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Sephiran on 29 June 2025
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Biggerboat1 said:
Soundwave said:

Nintendo did some crazy optimization with the chip, at 8nm it performs more like a 5nm chip would in things like a Steam Deck. At 11 watts a ROG Ally can get no where near this kind of performance. 

Of course some people now want to fixate on the screen because they can't actually complain much about the chipset performance, enthusiasts are exhausting.

The screen to me is fine, much better than the Switch 1 non-OLED models, not quite OLED good but pleasant enough for me. Obviously there will inevitably be a even better screen model at some point but I have no problems enjoying games on the current screen. Really enjoying my Switch 2 and quite happy with the hardware. 

Now imagine they'd applied those same optimizations to 5nm...

The pressures on Nintendo in 2025 are not the same as the ones of the Wii to Switch era where you could understand the penny pinching as there was legitimate doubt over the success of those consoles. They're now making money hand over fist and Switch 2 was a guaranteed hit. I don't think there's any excuse for delivering a display that is worst-in-class in some important areas and even falls short of cheap displays nearly a decade old.

Nintendo at it's core is just money-driven like any corporation and they seem to be going down the same enshittification route as any other company that can get away with it.

They've taken an unnecessarily old process node, and yes optimized it, but part of that optimization has been to limit the power to the screen that could otherwise have been driven harder to achieve significantly less lag & higher brightness (to potentially achieve the HDR they're falsely advertising).

I'm glad those who've purchased S2s are enjoying them, as will I when I inevitably buy either this version or the OLED model down the road, but I think it's important we call balls and strikes & don't let Nintendo off when they at best cut corners & at worst deliberately release an inferior version of a product so that they can upsell a bunch of people a superior model in 2 or 3 years time.

Every year Apple takes the piss with the cost of their RAM & storage upgrades but that doesn't mean we shouldn't call them out just because they're consistent in their price-gouging.

Overall I think Nintendo have done an OK job with S2 but I think it's disingenuous to suggest people are offering criticisms in bad faith when there's legit reasons to hold Nintendo to account.

I actually think Nintendo are masters at knowing what matters to mass consumers and what they can cheap out on because only a select few tech obsessives will care about it. The screen is a massive none issue for majority of consumers. Even on gaming forums threads have been created where the clear majority haven't even noticed the Switch 2 screen is supposedly bad. And that is on gaming forums, where you will find a lot more spec knowledge than among general consumers.

Its Nintendo's mastery of knowing general gaming consumers that make them so competitive on the market. PC handhelds on the other hand are doomed as long as they cater to the small tech bubble and make ever more expensive handhelds with no understanding at all of how futile it is to cater to a small demographic of obsessives. And i think that is what makes the tech bubble so anti-Nintendo, because Nintendo always has the better view of the market and how general consumers think, and no matter how many youtube videos they make about how people should just put ever more money into a ROG Ally instead of a Switch 2, the sales for the Switch 2 will just keep on dominating.