Nintendo Switch 2: Early review thoughts from our first days with the gaming system

Engadget

13 hours ago

Now that most of us have managed to acquire our Switch 2, it's time to get playing. I mean, testing. The Nintendo Switch 2 became available in stores yesterday and started shipping out to those who got their pre-orders in. Those who pre-ordered via Walmart appeared to have been the luckiest, not only receiving their units first thing in the morning but also getting bonus snacks and drinks. Many of us who didn't get to pre-order one in April were pleasantly surprised that we were able to pick up the product in physical retail stores.
While we've already gotten a couple of detailed hands-on opportunities for the Switch 2, this being day 2 means we now have unfettered access to the new $449 Nintendo portable console with its latest release software installed. The liveblog below is a reverse chronological collection of our thoughts, but here's a quick summary of where we left things yesterday:
"We're nearing the end of the day, and here's a quick breakdown of where things stand and what we've covered in this liveblog. For those looking to acquire a Switch 2 on launch day, it seems like most people making trips to retail stores were largely successful, and stock seems to be plentiful, even without pre-orders. Those who are looking for supply online are having a tougher time, while members of our team who pre-ordered have had to wait a lot longer for their devices to show up. Our Aaron Souppouris has received his pre-ordered... controller. But his Switch 2 remains en route and has yet to show up at his doorstep.
As for our review impressions so far — our senior reviewer Sam Rutherford is hard at work putting our official full review together, but he's been updating this liveblog with his evaluations today. He noted that, based on his lightmeter's readings, the Switch 2's display goes up to 450 nits with ambient brightness enabled, and tops out at 400 nits without. It's comparatively dim for a device with HDR, but the numbers can get higher depending on the game.
Sam also hasn't found the device to run too hot so far and that's not just because of the new dock's built-in fan. To him the dock is sleeker and feels a bit more substantial than before. He found it odd that the dock has just three USB ports instead of four on the original Switch's dock, but the new console has one more socket, which sort of balances things out.
Sam pointed out that the dock only has a single USB-C port, though, and that's reserved for power. With the remaining two ports on the dock being USB-A, you may need adapters to plug in your USB-C accessories, like the official Switch 2 camera, for instance. You could plug it directly into the Switch 2, but that's not ideal for people who frequently dock and undock their systems."
If you prefer to catch up by watching a video, check out our Engadget Podcast livestream on YouTube, where Sam Rutherford and Devindra Hardawar shared their impressions and took questions from our live audience. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so.
We've already written plenty about the Switch 2, and you can check out our earlier coverage to catch up on all the relevant details so far:
And now — our liveblog of our second day with the Switch 2.
Hello everyone! Thanks for joining us today as we put together our collective thoughts on the Nintendo Switch 2 while our full review is under way. We were eager to get our impressions out to you, and though our senior reviewer Sam Rutherford will handle the complete review, many members of the Engadget team will contribute to this review-in-progress to offer various perspectives.