According to the Wall Street Journal, Nintendo is currently moving its production sites away from China, to an undisclosed location in South East Asia. The reason behind this move is the trade war between China and the US, with tariffs now applying to all Chinese-made electronic products. The WSJ is also revealing that two new models have entered production: a new, more powerful system that will resemble the current one; and a second "lite" model that will be sold at a cheaper price and look somewhat different.

The Wall Street Journal reported in March that Nintendo planned to update the Switch this year with two new models. One is set to look similar to the current model with beefed-up components, while the other is expected to be a less-expensive model with a new look.
People involved in the supply chain said production in Southeast Asia has started for the Switch, including the current type and the two new models, suggesting Nintendo is getting ready to introduce them soon. They didn’t give specific volume figures but said Nintendo wanted to have enough units to sell in the U.S., the largest market for videogame consoles, when the new products go on the market.

This has not been confirmed by Nintendo yet and nobody yet knows when these two new models will hit the market. But if this comes true, will The Witcher 3 run at a higher resolution than 540p on the new, more powerful model? Time will tell. Which of these models are you more likely to purchase?

Source: WSJ

 

[Xzi]

I'm pretty sure some people are hoping for a PS5, Nintendo Edition. Which would basically be a PS5 with Joy-Con. Can't really do that and have it be portable too.

Yeah, some people seem to think Switch being portable is "holding it back," but there's no evidence that Nintendo would've released hardware on par with the current generation either way. After all, they didn't release hardware on par with X360 until the very end of its life cycle.

 

[Captain_N]

I really dont like the short cycle of hardware nowadays.... If they are gonna make a more powerful hardware that is a real step up then id feel better about it. but doing something like the nds --> dsi dont impress me..

 

[Deleted_413010]

Which of these models are you more likely to purchase?

Neither because its just a waste of money. I already have a Switch which has fine and dandy specifications. If this turns out to be like the 3DS-era of Nintendo where they make like the "New" Switch and then make games exclusive to that like VC and etc then maybe I could consider. But if they did that I would also be super pissed. But hey...I have a N3DS now so...i'm set on the 3DS lol.

 

[gundamu]

1080p led screen with mroe power would be nice

we'll see though

btw out of curiosity how do the high-end tablets compare to switch hardware wise??

 

[scionae]

I'm definately grabbing the lite one to play all the free gams on the eshop (mostly Warframe coffcoff) and maybe smash if it can run it.
Let's see what happens

 

[Taleweaver]

I'll go with the "easiest to hack" version.


...but joking's aside: I'll answer when there is confirmation from nintendo (and probably after a few benchmark tests). "cheaper" and "more powerful" are all pretty loose statements. Just how much cheaper are we talking about? Just how much FPS difference will, say witcher 3, have between the three models? And so on.

 

[smf]

We know there is at least one revision coming, thanks to support in the new fw. The question is which of the two units will be Mariko, neither/one/both

 

[netovsk]

Maybe the cheaper one for going legit and f2p games but probably none of them; mine is collecting dust since I got it.

 

[WhiteMaze]

Idk, this whole thing seems semi-off to me. You'd think if they were gonna release a new revision anytime soon it would've been announced at E3. Maybe it'll be out around Christmas?

That's just the thing. Nintendo has no need whatsoever to announce the new systems at E3. It's already the most popular system. If anything, that would be a bad idea.

There's tons upon tons of old switches on store shelves. These are still at full price. Nintendo wants these to sell, as much as possible.

If Nintendo announced the new systems now or gave even the slightest confirmation of these rumors, that would not happen. Most people would wait for the new models, or for the price drop on the old switch model that will inevitably happen when the new ones hit the market.

Nintendo has done this before.

 

[horokeusama]

That will surely motivate me to hack mine. I'll wait a year after they release a "pro" version until I get a new model though.

 

[Burorī]

And yet, the hardware of supposed 2011 produces far superior graphics than the hardware from 2015, does say a lot eh?

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of course not lol, it is nintendo, if they are anything, it is lazy with patches and aftersales of their games.
It still has pretty much no 3rd party support aside from indie garbage and will stay that way for the rest of its life, just like the wii, just like the wiiu.

But I hate it when games like Xenoverse 2 are lagging as hell when my character transforms into a Super Saiyan

 

[Deleted User]

I’ll take the more powerful one for me and will give the “lite” version to my little brother so we don’t have to share the console. Just hope the “lite” revision doesn’t get a downgrade in power

 

[guisadop]

I don't really understand the desire for this. A stationary Switch without a screen is just a Shield TV. They can make it more powerful without needing to remove functionality. Conversely, they can also make it more portable without needing to remove functionality.

Plus WiiU was already a reverse Switch when you think about it, 1-in-2 instead of 2-in-1. The concept clearly wasn't that appealing.

Being cheaper is already a huge advantage it would have if it didn't have a screen, speakers etc.

 

[Reecey]

I'm ready to trade up to a Switch Pro. I wonder exactly how much more power they can get out of it if they're sticking with the same form factor, though. More RAM would probably be helpful.

Let’s hope this time around it won’t be another New 3DS scenario again.

 

[Megadriver94]

Perhaps the larger of the two potentiel new Switch models will have more internal memory and a better battery life

 

[Bladexdsl]

I'm ready to trade up to a Switch Pro.

my body is ready

 

[Xzi]

Being cheaper is already a huge advantage it would have if it didn't have a screen, speakers etc.

Sure, but they can make it cheaper without removing all that, too. If Switch Lite has fixed joycons, they don't need individual batteries. They also don't need to include a dock with it. Lastly, they can use under-performing X1 chips and cap the performance in docked mode.

I'm pretty sure Nvidia intends to use the same Tegra X1 refresh that's going into Switch Pro in a Shield TV revision, so Nintendo isn't likely to step on their partner's toes. Especially after their sales for their last stationary console were so pathetic, and their sales for their first hybrid console have been so massive.

 

[chrisrlink]

I'd be stupid to give up my hacked model if i can afford a switch pro i'll get it for purely online use only I imagine as expensive as xbox 1 X at launch for pro and I'm pretty sure hacking will be hard if not impossiable for years, remember it was Nvidia's fault not nintendo's that crippled rev 1 switch's security

 

[Itsuki235]

I have been wondering if TX and/or the Atmosphere team have additional undisclosed hardware exploits for the NS. It makes sense to make sure these two new models go into production and distribution before acknowledging they do.

If these these two models are confirmed to be vulnerable to something like the RCM exploit, releasing that hypothetical exploit a month or so after these models have been on the market would be really nice for the NS hacking scene. Well, I can hope at least.

 

[Deleted User]

The switch we got was rushed to market and always looked/felt cheap to me

I have been waiting for this since launch.

My guess is that the switch lite will be about the size of a 3ds xl, the switch is too big and fragile for a portable, especially for a kid.
Now that the 3ds is officially dead, they probably won't shy away from giving it a much needed flip cover (and finally implementing the themes and badges), so, lite will probably be advertised as a kids first console like the 2DS.
(Either that or removing the screen and making it a regular tabletop console to make it more affordable)

Pro will have higher specs so I guess we'll have games running smooth 1080p in portable mode?
That's what the internet seems to want anyway

I wonder what kind of name they'll have.