What hardware improvements would you like to see on the eventual Nintendo Switch Pro Revision?
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Nintendo has released a smaller or larger version of every single handheld they ever made within a couple of years of the original's release. So a Switch Lite or Switch Plus or Pro is not a question of if but a question of when.
Below is my wishlist,
1. A Bezel Free Screen that continues to support all existing Joy Cons
As illustrated here: https://imgur.com/jTg7gaM
Many of this year's high end smartphones offer bezel free displays even though smartphones have much much smaller bezels than the Nintendo Switch.
Large bezels do not offer any advantages for a device like the Nintendo Switch. By eliminating the Switch's bezel, you would increase the screen size from 6.2 Inches to 7.5 Inches and thereby provide improved immersion. Even the 1cm bezels found on the Dell XPS laptop would be a substantial improvement over the current bezel size.
For me, a Switch Plus that does away with the bezel so that it retains the same external dimensions and would support all existing Joy Cons but utilizies a low power 7.5 inch bezel free Samsung OLED or Sharp IGZO displays would be a glorious thing.
2. Eight hours of battery life by shrinking the manufacturing process from 20nm down to 7nm.
TSMC recently started accepting volume orders for their upcoming 7nm node for mass production in 2018. https://www.google.com/amp/wccftech.com/tsmc-starts-prototype-7nm-chips-2018/amp/ Assuming that Nintendo places a volume order in order to release a Switch Revision built on 7nm thereby greatly improving power efficiency, the shrink from 20nm down to 7nm should provide for an additional 4-5 hours of battery life.
The current Switch gets about 3hrs of battery life and uses 20 watts at peak load. A Switch built on the 7nm process should be able to bring that power consumption down to less than 10 watts under peak load. Additional power savings could be achieved by switching to either Sharp's bezel free low power IGZO displays or Samsungs bezel free low power OLED displays.
Some may prefer to use the die shrink to pursue more power. The Tegra X2 is basically a Tegra X1 shrunk to 16nm but with 50% more cores, and updating the internals to the X2 should readily improve the resolution and frame rates closer to the desired 1080p/60fps for most games. With the shrink to 7nm, you can either maximize battery life, maximize power, or do a bit of both. Since I am satisfied by Mario Oddessy's graphics, I would prefer to keep the power the same and maximize battery life to 8 hours with the shrink to 7nm. But if you would prefer a slightly more powerful Switch with 6 hours of battery life, that's fine too.
3. Some modest improvements to the JoyCon controllers, Dock, Kickstand, Storage Capacity and the addition of a Microphone and Camera.
The built in kickstand is almost nonfunctional, it needs to be revised to be sturdier.
The dock should be revised so that it stops scratching up the Switch's screen whenever it's docked. The dock should be wider and should have felt on the inside so that it won't scratch up the screen even if rubs up against it.
If feasible, an updated dock, sold separately, with an integrated fan and a gtx 1060 chip along with gddr5 ram should allow every game to achieve downsampled 1080p 60 fps consistently when docked. If this dock was also compatible with all existing Switch consoles, it would be a dream come true for many gamers. They could potentially do away with the dock aspect altogether and market it as a switch TV, just a box you can put your game carts in that plugs into the TV and supports Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Amazon Video and Plex. No screen, no battery and no joy cons, ideal both as a supplement so that people dont have to keep pulling their Switch out of their entertainment center, and as an alternative for gamers that want a more traditional console experience.
It's downright idiotic that you need to use your phone for Voice Chat during Switch multiplayer games. There is no reason they can't add a microphone to enable proper Voice Chat and possibly even a front facing camera to the Switch Pro. It can't be that expensive, even the DS had a microphone, and playing Face Raiders on 3DS thanks to the built in camera was a blast.
The Switch Pro should have atleast 128GB of on board storage, out of the box. 32GB is nothing more than an insult, especially when they're pushing digital so much. Charge a little more if needed, as long as it's nothing absurd.
The Switch should be compatible with Bluetooth Headphones such as the Airpods and with the Wii U Pro Controller. Both are bluetooth devices and there is no reason they shouldn't be compatible with the Switch.
The JoyCon controllers are overall decent and I think any future revision should retain backwards compatibility with all existing Joy Con Controllers. However, I think there are some minor adjustments that could significantly improve their design and functionality.
