Is it worth Upgrading your Switch for a better battery?
Here’s my little story…
This morning, I took my Nintendo Switch with me to work. It had about 99% battery life before I left. On my 15 minute break, I played Pokemon Sword and Shield during this time, and once I was back to work, I noticed that my battery life was 94%. What happened? It seems strange to have your battery life drain 5% in so little time, it almost feels much like the drain of an old cell phone battery. To be fair, my Switch is one of the older models that came out in 2017, so perhaps that is to blame. Still, I can’t help but feel for those who bought the Switch on launch day, who may be experiencing a similar issue as mine.
Now, to find out the answer to the question, is it worth getting a new Switch?
As you may know, Nintendo had recently released a newer model of the Switch this year. This new Switch’s main selling point is improved battery life. Now that it has just launched in stores, it sells for about $299 at most retail stores, and you can also find it on Amazon.
According to Nintendo’s website, the newer model has about 4.5 to 9 hours of battery life depending on what you play, whereas the older model has only 2.5 to 6.5 hours. From what I see, it is almost double the juice, which is nice.
Now obviously, if you have not gotten a Switch yet, getting the newer model would be much better than buying the older model. That improvement in battery life is significant.
But another thing to consider is the Nintendo Switch Lite, a smaller, cheaper, but more stripped-down version of the Switch. This one seems to be more intended for those who play on the go, perhaps as a replacement of the 3DS? I don’t own one myself, but I am tempted to get one in the future, if only to write up a product review.
In my opinion, if you already own the Switch, it is probably not worth buying a brand new one for the battery alone. If you mostly play it on a TV, it’s going to be connected to power the whole time anyways, so battery life is not really a factor. Plus, if Nintendo ever releases a souped-up version of the Switch in the future, that money saved could potentially go towards that instead!
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this short post.
Have fun, as always.
~Ken