Despite the Nintendo Switch 2 offering rather modest specifications by today's standards, even for a handheld gaming device, it has already broken console sales records with over 3.5 million sales in its first four days on the market. The on-paper specs claim that the Nintendo Switch 2 is capable of 120 Hz, promising a sizeable upgrade over the 60 FPS display of the original Switch and Switch OLED. Recent testing by Monitors Unboxed and Digital Foundry, however, reveal that these claims may be less than honest, since the handheld console's real-world performance falls short by a fair margin.
The most noticeable issue with the Nintendo Switch 2's display is the response times. Despite having a 120 Hz display, Monitors Unboxed found in its testing that the display achieved an average response time of as high as 33 ms. While testing was conducted at 60 FPS, the response times even fall short of this low bar, with 16.67 ms being the slowest response time required for the pixels to refresh between frames such as to avoid blur or smearing. Even the original Nintendo Switch manages faster response times, with an average of 21.3 ms. This is further exemplified by the Blur Busters test conducted by Monitors Unboxed, where significant loss of detail can be seen in fast-moving objects. Brightness was better on the Switch 2 in Monitors Unboxed's testing, measuring in at around 400 nits, but contrast is less than spectacular, with contrast ratios measuring in at just 1068:1. Color performance was also good on the new Switch 2, with 97.6% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut, however HDR performance suffered from the relatively low brightness and a lack of color management, which makes Switch 1 games seem more saturated than intended.
Monitors Unboxed goes on to theorize that the Switch 2's display is slow because Nintendo has seemingly not enabled overdrive and may be running additional low-voltage settings, likely to conserve energy and extend battery life. The end result of this is that, while the Nintendo Switch 2 may feel more responsive to play on, especially at 120 FPS, it comes at a noticeable sacrifice in image clarity at those higher resolutions. The likely cause of these slow response times also means Nintendo could theoretically address the issues with a firmware update.
Digital Foundry found similar results in its testing, with the publication similarly criticizing the Switch 2's display for its poor motion performance but also adding that the Switch 2's backlight is disappointingly a single panel instead of using dimming zones or something like a mini LED display, making a "true HDR" experience impossible on the Switch 2's built-in display.
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The most noticeable issue with the Nintendo Switch 2's display is the response times. Despite having a 120 Hz display, Monitors Unboxed found in its testing that the display achieved an average response time of as high as 33 ms. While testing was conducted at 60 FPS, the response times even fall short of this low bar, with 16.67 ms being the slowest response time required for the pixels to refresh between frames such as to avoid blur or smearing. Even the original Nintendo Switch manages faster response times, with an average of 21.3 ms. This is further exemplified by the Blur Busters test conducted by Monitors Unboxed, where significant loss of detail can be seen in fast-moving objects. Brightness was better on the Switch 2 in Monitors Unboxed's testing, measuring in at around 400 nits, but contrast is less than spectacular, with contrast ratios measuring in at just 1068:1. Color performance was also good on the new Switch 2, with 97.6% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut, however HDR performance suffered from the relatively low brightness and a lack of color management, which makes Switch 1 games seem more saturated than intended.
Monitors Unboxed goes on to theorize that the Switch 2's display is slow because Nintendo has seemingly not enabled overdrive and may be running additional low-voltage settings, likely to conserve energy and extend battery life. The end result of this is that, while the Nintendo Switch 2 may feel more responsive to play on, especially at 120 FPS, it comes at a noticeable sacrifice in image clarity at those higher resolutions. The likely cause of these slow response times also means Nintendo could theoretically address the issues with a firmware update.
Digital Foundry found similar results in its testing, with the publication similarly criticizing the Switch 2's display for its poor motion performance but also adding that the Switch 2's backlight is disappointingly a single panel instead of using dimming zones or something like a mini LED display, making a "true HDR" experience impossible on the Switch 2's built-in display.
View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source
