Switch Lite is coming – but what's going on with the Pro model? • Eurogamer.net

With this week's impromptu release of Switch Lite, Nintendo's strategy to update its hybrid console hardware is finally at the center of attention. Originally discussed in a March 2019 article by the Wall Street Journal, the Switch launch model would have been replaced by two new machines. The WSJ talked about a cheaper model – now made in the form of Switch Lite – but what about the so-called Switch Pro, with "enhanced features for video enthusiast gamers" ?

If a Switch Pro – or a power switch as I prefer to call it – is on the way, it is probably far away. The head of Nintendo, whose name is improbably named, Doug Bowser, has ruled out any new hardware launch this year, but it is quite possible that a revised version of the original machine Is Appear – the typical customer will not see it particularly and it certainly will not have any particular marketing motivation: a simpler refresh as opposed to launching an all-singing and all-dancing console.

The concept of the Lite and Power models is made possible by a new revision of the switch's Tegra X1 processor, dubbed "Mariko" – a smaller, cooler and more energy-efficient rendering of the original "Logan" chip. Launched for the first time in 2015, the Tegra X1 was a 121 mm² chip using the hardly used and now obsolete 20 nm manufacturing process of TSMC. Mariko will probably be a 16nm FinFET "alias" of the old chip – the same kind of silicon revision that made Xbox One S and PS4 Slim possible.

With the inclusion of the same chip in a future review of Nvidia's Shvard Android TV microconsole, we know everything about Mariko because Nvidia has released Linux and Android code compatible with the new chip. Yes, it uses lower voltages and clock power, but its graphics processor core can also run about 25% faster than the original Logan one. And so, we have the base for Lite hardware and the power switch – but Nintendo's plans for hardware can be very different.

The first phase is now public. Switch Lite uses Mariko's low energy needs as part of a cost-saving effort to bring a smaller, less expensive console to market. The new chip consumes significantly less power, which means that the cooling system can be smaller, but it also means that Nintendo can reduce the capacity of the battery. The original switch comes with a battery of 4310mAh – the reverse engineering of the latest Nintendo firmware suggests that the battery of the Lite is more or less close to 3300mAh.

Whatever the case may be, the life of the battery is better, according to Nintendo. The company issues contradictory messages here. The OG model lasted between two and a half to six and a half hours, while the Lite offers three to seven hours of play time. This is the "slight improvement" in Nintendo's marketing. The company adds that users can expect four hours of use of Zelda: Breath of the Wild of a single charge, or 33.3% more than one. standard model at three o'clock.

It remains to see the tangible benefits of Mariko, but it is clear that reducing the cost of form and costs are key objectives – and the measures taken by Nintendo to provide a cheaper unit are missing many features. This is a switch that does not switch because it is fully portable, so there is no docking station in the package, it does not support HDMI TVs, which means you will have a slightly reduced range of games. As a smaller model, you also get a 5.5 inch screen reduced, compared to the 6.2 inch screen of the original, although the resolution is still in 720p.

And then there is the lack of Joy-Cons. Built-in controllers mean that table gaming is literally irrelevant, while some of Switch's more innovative experiments, such as 1-2 Switch, will not work either, unless you buy a Joy-Cons separated, which brings you dangerously close to the price of a switch of pure blood. The infrared sensor is not supported and the absence of HD rumble is particularly disturbing. I really hope that does not mean the end of a switch feature already neglected by criminal justice. That said, it's good to see a traditional Nintendo-style D-Pad – and if the Lite design follows the ethos of machines like the Nintendo 2DS, it's expected to be a pretty sturdy device, whatever something a little more child-friendly.

Other Lite changes beyond the surface have been discovered by hackers de-engineering the operating system of the switch, known internally as Horizon. It is this process that revealed the Mariko processor to the world as early as March 2018, when the 5.0 firmware was launched. Thanks to this idea, we also know that memory is changing from LPDDR4 to LPDDR4X, offering new battery-saving improvements and also allowing development units to move up to 8GB of memory compared to 6GB of current drives (all the units sold remain however at 4 GB).

All this to say that the Switch Lite fits perfectly into the definition of the original story of the Wall Street Journal – we have indeed a cheaper Switch coming soon, cutting a third of the original price, with many features in the process. That said, I think the spirit behind the machine is good: personally, I feel that Switch is a brilliant handheld, which does not really cut it in many games when low power graphics are projected on a screen of living room. And in this spirit, I would be happy to receive a power switch with "enhanced features for video game enthusiasts".

The question is, are we going to get it? Given all that Mariko can potentially offer, a streamlined, cost-saving machine is a Nintendo thing to do, but it hardly gets the most out of the new Tegra hardware – which, we know, can offer better performance. Switch Lite is not the end of Mariko's story, though. An FCC document appeared this week, while Nintendo was discussing a second new model of switch. This is not a power switch as such, but rather an update of the standard model. The new NAND memory, a PCB revision and a new SoC are described as the only changes. So yes, new materials are coming, but it certainly is a version of the machine based on Mariko that we know and love. Any hope of a third processor can be wiped out – at least for now – as evidenced by switch firmware, only Mariko and Logan chips are supported.

There is good news and bad news here. The good news is that the Mariko GPU is capable of higher clock speeds even if they are not used in the Lite model. The chip itself reaches the maximum GPU clock at 1.27 GHz, but Nintendo rarely operates at maximum frequencies. That said, a jump from the current 768 MHz frequency moored to something closer to 1 GHz is not totally out of the question. The bad news is that, according to Switch hackers who reverse engineer the current firmware, this new model, although capable of faster GPU performance, still works on standard Switch clocks and there is no evidence that the most popular clocks Mariko highs are supported by Nintendo. That's not to say that things will not change in the future, but that's the situation at the moment.

On one side, of course, we would like to see more power available. On the other hand, we are realistically considering a 200 to 300 MHz boost based on what we know about the Mariko specification. In percentage terms, it's a big upgrade, but it's probably not enough for Nintendo to just add new hardware profiles, or for game designers to add more time. additional development for an additional performance mode that can only be used by a minority of users. . Function is In graphic material, it will be interesting to see where Nintendo is going in the long run.

The second revision of Switch has all the features of a "silent" update. Stocks of old stocks will then be replenished with new units at the right time, but without looking at the serial numbers, the new model will look exactly the same and perform the same operations. the same too. Whether this updated unit retains the existing battery – which means a much longer playing time for mobile phones – or that Nintendo opts for the smaller battery found in the mini remains to be seen. The FCC document suggests that the holder of the platform does not really consider this machine a big problem. It is also possible that new versions will filter into the channel without fanfare, like hardware revisions like the excellent PS4 Pro. HMC-7200.

Will we see a more powerful type of hardware? Nintendo is a very forward-looking company, to the point where the system firmware seems to have already Support for a new reduction of the Tegra X1 processor – but at the present time at least, there is no evidence of any new, more powerful model, certainly not in the short or medium term. However, our own experiences with the overclocking of a first-run operated switch show a system that easily adapts to processors, graphics processors and higher memory clocks with few problems of compatibility. Boost mode features, similar to the PS4 Pro, would be a welcome bonus for enthusiasts, combined with an increase in battery life for standard performance. This could contribute to the realization of the Wall Street Journal's prophecy, but is this really the type of option that Nintendo would implement?