Welcome to A Late Look, a series of articles where I (usually) take a belated look at games from yesteryear that I missed out on the first time around. But hold your horses right there because today marks a special edition where I’ll be looking not at a game, but at a gaming device.
As a previous owner of a regular Switch and a current owner of a Switch OLED, I never had much incentive to get my hands on the Switch Lite, but I recently had a chance to try it out for a few weeks and was so impressed with this Late Look at the device that I decided it was worth putting into writing.
Strength: Form Factor and Size
Despite the fact that every tech reviewer out there seems to be suffering from big hands syndrome and will always try to convince you that bigger is better, there’s undeniably something to be said for a smaller device more akin to the handhelds of old. The Switch Lite has obviously still grown a few sizes from the ancestral Game Boy Advance, but remains small and Lite enough to feel like an evolution of that rather than a (and I say this in the best way possible) tablet with handles. It’s actually a more marked difference from the regular Switch than one would think from pictures, and it even sneaks its way into regular pocket-size territory, even if it’s pushing the limit a little bit.
Weakness: No Hybrid Functionality
When listing weaknesses of the Switch Lite, we do have to throw in the most obvious one… obviously; namely, what it takes away from the regular Switch to allow for the cheaper price, and that’s the very functionality the console was named after. Yes, the Switch Lite can’t switch from handheld to playing on the TV (using any official methods) and you can’t even detach the Joy-Cons to get that satisfying click sound. It can’t be denied to be a weakness, but on the other hand it’s also the entire point of the device, and allows for slightly sturdier build quality as the system is one big piece. So, for this point, all that can really be said is it’s either a dealbreaker or it isn’t. If you want to play on the TV or take off the Joy-Cons to play tabletop multiplayer – don’t get a Lite. But if you’re only looking for a handheld, this weakness should be no cause for worries whatsoever.
Strength: Cheaper Price, Same Great Games
Though it shouldn’t come as a shock, one thing that impressed me about the Switch Lite is that it keeps pace with the regular Switch when it comes to handheld play. It’s cheaper, smaller, and lighter, but can still run your Breath of the Wilds, or your Marios, or any of the Switch’s thousands of games, just like its $300 parent (except Labo; let’s not forget Labo). And the great part about that is that, in my experience, a number of games actually look or run better in handheld mode than on the big screen (though obviously it varies greatly from game to game). The only real disadvantage is if we compare it to the OLED with its more vivid colors, but then we’re also talking about a device that costs nearly twice as much.
Weakness: The Tiny Things
It’s fitting that a small system should also have some small issues. While the Switch Lite doesn’t have many more weaknesses that are unique to it, other than a slightly shorter battery life compared to current Switch models (it’s equivalent to what the Switch launched with in 2017), it does of course still suffer from the same weaknesses as a regular Switch, which are indeed several smaller problems rather than one huge one. Performance can be shaky in some poorly optimized (usually third party or Pokémon) games, the on-board memory is only a fairly pathetic 32 GB, and there’s of course always a risk of the much-dreaded Joy-Con drift, which on paper would seem much worse on a Switch Lite, but speaking from personal experience, I’ve always been able to fix that with Contact Cleaner, which should be no less troublesome whether the Joy-Cons detach or not. These are nuisances, and in the perfect world we would be without them, but they aren’t enough to hold it back from being a great device.
Strength: The Only $200 Handheld on the Market
When all is said and done, the Switch Lite is a Switch but cheaper, and that’s a pretty damn solid recipe. The Switch has a long list of excellent games specifically because it was a Nintendo handheld and home console system for a whole generation, but you can still play all of them (except Labo; let’s not forget Labo) by buying the $200 handheld-only system. And not only is it a great gaming device for the price, it’s basically the only one currently available for that price, unless you get into very niche emulation machines. The market for handheld PCs is an interesting one to follow for those who like handheld gaming, but because they aren’t a closed system like the Switch, they have to make all the money on the hardware itself, and nobody is interested in making low end systems with smaller profits. The Switch Lite currently fills that niche all on its own, making it a great first device for kids or a huge upgrade from phones for the casuals, while costing less than even a mid-range phone. And taking inflation into consideration, it certainly doesn’t seem like anything will be challenging that spot in the near future.
Conclusion
The Switch Lite is one of the best value gaming devices today and possibly the best value handheld. With handheld PCs focusing almost exclusively on high-end devices, it’s currently the de facto budget handheld on the market, and will probably remain so until the inevitable Switch 2 Lite, but even that could end up costing as much as $350, leaving the Switch Lite as the only real option in its price range, but luckily a great one. As a main gaming device, it’s probably a non-starter to anybody likely to read this article, but it’s a great companion device for those playing mainly on PC or PlayStation, and a great system for those who game more casually. It fills its niche beautifully, and we can only hope Nintendo keeps producing the system for as long as people are willing to buy it.
Personal Verdict: 4.5 Lights out of 5
Full Article – https://www.vgchartz.com/article/465153/a-late-look-switch-lite/
