The Nintendo Switch OLED edition. Nintendo has never been one to rush into things.
Yeah, Xbox and PlayStation might have already come out with all new gaming systems,
but Nintendo has a little more old school 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' vibe.
They have, however, decided to grace us with an all new larger OLED display.
And it's time to see if it's durable. Let's get started.
[Intro]
It's always a better idea for me to test the durability of a device on purpose
so you won't have to find out the hard way on accident.
It might also be my imagination, but right out of the box, this new Nintendo Switch feels heavier.
There's also a new full fledged flap of a kickstand traversing the back panel.
Already a substantial improvement over the previous toothpick of a kickstand.
The new OLED screen is slightly larger than the old LCD version by almost a full inch, kind of
nice. The 7 inch display is still capped at 720p while playing in handheld mode. And 1080p when
docked up to a TV. Same as it was when the Switch was originally released four and a half years ago.
And I don't want to sound bitter or anything, but Nintendo could have probably saved the planet by
dropping Breath of the Wild 2 in 2020...or at least saved everyone from boredom If we really
wanted people to stay home for long periods of time, they should have released that game.
Now it is possible to make OLED displays from plastic like we saw on the Z Fold.
But usually small OLED screens like we see on cell phones have a layer of glass on top.
And with this Switch's subtle weight gain, glass is what I'm hoping for. We can lay out the Mohs
scale of hardness which helps us differentiate between different materials. Levels 2 and 3 would
by plastic. 5 or 6 would be glass. And level 8 or 9 would be sapphire. If we ever get a
Switch with a level 10 diamond screen, well, it'll probably cost more than $350. But unfortunately,
what we're seeing here are scratches at a level 3, with deeper grooves at a level 4, which means
this new OLED screen has a surface layer of plastic. Looks like my battery's a little low.
Fun side note, if your Switch ever needs a little juice on the go,
whatever power bank you decide to use needs to have a power delivery function.
The PD standard is the only one that can charge up the Switch while playing it.
Everything else might still work and give the Switch some juice, it'll just be way slower. My
channel sponsor, Anker, has one of these for like $30. I'll link down in the description.
Where were we? Oh yeah, plastic screens. Just, you know, once again it's good to know that the
OLED screen is soft so that we can avoid putting it in situations where it can be damaged by coins
or keys, or other metal objects. Nintendo has said that the screen itself is made from glass,
and that this plastic film which feels very permanent is an anti-scattering adhesive layer,
which is there to help keep the glass shards from scattering if the display ever does
shatter. Kind of like the laminated glass on a vehicle windshield and it is probably
a good thing to have. If you really do want that glass feeling though, and make your
Switch more resilient. Dbrand does have a glass screen protector that's pretty easy to install,
and it sits perfectly inside this little outer bezel. It's almost like the Switch was made for
this extra layer. However, if you really want the protection of glass but the feeling of plastic,
you can always put another plastic screen protector over the top of your glass screen
protector. And you can protect that protector with another protector...and that protector
with another protector...and that protector with another protector. It's like a glass and plastic
sandwich that just keeps going indefinitely. Kind of like our wait for Breath of the Wild 2.
After about 40 layers or so, the optical clarity starts to become sub-par, but my
Switch is pretty super protected. Pretty sure I now have the most protected Switch on the planet.
I've just exponentially upgraded Nintendo's glass and plastic sandwich. I'm mostly kidding about the
mile high screen protector thing. But dbrand's glass really does take things to the next level,
especially when somehow they've managed to have the glass layer on the outside
so it feels nice, while if it ever does break, the shards still stay connected.
Science. Nintendo's probably taking notes. I'll leave a link for these down in the description.
Now for the joy-cons Nintendo has said that these joy-cons are unchanged from the original version,
but then they've also said that they have changed them up a bit. So I'm not sure which is true. The
buttons are made from plastic and still have the lettering inlaid all the way through the
button itself – not just printed on top. I can slice the top of the letter X off entirely,
and the X still remains. Part of my letter X is gone, and now I can give it to you. X
gon' give it to ya for sure. The attention to detail and quality is pretty impressive.
