(upbeat music)
- Hey it's Chaim with The Verge and you're probably
pretty familiar with the Nintendo Switch.
But this isn't a Nintendo Switch,
this is a Nintendo Switch Lite.
Which as the name suggests is a Switch, but smaller.
This is our first chance to really test out the Switch Lite
for ourselves and it's a portable version of the Switch.
It's sort of like a Game Boy to the Switch's console
almost, you see the Joy-Con don't attach.
There is a proper directional pad
instead of the separate buttons.
Which is fantastic to play on.
Another weird quirk on the Switch Lite is there's
no auto-brightness censor.
You notice that it's just, there's no censor on the front.
So you can manually adjust brightness,
but you can't have it automatically do that just based
on ambient light in the room.
Over here on top, you have the power and volume.
Headphone jack, game card slot, over here on the bottom
we have USBC for charging, speakers, and over here
there's a micro SD card slot.
Because there's no kickstand either.
Because again, the kickstand is for table top mode
when you're playing with Joy-Con attached.
And this can't do that.
And one thing I want to also point out is just how nice
the plastic is on here.
Nintendo's done a really great job
just with physical materials.
It's really great to hold.
It's this nice matte, tactile plastic.
It feels actually very similar to the plastic
on the Joy-Con controllers.
It's even lighter than the Switch is and the Switch
was already pretty light.
And it's just really enjoyable to play on.
(fun music)
Battery life on the Switch Lite is important
because unlike the full-size Switch,
you're only gonna be using this portable
which means it needs to last a while.
Fortunately, Nintendo says the battery life should be good.
They're promising that it'll be better than the old
full-size Switch, although the updated version
of the big Switch is still gonna have the best battery life.
As for the rest, it still charges by a USBC.
It still works with all your favorite games.
It has a gyroscope so any of the motion sensing
stuff will still work like aiming in Zelda or Splatoon.
If you own a full-size Switch and you wanna switch
to a Switch Lite, you can actually transfer all your stuff
over and you're actually able to hook up additional
wireless controllers like Joy-Con or Pro Controller
if you wanna play games with more people locally
on the Switch.
Again, you can't hook it up to a TV.
The other two big changes on the Switch Lite
are the screen and the D Pad.
The screen is obviously slightly smaller than the old Switch
although, it still looks great.
It actually has this sort of compressed effect.
Kind of like what Nintendo did back with the Game Boy Micro.
It's still running at the same resolution but because
it's a smaller display is actually looks slightly crisper
than the old Switch.
The other change is the D Pad.
Again, because the Joy-Con aren't attachable
and you don't need to be able to use them as
a sideways controller, there is a regular directional pad
on here which I greatly prefer.
And deeply wish I had when I was playing Celeste last year.
The Switch Lite really isn't meant to replace the
full-size Switch.
If you're someone who really likes the switching nature
of the Switch where you can use it on your TV
or take it on the go, well, that's great.
It's still here and it still exists.
But if you're someone who just wants a really good
portable console and Nintendo's betting that there are
people like that, the Switch Lite is great for that.
And as someone who's owned a full-size Switch
for the last couple years, I honestly
do use mine in portable mode most of the time anyway.
So I kinda get the appeal.
The Switch Lite will be out on September 20th for $199,
which is $100 less than the full-size Switch.
And it'll be out in three colors,
this blue, there's a yellow and a dark gray.
Thanks so much for watching.
For more great videos like this make sure to check out
The Verge.
Like and subscribe and now I'm gonna go back
to playing Zelda.