The Nintendo Switch has sold over 80 million units worldwide, passing the 3DS family on the best-selling consoles of all-time list. It may have already beaten the Game Boy Advance family (81.5 million) and is closing in on the Xbox 360’s ~84 million sales.
Despite the Switch’s continuing success, talk of a Pro model has been around for a while. Bloomberg claims that the updated version of the Switch will contain a new 7-inch Samsung OLED screen, as opposed to the 6.2-inch and 5.5-inch LCD screens of the current standard model and the Switch Lite respectively.
According to the report, the new display will be manufactured by Samsung and will start production in June, with assemblers due to receive the first batch in July. Despite the larger screen, the new Switch will continue to display content in 720p resolution in handheld mode according to Bloomberg, but will be able to support a 4K display when docked.
The decision to stick with 720p will reportedly mean a notable increase in battery life, but Bloomberg notes that this may lead to friction with developers who may now have to work with two vastly different resolutions when creating their games. It’s likely that some form of upscaling, similar to Nvidia‘s DLSS technology, would be required to achieve such a significant resolution jump.
“The OLED panel will consume less battery, offer higher contrast and possibly faster response time when compared to the Switch’s current liquid-crystal display,” Yoshio Tamura, co-founder of display consultancy DSCC, told the publication.
The introduction of an OLED screen could see the device follow in the footsteps of smartphones and increase the refresh rate from its current 60Hz, improving the gaming experience. It should also consume less battery and have a higher contrast.
Something we’ve repeatedly heard is that the next Switch will support 4K resolutions when docked with a television.
If a new Switch does arrive this year, it will doubtlessly be affected by the global chip shortages that are set to last into 2022.
