The Nintendo Switch 2's announcement has been... announced, and we're excited for it. There isn't a lot that we know, but there are some fairly trustworthy leaks and rumors currently milling about. That leak's big claims are that the Nintendo Switch 2 will pack 12GB of RAM through two 6GB LPDDR5X modules. This RAM would give the Switch 2 a 7,500MT/s transfer rate and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. We've also seen leaks in the past pointing to the SoC that Nintendo would use, and it's looking like a fairly powerful Nvidia SoC again.

With all of that said, Nintendo's Switch 2 Is looking like a beast for 2025 and beyond. There are still some things the company could learn from the PC gaming handheld industry though, and these are some of the things I think they could learn the most.

1 Adjustable performance settings

Better battery life or better performance

In the world of PC gaming handhelds, users can often tweak performance settings to balance between power consumption and gaming performance. Providing similar options on the Switch 2 could help manage battery life more effectively, but it does add a level of configuration that takes away from the console element of it. Maybe an option for enthusiasts would be great, where a game could set the settings that it needs to run optimally.

It's very much a pipedream, and absolutely not Nintendo-like, but I'd love it personally.

2 More connectivity options

Give us more ports

The Nintendo Switch has a single 3.5mm jack and a USB-C port that can only be used for official (or unofficial) docks. More ports would be great here, especially an additional USB-C port that can be used for outputting video while also then holding the handheld. There are a ton of reasons you might want it, including supporting controllers and other input devices.

3 More input methods

The Nintendo Switch was already great, but give us more

The Nintendo Switch was already fairly unique in the controller options that it gave people. The detachable controllers hadn't really ever been done before, and they've actually influenced other devices like the Lenovo Legion Go as a result. PC gaming handhelds still often offer a variety of input options, including customizable buttons, trackpads, and full-body attachments like in the case of the One XPlayer X1 The Switch 2 could benefit from more input options, even if it's just to further differentiate itself.

If you were to improve on the Nintendo Switch currently, I would definitely say that the current Joycons are fairly poor. They have stick drifting problems, are quite small and cramped, and tend to just feel cheap. I imagine these will be a major focus for Nintendo next time around, and maybe they'll take a page out of the PC gaming handheld industry's book and start using hall effect sticks.

4 Upgradable components... or just give more storage

I want all of my games on my Switch, all of the time

A ton of different PC gaming handhelds allow for some level of hardware customization, be it even just a storage upgrade by swapping out the SSD. The Switch 2 could benefit from similar upgrade options, especially given that Nintendo has historically not offered a lot of storage space. We don't expect this to ever happen, but it's definitely a step that I think Nintendo fans who were happy to give it a try could benefit from.

Rumors currently suggest that Nintendo's Switch 2 will have significantly more storage on-board, which would be great if it is the case. There's a lot to be said for having so much storage that you don't need to care, whereas the original Switch had 32GB of storage built-in. The OLED bumped this to 64GB, but that's still not a lot. Fingers crossed.

5 DLSS or FSR

Make games look prettier, powered by AI

Implementing AI-driven technologies like Nvidia's DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) or AMD's FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) could improve performance by rendering games at lower resolutions and upscaling them, allowing for better graphics without sacrificing frame rates. Given that Nvidia makes DLSS and we expect the Nintendo Switch 2 to have an SoC capable of supporting it, it's actually pretty likely that it'll support it.

Of course, developers will very likely need to invoke it. We don't really think FSR would be used if DLSS exists, but the point stands that an upscaling algorithm that developers can use to make their games look prettier would be great.

Nintendo does its own thing, typically

Nintendo isn't really a company to bend to outside pressure. While we're sure they've been looking at the PC gaming handheld industry (given that the Nintendo Switch often enters the conversation, despite not really being a competitor), it's doubtful they feel in any way threatened. It's a very different industry, but there are still things you can learn from it and incorporate in another device, so long as it's still the same or similar form-factor.

We're excited to see what happens with the Nintendo Switch 2, and with it coming in the next fiscal year, that means we'll see an announcement before March 2025.