct, and we know that it will be announced within this fiscal year. That’s a wide timeframe, from July 2024 to March 2025.

When coupled with the March 2025 release date rumour, we estimate that the Nintendo Switch 2 will be revealed in October 2024, matching up with the timeframe between the reveal and release of the original Nintendo Switch console.

Switch 2 features we expect to see

The JoyCon are great, but need improvements. / Nintendo

We’ve already made a full list of Switch 2 features the console needs to have, but there are a few other rumors and whispers that are worth paying attention to.

The first is a “dual-screen gaming device” that was patented in October. While the images in the patent are probably not 100% representative, it follows the pattern leading up to the Nintendo Switch, and the early oval patents we saw of that device.

Another rumor that we’ve put some stock in is the one from Spanish website Vandal regarding magnetic JoyCon. It seems almost certain, especially following an announcement from peripheral manufacturer Mobapad. They say “[t]he new version of Joy-Con has a larger volume, and the sliding rail structure has been changed to magnetic suction.” Who are we to argue with that?

One more thing; we expect two SKUs at launch, but it's unclear whether this would be a Lite model, or a Wii U-style Basic/Premium bundle selection.

Estimated Nintendo Switch tech specs

The Nintendo Switch 2 is set to be a big upgrade over the original console. / Nintendo

The Mobapad article also claims that it’ll feature an 8-inch 1080p screen, which would be a significant upgrade. Fingers crossed for OLED.

There have also been reports from Korean newspaper MK that the Nintendo Switch 2 will use an Nvidia Tegra T239 chip, manufactured with Samsung’s 7LPH process. Digital Foundry did some digging, and discovered that Samsung’s 7LPH process doesn’t exist – at least not yet, officially. Previous processes using the LPH moniker stood for “low-power high performance” which would suit the Nintendo Switch nicely, and indicates that the chip may actually use a 7nm process, instead of a less efficient 8nm process. Only time will tell with this one, but it’s very exciting for tech nerds.

Estimates of this chip make it seem comparable to a pared-back Nvidia 3050, but we’ll soon see what that kind of power can do when in the hands of Nintendo developers.

Since the MK article, there have been even more alleged specs from Famiboards user LiC. When combined with the above information, we have a decent idea of what to expect. We detailed this in a recent article estimating the power to be between the PS4 Pro and Xbox Series S.

• 12GB RAM LPDDR5/LPDDR5X
• 256GB internal storage, UFS 3.1
• Nvidia Tegra T239, 7nm
• GPU specs: 1536 CUDA Cores (48 tensor cores for DLSS, 12 RT cores for ray tracing)

Tom's Guide estimates the memory speeds to be around 7,500MT/s.

While much of this is rumor, speculation, or questionably sourced information, much of it has been corroborated by reliable sources, and we're beginning to get a decent picture of what the Nintendo Switch 2 will actually be.