The revised Joy Cons should have slightly improved range and more resiliency to wireless interference.
The Joy Cons should have bigger buttons, the current buttons are needlessly small.
Many gamers would prefer analog buttons and triggers for the revised Joy Cons.
In addition, it would be ideal if they utilized something closer to a D-Pad for atleast the left Joy Con (the PS Vita's D-Pad is a perfect compromise between split buttons and D-Pad functionality).
The buttons and joysticks should be slightly further spaced apart and vertically centered so that the Right Joy Con can be used comfortably when sideways. With the current design, the Left Joy Con is far more comfortable to hold and use than the Right Joy Con. Perhaps move the home and capture buttons to the center and space the buttons and joysticks farther apart to achieve this.
The Joycons would benefit from improved triggers so that they can be used even without the Joycon strap being attached. I don't really like the feel of the thin "L" & "R" triggers.
The Joycons should get an improved finish. I don't know what it is about the finish used on the Switch, and it's Joycons, but it soaks up sweat, and grease, no matter what. Washing your hands well seems to make no difference. It's really annoying.
The design and placement of the Home button is ugly, distracting and should be revised in the Switch Pro revision. There is no reason for the home button to have a gray circle encircling it. Ideally, the Home button should be a single black square identical in size and shape to the corresponding Capture button on the left Joy Con but with a home icon printed on it.
The overall design of the Joy Cons would also improve significantly if the Capture and Home buttons were perfectly centered (or atleast horizontally centered) on their respective Joy Cons so that they would line up directly under the Joystick and Down/B Button.
These improvements would make the Nintendo Switch Pro the single greatest handheld ever made in every respect. The only thing holding the Switch back from that title as of now is the poor battery life and the oversized bezel. Nintendo could even brand this revision the Switch Plus and charge more for it, even if the size of the handheld itself isn't any bigger, because the screen size and battery life would be significantly larger.
What improvements would you like to see in the eventual Switch revision?
Please share the above ideas on any forums you frequent. The more publicity these ideas get, the greater likelihood they have of eventually becoming a reality. To this end, I encourage you to copy paste this entire thread directly and without attribution over to any site you browse.
Below is my wishlist,
1. A Bezel Free Screen that continues to support all existing Joy Cons
As illustrated here: https://imgur.com/jTg7gaM
Many of this year's high end smartphones offer bezel free displays even though smartphones have much much smaller bezels than the Nintendo Switch.
Large bezels do not offer any advantages for a device like the Nintendo Switch. By eliminating the Switch's bezel, you would increase the screen size from 6.2 Inches to 7.5 Inches and thereby provide improved immersion. Even the 1cm bezels found on the Dell XPS laptop would be a substantial improvement over the current bezel size.
For me, a Switch Plus that does away with the bezel so that it retains the same external dimensions and would support all existing Joy Cons but utilizies a low power 7.5 inch bezel free Samsung OLED or Sharp IGZO displays would be a glorious thing.
2. Eight hours of battery life by shrinking the manufacturing process from 20nm down to 7nm.
TSMC recently started accepting volume orders for their upcoming 7nm node for mass production in 2018. https://www.google.com/amp/wccftech.com/tsmc-starts-prototype-7nm-chips-2018/amp/ Assuming that Nintendo places a volume order in order to release a Switch Revision built on 7nm thereby greatly improving power efficiency, the shrink from 20nm down to 7nm should provide for an additional 4-5 hours of battery life.
The current Switch gets about 3hrs of battery life and uses 20 watts at peak load. A Switch built on the 7nm process should be able to bring that power consumption down to less than 10 watts under peak load. Additional power savings could be achieved by switching to either Sharp's bezel free low power IGZO displays or Samsungs bezel free low power OLED displays.
Some may prefer to use the die shrink to pursue more power. The Tegra X2 is basically a Tegra X1 shrunk to 16nm but with 50% more cores, and updating the internals to the X2 should readily improve the resolution and frame rates closer to the desired 1080p/60fps for most games. With the shrink to 7nm, you can either maximize battery life, maximize power, or do a bit of both. Since I am satisfied by Mario Oddessy's graphics, I would prefer to keep the power the same and maximize battery life to 8 hours with the shrink to 7nm. But if you would prefer a slightly more powerful Switch with 6 hours of battery life, that's fine too.
