In a surprise announcement this week, yet another potential best-selling console may be hitting the market soon, chip shortage permitting. Seemingly out of nowhere, Nintendo once again surprise-announces a new Nintendo Switch "OLED" model. As the titular name suggests, the system sports a larger and higher fidelity screen, alongside several other improvements like a sturdier kickstand for portable play and an integrated ethernet port in the dock. The Nintendo Switch OLED is certainly no Nintendo Switch "Pro," as some fans may have expected and some rumors suggested, but it is an incrementally refined version of the base Nintendo Switch.
That being said, many have expressed disappointment to leakers and reporters who've corroborated rumors of a Switch "Pro" console previously. Nintendo has been a hard company to gauge throughout the gaming giant's history, but especially so since the Nintendo Switch released. The release of the OLED model of the Switch is a perfect example of this: Nintendo announced a new console iteration on a seemingly random Tuesday, with subtle enhancements that are nothing like what fans expected. If anything, the Nintendo Switch OLED model should've been the Switch fans received when the console was first announced, and could've been in a perfect world.
Expectations Were High For a Nintendo Switch 'Pro'
In retrospect, many would've figured that a new Switch model announcement would've fit in extremely well in the Nintendo Direct showcase for E3 2021, but it makes sense that the OLED model wasn't revealed there. Other than devoting most of the showcase's time to brand new releases like Metroid Dread, perhaps Nintendo understood that the OLED model was not designed to make waves as the next big Nintendo Switch console. Previously rumors/leaks hinted at a much more powerful Nintendo Switch console compared to the one announced this week, so perhaps Nintendo wanted to reduce the potential for blowback in a slightly different Switch.
Rumors and leaks for a Nintendo Switch "Pro" hinted at a bunch of different features that aren't present in the announced OLED system. Things like a 4K screen and/or display output in docked mode, or support for Nvidia's DLSS tech, were all rumored to be coming in the new Pro console. That being said, Nintendo is no stranger to marching to its own drum, and this new $350 Switch model emphasizes that wholly. The OLED Switch finds itself in a strange middle ground between comparable performance from a base Nintendo Switch, as well as under the capabilities of a next-gen console, which makes it a difficult upgrade to justify objectively.
The OLED Model is What Nintendo Switch Should've Been
That's not to say the additions in the Nintendo Switch OLED model are not welcome, but they're also tough to justify depending on context. There's an argument to be made that the initial Nintendo Switch release back in 2017 was sort-of like a prototype for what was to come. Compared to other handheld tablets in the tech industry, the Nintendo Switch did not even compare to existing tablets on the market. The screen was small, the screen bezel was huge, the Nintendo Switch hardware also began to show its age fairly quickly after launch. Larger games started to experience some pretty significant slowdown, which led to calls from fans for a more powerful Switch.
It's not likely that the Nintendo Switch OLED model will be the answer to those gripes, but it does certainly look like a proper iteration off the base Nintendo Switch. A few big problem areas of the original Switch model seem to have been addressed with the OLED model. Adding a larger screen with greater clarity could seriously improve the handheld experience; ranging from making menus easier to read in JRPGs, to enhancing the detail in certain gameplay scenes as well. If it weren't for the fact that the original Nintendo Switch was a bit of an experiment after the Wii U, in an ideal world, the Nintendo Switch OLED model could've been available at launch.
Any Notion of Switch 'Pro' May Be Silent for a Long time
There is the possibility that the Nintendo Switch OLED model is just another hardware iteration meant to capitalize on the Switch's enormous success, in a similar fashion to the Nintendo Switch Lite. However, this model doesn't necessarily de-confirm the existence of a potential "Pro"-like console coming in the future. That being said, a significantly upgraded Switch console is not likely to be on the way for another few years. The Nintendo Switch altogether continues to break sales records, and making a slightly upgraded version of the base Nintendo Switch to bridge the gap between old and new Switch consoles makes a whole lot of sense in that regard.
However, regardless of what the purpose of the OLED Switch console is, it does provide once important hint about the next potential Nintendo Switch "Pro." There's a very real possibility that the next big Nintendo console will likely not be ready for another few years. For some that may be a shame, but at least for now, the Nintendo Switch OLED model could serve as a solid compromise in the short-term of playing Nintendo games, but perhaps Nintendo has other surprises for the Switch in store at some point. The Nintendo Switch OLED model seems to be the epitome of what the current Nintendo Switch can offer, even though this is how it should've been all along.
The Nintendo Switch OLED model releases on October 8, 2021.