Switch 2 vs. Switch 1: What to Consider Before You Upgrade | Reviews by Wirecutter

By Arthur Gies

Arthur Gies is an editor for Wirecutter's tech coverage. He's written about video games since 2008 and covers drawing tablets, iPad styluses and more.

Using a Nintendo Switch 2, the $450 handheld console that launched in early June, feels a lot like upgrading to a new phone for the first time in years.

We’ve been playing the long-awaited Switch 2 for a few weeks, comparing it with the $300 original Switch, which launched in March 2017, as well as the $200 Switch Lite and $350 Switch OLED, to see how the next-gen console stacks up. Nintendo still sells those three older, cheaper Switch models, which complicates the buying decision somewhat.

The Switch 2 offers easily the best Switch experience we’ve had. But it’s significantly more expensive than the original Nintendo Switch was at launch, and the latest system doesn’t have many new games designed exclusively for it yet. If you can find one in stock, we recommend it. But it also has some flaws that you should consider before you upgrade.

The Nintendo Switch 2 packs eight years of performance improvements into a handheld console that plays all your old games better and will offer new experiences for years to come.

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Although only a few new games are currently available for the Switch 2, we actually enjoy playing the games we already own on the new console, thanks to its backward-compatibility features.

Over the past several years, playing games on our original Switch consoles has often been a zen-like exercise in acceptance that games just wouldn’t run very well. Even bigger releases such as Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet could be downright painful to struggle through — Wirecutter writer Kimber Streams purchased a copy at launch and couldn’t get past the awful performance, so they traded it in to buy other games. However, like a number of other original Switch games, Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet have received an update for the Switch 2 that breathes new life into them, fixing performance and providing a meaningful improvement in image quality.

Other games are also seeing major benefits from the Switch 2’s more powerful hardware even without official updates, so we’re actually considering picking up older games that might finally realize their potential on the new system. And it might just give you the perfect excuse to go back to that Animal Crossing: New Horizons island you’ve been neglecting (something Wirecutter editor Caitlin McGarry would rather we hadn’t told her).

The Switch 2 offers a night-and-day difference in responsiveness and navigation speed in comparison with the original Switch. In 2025, almost everything about the original Switch — from maneuvering through its menus to braving the extended stuttering waits of the Nintendo eShop storefront — suffers from a molasses-like sluggishness. We had almost given up hope that this experience would ever get better, but the Switch 2 turns out to be more than capable of gliding through the same hoops, more or less, with ease. It almost makes exploring the eShop a pleasure. The move to fast game storage and microSD Express (mostly; more on that later) also results in much, much faster game-startup speeds and greatly reduced load times for games old and new.

We also like the promise of the Switch 2’s Game Chat feature, which lets you join a party of friends with up to four simultaneous video feeds along the bottom of your screen, through the Switch 2 Camera. It isn’t a revolutionary feature, but it does work easily thanks to microphones built into all of the Switch 2’s official controllers, and we’re excited to see how the feature develops as the Switch 2 platform matures.

The original version of the Nintendo Switch, and even the offshoot Switch Lite and OLED models, felt a little unstable, but the Switch 2 feels much more solid in comparison. The new system’s larger size makes it a bit easier to hold for people with slightly bigger hands, which could be a pro or a con depending on how you feel about the current Switch. But more importantly, the new Joy-Con controllers lock into place far more solidly on the right and left sides of the system courtesy of a new magnetic locking system.

As a result, stressful sessions of Mario Kart World don’t make us feel like we’re going to break the Switch 2 as we grip the controls ever more tightly, which everyone knows makes you take corners more effectively — it’s just science. (Not actually science, but it feels true.) Along with the far more useful revised kickstand design on the back of the console, which runs the entire length of the tablet, and the notably improved speaker quality, the more solid build makes the Switch 2 feel much less like a toy than its predecessor.

For players who can’t tolerate Nintendo’s Joy-Con controllers, the $85 Switch 2 Pro Controller is a pricey option. But on the bright side, it’s been one of our favorite controllers in our time with it so far. “I really love the Pro Controller,” said writer Kimber Streams. “It’s comfier than the [original], and the joysticks feel much smoother and responsive.” The Switch 2 Pro Controller also includes a headphone jack and a built-in mic, which you can use with the Switch 2’s Game Chat feature. All of that, combined with a much more pleasing surface texture, adds up to an amazing controller, albeit an expensive one in comparison with the original Switch Pro Controller and its $70 price tag.

Mario Kart World takes the manic, goofy energy of previous entries in the series and doubles the player count, resulting in races that can be even more chaotic and unpredictable. It’s also gorgeous and full of the kinds of personality and charm we expect from a Nintendo game, with a huge cast of characters and a ton of great tracks.

However, the most important thing about Mario Kart World is how consistently it levels the playing field between video game veterans and casual players. World, like previous Mario Kart games, regularly gives the back of the pack a leg up and a way back into the race, and almost no lead is ever safe. The result is a game that families and mixed friend groups can play together without worrying too much about one or two hotshots consistently ruining everyone else’s fun. Plus, the new Knockout Mode, which periodically cuts the bottom of a race’s leaderboard every so often, is the kind of thing that will cause much shouting and temporarily end friendships (in a good way). And we expect that Nintendo will continue to add tracks and new goodies to Mario Kart World, straining your relationships for years to come.

We were already unhappy with the Switch 2’s $450 price tag, but the attack on your wallet doesn’t stop there. The price of first-party games such as Mario Kart World has also increased to an eye-watering $80 (in contrast to previous Switch games, which went for $60), and we expect many big Switch 2 titles to follow suit later this year. Meanwhile, the Switch 2 Pro Controller — which we love — is $85, a full $15 increase over the previous-generation Pro Controller. And the move to microSD Express cards for added storage is also ramping up the price of downloading more games than the Switch 2’s internal storage is capable of holding. All of that adds up, and we’re a little worried that prices are only likely to rise from here.

