New Nintendo Switch will be 4K capable; production starts June
The long-overdue Nintendo Switch update might be coming this year, going by the latest supply chain leak. Bloomberg Japan cites a leak from Samsung, which supplies the OLED screen for the upcoming console upgrade, as confirmation that the handheld console will be going into production in June. Nintendo might be ramping up production to ready the Switch update for a holiday 2021 launch.
Bloomberg has sources familiar with "internal matters" at Samsung and claims that the new Switch console will have a 7-inch OLED display. The current primary Switch model uses a 6.2-inch OLED screen, whereas the Switch Lite makes do with a smaller 5.5-inch panel. The larger screen could point to reduced bezels or an outright larger form factor, presumably to cram in more powerful hardware.
The report also mentions that the display itself will be 720p, which is the same as the present models. However, the console will add the capability to deliver 4K gaming while docked. This makes sense from a battery life perspective because powering games at 4K places an exponentially larger load on the processing hardware. This makes it untenable in the battery-limited handheld mode.
Although Nintendo hasn't officially named it, the upcoming upgrade is being referred to as the Switch Pro. The console is rumored to include NVIDIA's DLSS support, which explains how the handheld console promises 4K gaming. DLSS, or Deep Learning Super Sampling, uses the power of machine learning to scale up the resolution, thereby allowing weaker mobile hardware in the Switch to deliver 4K gaming.
The larger display could also entail changes to the form factor, which puts backward compatibility with existing Switch accessories, dock, and Joy-Con controllers in question. Nintendo is already having some serious reliability issues and ensuing lawsuits with its controller, so it could very well use this opportunity to design the Joy-Cons from the ground up.
