Is the Nintendo Switch Lite worth it?

This is an all-new Switch

which cuts the price down to $200,

which is a fairly significant cut

over the $300 current Switch.

However, to get to that $200 price,

they've had to make some sacrifices.

Now in a lot of ways, the Switch Lite

is actually more of a successor to the 3DS

as well as the 2DS XL.

Around the same price, there are a lot of similarities,

however, the Switch of course

is a much, much more powerful console.

However, it's also portable only, just like the 3DS is.

For context, the Switch Lite is about the same price

as the new 3DS line, which is interesting

because of course this is their standard portable console.

Now when you put the Switch Lite side by side

with the standard Switch,

one of the major advantages is really that price.

At $300, the Switch pretty much

doesn't really get sales or price cuts,

so by saving a full $100,

I think it is going to be a very compelling deal

for a lot of people,

as long as you can put up with some of the compromises.

This is a Lite version in pretty much

every sense of the word.

Not only do you have the smaller 5.5 inch screen

compared to the 6.2 inch display on the main Switch,

but you also lose the backwards compatibility

with JoyCons.

Is it backwards compatibility?

The compatibility in the first place.

So of course one of the major advantages with the Switch

is you can slide up to do JoyCons,

you can swap them out with different colors,

however when it comes to the Switch Lite,

this is a fixed single unit

which is nice for (mumbles)

but it is not nice for being able to, I don't know,

play in tabletop mode,

because this doesn't have a kickstand, either.

- [Ken] Or play with your friends.

- Friends? Who has friends?

Along with this, you are losing a couple of the functions

of the JoyCons, including HD Rumble

as well as the IR support.

Although to give the Switch Lite a little bit of credit,

it now does have a full D pad as opposed to the

weird four buttons that never really made sense

unless you split the JoyCons apart.

But you know what, I actually give this some real credit.

Because it is now a single unit body design

as opposed to having the JoyCons,

it actually feels a lot more sturdy.

Now that certainly wasn't a huge issue

with the original Switch,

but because the JoyCons were on rails,

especially as the Switch got older,

it did have a little bit of flex in it,

whereas this actually does feel like a very solid unit.

An absolute unit, as the kids would say.

- [Ken] S-as the kids would say?

- As the kids would say.

Look, I'm trying to say an absolute unit

as I'm holding a turquoise, like, baby Switch right now.

It's really hard to do this with a straight face.

(laughter)

It's an absolute unit, guys. Oh, boy.

The Switch Lite does still use a USBC port,

however looks can be deceiving

as this is only purely for power.

So the Switch Lite doesn't come with a dock,

of course it doesn't come with the JoyCons,

and because of that, you have no way of connecting this

to a TV even if you were able to hook up something

like a third party dock.

And that's kind of a bit of a shame,

I mean I get that this is a portable console.

I mean, if you think about it like that it's not so bad.

But compared to the standard Switch,

you're losing a lot of functionality.

And you just literally have to use this

as, like, the pocket Switch.

Now even thought the Switch Lite doesn't come with JoyCons,

you actually can still pair JoyCons

that are of course sold separately.

Now because there's no kickstand, you kind of have to

find something to prop it up on,

but normal JoyCons do work just fine.

However what doesn't work just fine are, say,

the SNES controllers that you can buy from Nintendo online,

which are cool, except that you have to use it like this,

or Nintendo Labo doesn't also work.

Basically you should just use it as a Switch Lite

in portable mode, not in JoyCon mode.

Or alternatively, I'm sure there's going to be

a wonderful range of accessories that will

give you a kickstand, and all kinds of other

great, fun things for your Switch Lite.

But that's actually something I kind of miss,

because the kickstand on the Switch is not very good,

but it actually is properly usable.

Whereas this, like, I like the form factor in handheld mode

but when I actually want to set it down,

I mean, it's annoying to try to have to find something

to prop it up on.

It doesn't really feel like quite that same kind of

portable experience, even when you do have a couple of

JoyCons, or something like a pro controller paired.

Now at this point, you might just be thinking that

this is a worse Switch.

However it's not quite that simple.

So first of all, you do have colors.

Yes, colors are a feature.

So not only do you have this blue turquoise color,

but you also have a little bit of a yellow color,

and by a little bit I mean a lot bit.

And there's also this special edition gray Pokemon version.

