Nintendo Switch Lite: Brand new, small and cheaper version of console announced
Updated version swaps some features for smaller console and lower price
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Your support makes all the difference.Nintendo has revealed the Switch Lite, a smaller and cheaper version of its popular console.
The new model is made specifically to play games in handheld mode, rather than being able to be plugged into the TV, as with the full-sized version.
It launches in September and will cost $199.99, Nintendo said. It will come in three different colours – yellow, gray and turquoise – and there will also be a special grey version released alongside Pokemon Sword and Shield.
The display on the new model is 5.5 inches, as opposed to 6.2 inches, and the rest of the Switch is smaller too. The size has been compared to the old Switch with one of the Joy-Con controllers taken off.
“Adding Nintendo Switch Lite to the lineup gives gamers more colour and price point options,” said Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser. “Now consumers can choose the system that best suits how they like to play their favorite Nintendo Switch games.”
To make the console smaller and cheaper, the Switch Lite does away with a range of features in the bigger version. It has integrated consoles rather than the Joy-Cons found in the original model, has no kickstand for propping up on a table, and cannot output to a TV.
The ability to switch between being connected to a television and being played as a handheld console gave the Switch its name, and has been one of its most widely praised features.
In exchange, the console is a reduced size and a reduced price, selling for about $100 less than its bigger sibling.
And it can play all the same games, Nintendo said. It did not that some games will have "restrictions", which will be listed on games and in the Nintendo eShop.
Those games will presumably be those that rely on the missing features of the Switch Lite, such as the detachable motion controllers and infrared sensors. Joy-Cons can still be bought separately and used with the new Lite console, which could give some of those same features back.
Nintendo has long been rumoured to be working on a smaller version of the Switch, which is presumably the newly announced Lite. But it has also been said to be working on another new model at the same time, which would feature the same outside design and size, but with newly upgraded parts – it is not clear whether that version is still yet to arrive.
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