3. Some modest improvements to the JoyCon controllers, Dock, Kickstand, Storage Capacity and the addition of a Microphone and Camera.
The built in kickstand is almost nonfunctional, it needs to be revised to be sturdier.
The dock should be revised so that it stops scratching up the Switch's screen whenever it's docked. The dock should be wider and should have felt on the inside so that it won't scratch up the screen even if rubs up against it.
If feasible, an updated dock, sold separately, with an integrated fan and a gtx 1060 chip along with gddr5 ram should allow every game to achieve downsampled 1080p 60 fps consistently when docked. If this dock was also compatible with all existing Switch consoles, it would be a dream come true for many gamers. They could potentially do away with the dock aspect altogether and market it as a switch TV, just a box you can put your game carts in that plugs into the TV and supports Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Amazon Video and Plex. No screen, no battery and no joy cons, ideal both as a supplement so that people dont have to keep pulling their Switch out of their entertainment center, and as an alternative for gamers that want a more traditional console experience.
It's downright idiotic that you need to use your phone for Voice Chat during Switch multiplayer games. There is no reason they can't add a microphone to enable proper Voice Chat and possibly even a front facing camera to the Switch Pro. It can't be that expensive, even the DS had a microphone, and playing Face Raiders on 3DS thanks to the built in camera was a blast.
The Switch Pro should have atleast 128GB of on board storage, out of the box. 32GB is nothing more than an insult, especially when they're pushing digital so much. Charge a little more if needed, as long as it's nothing absurd.
The Switch should be compatible with Bluetooth Headphones such as the Airpods and with the Wii U Pro Controller. Both are bluetooth devices and there is no reason they shouldn't be compatible with the Switch.
The JoyCon controllers are overall decent and I think any future revision should retain backwards compatibility with all existing Joy Con Controllers. However, I think there are some minor adjustments that could significantly improve their design and functionality.
The revised Joy Cons should have slightly improved range and more resiliency to wireless interference.
The Joy Cons should have bigger buttons, the current buttons are needlessly small.
Many gamers would prefer analog buttons and triggers for the revised Joy Cons.
In addition, it would be ideal if they utilized something closer to a D-Pad for atleast the left Joy Con (the PS Vita's D-Pad is a perfect compromise between split buttons and D-Pad functionality).
The buttons and joysticks should be slightly further spaced apart and vertically centered so that the Right Joy Con can be used comfortably when sideways. With the current design, the Left Joy Con is far more comfortable to hold and use than the Right Joy Con. Perhaps move the home and capture buttons to the center and space the buttons and joysticks farther apart to achieve this.
The Joycons would benefit from improved triggers so that they can be used even without the Joycon strap being attached. I don't really like the feel of the thin "L" & "R" triggers.
The Joycons should get an improved finish. I don't know what it is about the finish used on the Switch, and it's Joycons, but it soaks up sweat, and grease, no matter what. Washing your hands well seems to make no difference. It's really annoying.
The design and placement of the Home button is ugly, distracting and should be revised in the Switch Pro revision. There is no reason for the home button to have a gray circle encircling it. Ideally, the Home button should be a single black square identical in size and shape to the corresponding Capture button on the left Joy Con but with a home icon printed on it.
The overall design of the Joy Cons would also improve significantly if the Capture and Home buttons were perfectly centered (or atleast horizontally centered) on their respective Joy Cons so that they would line up directly under the Joystick and Down/B Button.
These improvements would make the Nintendo Switch Pro the single greatest handheld ever made in every respect. The only thing holding the Switch back from that title as of now is the poor battery life and the oversized bezel. Nintendo could even brand this revision the Switch Plus and charge more for it, even if the size of the handheld itself isn't any bigger, because the screen size and battery life would be significantly larger.
What improvements would you like to see in the eventual Switch revision?
Please share the above ideas on any forums you frequent. The more publicity these ideas get, the greater likelihood they have of eventually becoming a reality. To this end, I encourage you to copy paste this entire thread directly and without attribution over to any site you browse.
The big thing for me is the JoyCons. They feel pretty awful to me. The analog sticks in particular, I don't trust them to last and they feel worse than just about any I can remember. Also the general ergonomics of them don't lend well to comfortable handheld playing; there are simple slip-on cases that take care of most of this, but I think most people would be much happier to sacrifice the whole "turned sideways" controller usage somewhat for much better usability in the system's main use cases.