Games such as Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet got Switch 2 updates that dramatically improved the player experience free of charge, but other games are double-dipping. Two of the biggest original-Switch games ever — The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom — are asking $10 each for resolution and performance improvements that, quite frankly, are absolutely essential for anyone who wants to play them on the Switch 2.

A number of other games are asking the same, and while Nintendo offers these paid upgrades as a subscription benefit with its Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack (which also gives you access to multiple tiers of classic Nintendo games but adds $30 on top of the usual $20 annual price for the Switch Online service), other publishers’ hands remain outstretched. Until more major exclusive games for the Switch 2 arrive, we’ll be digging into our existing game libraries and older titles we missed, but if you do the same, and you want to experience all that those games have to offer, you’ll have to pay up again more often than you’d probably like.

The Switch 2 takes advantage of the significantly faster microSD Express storage format, which leads to often shocking loading-time improvements in various games. But microSD Express cards are far pricier than the microSDXC cards the previous-generation Switch used. Even more annoying: You can’t pop your last-gen cards into your new Switch 2 to transfer downloaded games and content, a restriction that essentially deprecates what could be a fair amount of money’s worth of flash storage. And since the Switch–to–Switch 2 transfer process doesn’t move game installs, you’ll have to redownload your library from scratch as well.

Although the Switch 2’s 1080p, 120 Hz screen isn’t bad by any stretch, it still feels a little like a downgrade for those of us who jumped on Nintendo’s OLED Switch model at some point in the past four years. That OLED display is lower-resolution, and it lacks the VRR (variable refresh rate) features of the Switch 2’s screen. But almost anyone who were to look at the two displays side by side would probably point to the OLED screen when asked to identify which one looked better.

It’s almost a certainty that Nintendo will eventually release a Switch 2 model with an OLED display (after releasing a Lite version that omits the ability to connect to a television). But it’s equally likely that the privilege of those perfect OLED blacks will command a hefty price premium.

When the original Switch launched in 2017, we considered its battery life to be more or less fine, in large part because we didn’t really know any better. But in 2025, our expectations have changed, and the couple of hours the Switch 2 lasts while playing games such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Hitman World of Assassination – Signature Edition just doesn’t cut it. For less demanding games, you get something closer to three or maybe even four hours, but we’re still not exactly satisfied with that. Maybe at some point, an improved version of the Switch 2 will feature a bigger, better battery, but for now, for a $450 console, we’d call this limitation a drawback.

If you’re buying a Switch 2, you should probably pick up the version packaged with a copy of Mario Kart World. We love the newest version of Nintendo’s chaotic kart racer, but beyond that, the $500 console-and-game bundle also makes more financial sense: While the bundle is $50 more than the $450 game-free Switch 2, the game alone is $80 when purchased separately. Do yourself and your wallet a favor, and buy the bundle.

If you decide to upgrade, there are two other games we recommend picking up: Hitman World of Assassination – Signature Edition and Split Fiction.

Although Hitman 3 sort of arrived on the Nintendo Switch back in 2021 via a streaming, cloud-powered version that required an online connection, Hitman World of Assassination – Signature Edition brings the modern stealth/action/puzzle cult hit to the Switch 2 in proper form. World of Assassination, a collection of the three modern Hitman titles, puts you in the suit and tie of Agent 47, the world’s foremost solver of person-shaped problems. The series has always buoyed its dark premise with wacky humor and a frankly outrageous amount of player choice in how you accomplish your missions, with tools ranging from conventional weapons to exploding golf balls and rubber ducks, falling chandeliers, industrial accidents, and even, well, a hippo. Hitman World of Assassination – Signature Edition’s package might be the best value proposition on the Switch 2, and conveniently, it’s a fantastic collection of games.

Split Fiction is a cooperative split-screen game following two aspiring writers, Mio and Zoe. Unwittingly trapped in an experimental simulation together, they’re forced to journey through each other’s fictional stories to find a way out. Each chapter shifts between Mio’s action-packed sci-fi adventures and Zoe’s fantasy tales — one moment, you and your partner race on the back of a motorcycle through a neon-lit dystopia as gravity-defying cyber ninjas, and the next, you glide through mountainous castle ruins as baby dragons. Every story you progress through introduces a new set of distinct abilities for each player, and you have to combine your skills to solve puzzles, fight enemies, and traverse daunting landscapes. It’s a deeply innovative adventure that’s difficult to put down, and it’s by far the best co-op game we’ve played this year so far.

Each of these games demonstrates the Switch 2’s fundamental advantages over the original Switch, in large part because they aren’t available on Nintendo’s older console, a situation that will only become more obvious over the next year. July’s Donkey Kong Bananza is Nintendo’s next big release, and it too will be available only for the Switch 2. Original-Switch owners will get the occasional bone thrown their way, but the end for the older console is right around the corner.

The Switch 2 is unlikely to get cheaper anytime soon, which prevents it from being an easy, automatic recommendation, and that’s worth keeping in mind as you work out the pros and cons of picking one up or waiting. But if $450 is simply more than you’re willing to pay, don’t give up hope: Considering Nintendo’s history, we may see a much cheaper Switch 2 Lite in late 2026 or 2027.

This article was edited by Caitlin McGarry and Signe Brewster.

Arthur Gies

Arthur Gies is a supervising editor for tech at Wirecutter. He has covered video games and hardware since 2008, has consulted on a number of popular (and not popular) video games, and wrote a book about the Gears of War franchise. He also has a BFA and MFA in drawing and painting, which comes in handy when he reviews drawing tablets and styluses.

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