Nintendo Switch 2 Could Improve Battery Life By Sacrificing Handheld Power

Nintendo could make a big sacrifice with the Switch 2’s power in handheld mode to increase the battery life of the console!

While a portable console must be compact to carry around, a great handheld device also needs impressive battery life. After all, you wouldn’t want it dying halfway through a long journey!

The original Switch’s battery life of 2.5-6.5 hours was pretty underwhelming. However, Nintendo significantly improved this with the Switch OLED’s 4.5-9 hours.

Fortunately, it looks like Nintendo could be looking to increase its console battery life even further with the Switch 2!

Switch 2 Should Have Greatly Improved Battery – But at a Cost

When speaking on the Broken Silicon Podcast, YouTuber Moore’s Law Is Dead revealed that the Switch 2 could be underclocked in handheld mode. He claims that it’ll be a “crazy low” 800Mhz.

The reasoning behind this low clock speed is to reduce power consumption and increase the Switch 2’s battery life. Additionally, it should help prevent the console from overheating.

While we still expect that the Switch 2 will have better performance in handheld mode than its predecessor, the upgrade may not be as significant as initially hoped.

However, many gamers would probably rather have a longer battery life over increased performance. Plus, with leaks suggesting the Switch 2 will have a 1080p screen, Nintendo will have to ensure the extra fidelity doesn’t impact the console’s battery too much.

Even though the handheld clock speed may not be quite to the levels fans hoped for, the docked performance should make up for it.

Moore’s Law Is Dead said: “I have heard in docked mode, it may be clocked faster than we expect”. This will hopefully mean a significant performance boost and 4K output when playing at home on a TV.

While none of this information is confirmed yet, Moore’s Law Is Dead recently leaked the PS5 Pro specs ahead of other sources verifying them. Therefore, even if there’s still the possibility of this leak being wrong, he has been a reliable source recently.

Stay tuned for an official Switch 2 announcement from Nintendo in the coming months. We believe that the Switch 2 reveal should be in Fall 2024!