However beyond just the pure colors,

what I like about this hardware is that it feels

not only nice and small,

I feel like this is a little bit of a better form factor

for portable play, but more importantly,

it feels more durable.

I know I was kind of talking about the JoyCon stuff,

but even beyond that, you have to consider that

this is probably the Switch to get for kids,

or people who are upgrading their 3DS

who maybe aren't the most careful in the world.

Now, yes, you still have the exposed screen,

you're probably still going to scratch it up and what not,

but because this has all this matte plastic

and it feels relatively sturdy,

I do think this will hold up better

than the current Switch has.

Now when you put the Switch Lite side by side

with it's bigger brother,

the first thing I notice is that

even though this is a smaller screen,

it is the exact same 720p resolution,

which means that technically, this is actually

a little bit sharper with a 267 ppi versus 236.

Now the sharpness isn't a massive difference,

although it does look a little bit crisper,

but something else I noticed here is that this seems to be,

to my eye, slightly more color accurate.

Whereas my original launch Switch

is a little bit on the cooler side,

the Switch Lite seems to be a little bit warmer,

and they are fairly close on brightness.

So if you're worried about sort of making sacrifices

by going with the Switch Lite on the screen,

I honestly think this is actually a better experience.

I find that the bezels look a little bit smaller

on the Switch Lite,

mostly because, well, they are smaller,

but they're also body-colored.

However something that I thought was going to be

a bigger downgrade but actually isn't are the speakers.

So on the standard Switch,

you have two front-firing speakers

which are facing directly toward you,

whereas with the Switch Lite, they're kind of on the bottom,

however they actually seem to be sort of oriented

toward you.

And it is actually very hard to cover these,

honestly it actually doesn't really sound

all that much worse than the bigger brother.

For $100 less, at this point, the Switch Lite

is looking fairly straight forward, right?

I mean you've got pretty much

everything from the main Switch

except for the JoyCons as well as the TV mode,

but in exchange, $100.

Not a bad discount.

And something I think is really easy to overlook

is that for $200, you are getting a fairly powerful console.

There are so many excellent games that of course

not only have been moved over from the Wii U,

but are straight up, like, exclusives on the Switch

such as Astral Chain.

You've got tons and tons of multi-platform games

such as like Fortnite and Minecraft.

I mean this is a properly powerful little console.

And when you put it side by side with something like the 3DS

it is not even a comparison.

This is so much better, the screen is a world better, man.

I just played the 3DS for the first time in like a year

and I forgot how terrible it was.

I mean, $200, especially when you put it in a vacuum,

this seems like a really solid little game console.

- [Ken] Terrible now compared to, like, a Switch?

- Well, okay, the 3DS never had a good screen.

But the Switch is, this is a legitimately good screen.

Like it's not quite as sharp as say, like, a new iPhone

or Galaxy, or something, but it is a very good screen.

When you look at it side by side with a 3DS,

yeah, that's a difference.

(laughter)

Now battery life on the Switch Lite is an advantage

over the standard Switch, although only kind of.

So if you caught a video we did last month

on the brand new secret Redbox Switch,

even though it looks the same on the outside,

it actually has dramatically better battery life

at around six hours.

Whereas this guy is right in the middle at four,

and the original Switch is only at three hours.

- Is that the new PSP?

I'll see myself out.

- John (mumbles), ladies and gentlemen.

(laughter)

Both the Switch Lite as well as the Redbox Switch

have an upgrade Nvidia Tegra processor,

which while they don't run any faster,

so you're not going to get better performance,

what you do get is a much more efficient processor.

So on the Redbox Switch, because it has a larger battery,

you're getting those huge, huge battery gains,

however because the Switch Lite is a smaller console

it does have a slightly smaller battery.

Still, though, if you were coming from an original Switch,

you are going to get at least somewhat better battery life

on the Lite.

In a world where the Switch Lite exists

and the Redbox doesn't,

I mean, you're getting something

which is of course fully portable,

but importantly, it does have better battery life.

But as soon as you realize that for $100 more,

the Redbox Switch not only has

significantly better battery life,

but it does have all the other advantages

of a full blown Switch,

including the JoyCons and the docking and everything,

it makes this a little bit of a harder sell.

I mean, when you have a fully portable Switch

that doesn't have as good a battery life as a normal Switch

it kind of, I don't know,

it doesn't make it irrelevant,

but it makes it a little bit disappointing, I think.

But of course the real question here is

is the Switch Lite worth it?