Down below the letter buttons we have the joy stick which is still coated in a thick layer
of rubber, and from a durability perspective externally, it seems super solid. It's the
internal durability of these joy cons though that still remains to be seen...if ya catch my drift.
The joy con housing is made from plastic.
What's not plastic, however, is the border around the edge of the screen.
Nintendo has finally incorporated metal into the Switch design.
Super glad they did this since four years ago during the same test,
one of the joy cons did snap off. It gives me some hope that maybe this OLED Switch will survive.
Flipping the Switch over, here on the back we have the super large full length,
multipositional kickstand. Above that kickstand is still plastic. But the kickstand itself –
metal. Yeah, this Switch might cost $50 more than the original Switch did 4 years ago, but
with this OLED screen and new metal components, I think that price increase is totally justified.
Can't let a metal surface pass by without an Art Class with Jerry.
As soon as you can tell what I'm drawing, let me know down in the comments. This one's a tough one.
Not many people are going to get it. People have always asked me where I learned to draw so good,
asking questions like, 'Hey Jerry, did you study with Van Gogh or Picasso?'
And no, I didn't. I just, like, practice a lot.
Like yeah, you see the finished product and are super proud of my effort,
but what you don't see is how many OLED Switches I had to go through to perfect this drawing.
Where do you think I got all those screen protectors? Practice makes perfect my friends.
The internal fan has kicked on, probably because we are still charging,
or maybe because my art is hot fire. I'm curious to see how many people can guess who this
is. Let me know down in the comments. The kickstand itself is still very much attached
to the Switch body and won't be falling off on it's own, just like the last one would,
so that's pretty cool. I do gotta say though, that I'm a pretty big fan of the
vibrance on this OLED panel. Me personally, I play my Switch docked 99% of the time,
so I won't really ever get to enjoy this screen. But for someone who plays their Switch on the go,
or undocked, this would be a pretty solid upgrade. OLED screens have more contrast
between lights and darks and just have brighter colors in general which is great for video games.
The screen did last for about 35 seconds under the heat from my lighter before the pixels turned
white and did not recover. The plastic film on top, however, did not melt, which is interesting.
If you remember four years ago, the whole screen was made from plastic and did melt quite a bit.
I'll unplug Anker's power bank. We definitely have enough juice to finish the bend test.
The top of the screen bezel is made from metal, but the rest of everything else though is plastic,
like the buttons. Four years ago the weakest point in the Nintendo Switch was where the
joy-cons joined with the body. This metal rail was screwed into some weaker metal
and the screws just popped out with the threads they were attached to when the Switch was bent.
The joy-cons themselves are made from plastic, but that's not the weak point. This year though it
looks like the extra metal lip from the screen's bezel is supporting that rail. Things are looking
quite a bit more rigid and stronger. The only way to know for sure though is with the bend test.
There is still flex and all still mostly at the joint where the joy-cons join the body.
Flipping it around to the back we see the same thing.
The console itself though, the body, with this glass screen and long metal kickstand
isn't bending at all. It might be game over for Link, but definitely not for the
Switch. The Nintendo Switch OLED edition is solid. Nintendo has upgraded the screen and the structure
and I'm impressed. Would I go out and buy a whole new Switch if my current Switch was working fine?
I don't know, that's hard to say. With all the structural improvements though and the nicer
OLED screen, I am surprised that the price only jumped by $50. Nice work, Nintendo.
The only way it could be cooler is if we could see the insides from the outsides. Luckily,
like always, I've got you covered with my Teardown Skin from dbrand.
These are the exact internals of the joy-cons now displayed on the outside for our visual enjoyment.
We have a Skin for the console as well, I just don't want to cover up my art just yet.
As always, links are down in the description. What's your favorite game for this Switch?
Let me know down in the comments. Personally, if you couldn't tell,
I like Breath of the Wild. And that weird string flippy game that I forgot the name of.
Unravel or something. That was fun. Hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. Come
hang out with me on Instagram and Twitter, and thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.