I've replaced my Switch OLED with a Nintendo Switch 2 for two weeks now - here are the biggest improvements I’ve noticed in my time with the new console

The Nintendo Switch 2 has officially been with us for over a fortnight now, and those who survived the pre-order madness and managed to get one into their homes have had plenty of time to form opinions on the company’s latest console.

I’ve had the console myself for more than two weeks now, and if you’ve read my full Nintendo Switch 2 review, you’ll know that I like the system a lot. Sure, for better or worse, it doesn’t exactly have that spark of innovation that has made Nintendo’s previous hardware so interesting. But strictly as a Switch iteration, the Switch 2 is the astronomical upgrade I was hoping for.

From better image quality and game performance to faster load times and backwards compatibility, the Switch 2 offers a substantial step up, firmly positioning it as one of the best gaming consoles of the current generation. My Nintendo Switch OLED is a wonderful system still, and saved my bacon on many long trips, but I now find it extremely difficult to go back.

If you simply want the CliffsNotes on what makes the Switch 2 so good, then you’re in the right place. After more than two weeks of testing the console each and every day, I’ve collated a list of my biggest Switch 2 findings when it comes to overall improvements, as well as some of my favorite new features.

The 1080p display is gorgeous

The single biggest improvement the Switch 2 has made is a jump to a 1080p display on the handheld. It’s not an OLED panel; instead, Nintendo opted for a cheaper LCD screen. But its support for HDR10 does go a long way in alleviating this with rich contrast and accurate shadows.

Now, a resolution bump is one thing, but Nintendo has packed its panel with forward-thinking technology. HDR10 is fantastic, but the display also has variable refresh rate (VRR) support, helping games that run at 40 frames per second (fps) or above maintain smooth performance - up to 120Hz in fact - for a much more stable experience on the go.

You don’t quite get the same hardware chops in handheld mode as you would from inserting the console into its dock for TV play, so additions like VRR really help the display catch up in performance.

It’s a larger panel overall, too. At 7.9 inches, it’s a noticeable size increase over the Switch OLED (7 inches) and the original Switch (6.2 inches). Both also had 720p output - another area where the Switch 2 provides a huge improvement over the original Switch family.

Backwards compatibility is exceptional

I once thought that Xbox was the out-and-out winner of the backwards compatibility battle this generation. On Xbox Series X and Series S consoles, you’re able to play the full Xbox One library, as well as a healthy amount of Xbox 360 and OG Xbox titles - even the physical discs work!

That said, Switch 2 certainly gives Microsoft a run for its money in this department. Sure, due to its cartridge-based game cards, it’s not going to run Wii or Wii U games (not outside of a Switch Online library update, anyway), but you can expect almost complete compatibility with the original Switch catalog.

Obviously, that in and of itself is nothing new. PlayStation 4 games can be played on PlayStation 5, after all. It’s how Nintendo has approached backwards compatibility that’s important to talk about. Currently, the most impressive additions have been games with dedicated updates. Those include Pokémon Scarlet & Violet and Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury - both of which have received updates that improve image quality and framerate.

Several of the best Nintendo Switch games have also received HDR support, including Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, and Link’s Awakening. Hopefully, Nintendo will keep applying similar updates to highly-rated original Switch games, because the work done so far has made these titles feel better to play than ever before.

And as a quick aside, I have to mention that some Switch games benefit from having an uncapped framerate. I’ve written a whole story on Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition’s improvements. These were not officially mentioned by Nintendo, but the Omega Force-developed Dynasty Warriors spin-off now runs at a clean 60fps on Switch 2, and at 1080p in handheld mode.

It’s a dream to play now, overcoming its initial technical issues via the sheer power of the Switch 2 hardware.

Load times across the board are much faster

The Switch 2’s improved 256GB of internal storage and support for microSD Express cards are among the most impressive changes to the console. Having tons more storage compared to the original Switch’s measly 32GB (or 64GB on Switch OLED) is fantastic, of course.

But you can also expect your games to have significantly reduced boot and load times across the board too. In my testing, I found that games with sizable load times on the original Switch, like Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition and Fortnite, now boot and load into areas much faster.

Both of these games feature massive explorable maps, so having less downtime overall is something I’m very appreciative of on Switch 2. It’s also something I’m grateful for when it comes to some of the best fighting games on Switch 2. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, for example, drops you into a match from the character select screen in just a couple of seconds.

Meanwhile, Street Fighter 6’s load times for online matches rival those of its PS5 and Xbox versions.

Big improvements to the Nintendo eShop

Let’s not pretend browsing the eShop on Switch wasn’t a miserable experience. If you weren’t trawling through layers upon layers of AI-generated slop in the deals section, you were dealing with some of the worst input delay to ever grace a digital storefront. On Switch 2, Nintendo has solved one of these problems.

Yes, you still won’t be avoiding the 95%-discounted crap that was so prominent on the original eShop, but Nintendo has thankfully improved its usability, so the difference is like night and day. The torturous seconds of input delay while browsing are simply gone now, making for a much more pleasant shopping experience on Switch 2.

The store is also just organized much cleaner than before, and you likely won’t encounter the sloppy clutter if you avoid delving too deeply into that aforementioned deals section.

There are still some things I’d like to see remedied, though. The gold points rewards system - which lets you amass discount credit when purchasing software - is gone entirely, and there’s been no replacement system yet.

Worse still, there’s no whimsical store theme a la the Wii Shop Channel or indeed the 3DS eShop. Get on that, please, Nintendo.

Third-party ports are surprisingly good

While it’s definitely a shame the majority of the Switch 2 launch lineup has been ports of older titles, said ports have actually turned out to be quite impressive for the most part. Sure, many of these ports are still not quite up to par with their PS5 or Xbox counterparts, but they are significantly less compromised than they would have been on the original Switch.

For example, I’ve been playing a ton of Street Fighter 6 on Switch 2. Image quality is slightly less clean than other versions, and the single-player World Tour mode has some performance compromises (such as locking to 30fps during fights, which is a shame), but it’s an otherwise excellent port that loads quickly and locks in 60fps in both offline and online play.

My colleague Dash was similarly impressed with Hitman: World of Assassination - Signature Edition in his review, saying it's an extremely solid port outside of some occasionally choppy performance in docked mode and a number of bugs which can hopefully be patched out in the near future.

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