The refreshed Nintendo Switch is officially in stores, promising 4.5 to 9 hours of battery life up from the original model’s 2.5 to 6.5 hours.
But how does that claim hold up in real world use? We bought one and put it side-by-side with our old Switch to find out. For science!
To see how the new Switch’s battery life compares to the old one, we ran an endless, 8-player CPU battle in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on both systems, with all of the items and AI difficulty turned up for maximum chaos. We cranked the brightness to max, and turned auto-sleep and auto-brightness off. It’s not an entirely scientific test, but it did give us a good idea of how each version of the Switch holds up after a long play session.
The new Nintendo Switch lasted for about 4 hours and 50 minutes before going dark on our Smash test, which is nearly double the 2:45 result we got from our old Switch. It’s worth noting that our old Switch was purchased in 2017, so its battery may have seen some wear and tear over the years. But still, based on our testing, the new Switch does indeed offer a significant battery bump over the launch model.
If you haven’t bought a Switch yet and aren’t interested in next month’s $199, handheld-only Switch Lite , you should obviously seek out the newer, better model. But should you upgrade to this version if you already own a Switch? That’s harder to say.
While the new Switch’s battery is significantly better, both systems will likely conk out during a long flight, and the old Switch’s shorter battery life can easily be improved with a portable battery pack . That said, if you are interested in trading up, GameStop is currently offering up to $225 in trade-in credit on older Switch models, which would effectively let you get the new one for $75.
Regardless of whether you decide to upgrade or not, it’s nice to see Nintendo make improvements to the Switch’s relatively short runtime in handheld mode. The upcoming Switch Lite is rated somewhere in between both models at 3 to 7 hours, so we look forward to putting the smaller Switch through its paces when it releases on Sept. 20.
CharlieTano on August 15th, 2019 at 15:29 UTC »
Traded mine yesterday, some things to know:
You’re told you need all the parts that came with your original switch, but I lost my joycon grip a while back and the guy just shrugged and said he could take the new one out of my new Switch, which we did, and still rang me up for the $225. Not sure if that’s what all GameStops would do.
You get to choose the color of your new joycons regardless of what you had before.
Sales tax DOES apply to the $75 you still gotta pay. I ended up paying $91 something. Edit: sales tax applies to the $299, not the $75. Hence the $16 or so extra I paid. My bad!
Most important, not all GameStops will offer to transfer your content, which people seem to be assuming (I called ahead and mine did not). But, all I did was get the free trial of the online in the eShop, upload my saves to the cloud, redownload on my new Switch, cancel trial. No money needed. Edit: not all GameStops have the WiFi capability to help you do it. Mine also didn’t ask me, just whisked my old Switch away.
Kevanness on August 15th, 2019 at 14:27 UTC »
The actual title: "New Nintendo Switch Battery Life Tested: How Much Better Is It?" The battery in the new Switch is exactly the same, the battery is improved only by the better efficiency of the new chip.
RedRelic01 on August 15th, 2019 at 14:06 UTC »
Can I switch my switch out?