The official announcement of the Switch Lite happened yesterday, and as such all eyes were on this baby brother of the Nintendo Switch aimed purely at those who are looking to game in handheld mode – at a more reasonable pricing, of course.
While we were all busy ogling this new Switch, whether for interest in its smaller form factor or the fact that there were a lot of sacrifices made that may be questionable to some, an update to the original Switch happened under our noses. This update is the one that’s been reported on and covered extensively here, so here’s a quick rundown.
Rumors of a new Nintendo Switch model popped up earlier this year, and at first there were two of them that have been in the mill – the Switch Lite, which was confirmed yesterday, and a Switch Pro, which happens to be a more powerful version of the original Switch. However, after some more information dropped, it seemed that only the Switch Lite was in production, and the Switch Pro itself nothing more than just a modest upgrade to the existing original model.
As it turns out, this modestly upgraded model is already in the works, according to a filing by Nintendo with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Check out a screencap of the filing below, which details what kind of ‘modest’ upgrades will be making its way to the Nintendo Switch.
The filing is a request for what is called a Class II Permission Change, which asks for permission to tweak an already existing gadget without getting another recertification for sale in the United States. This is in line with previous reports of the modest upgrade for the Switch, as it’s essentially just updating the current models with newer features.
As for what those changes are, it’s mainly for the SoC (system-on-chip), which is the Switch’s processor, and the NAND memory, which is its internal storage. We’ve yet to see what those new SoCs and NAND memories are, but what’s expected is definite upgrade over the existing models we have now.
So, what of the still-rumored Switch Pro? Well, there’s still no concrete evidence of its existence, but if I had to gander a guess, next year would be prime time for its release. After all, both Sony and Microsoft are expected to debut their new consoles next year, and it would make a lot of sense for Nintendo to follow suit with a massive upgrade of their own.
