Nintendo has lifted the curtain on a minor revision for the base Nintendo Switch model, boasting a considerably improved battery life.
Coming hot off the heels of last week’s Nintendo Switch Lite announcement, this new model is exactly the same as the regular Switch, but sports a potential nine-hour battery life. According to Nintendo’s Japanese website, the new revision will last between 4.5-9 hours per charge with about 5.5 hours of playtime for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. On the original Switch, Nintendo estimated 2.5-6.5 hours of playtime, with about 3 hours of playtime in Breath of the Wild, and one hour extra in both figures on the Switch Lite.
The Verge observed that Nintendo signalled a change to the original Switch model last week, when it filed a notice with the Federal Communications Commission that it was changing the system-on-a-chip processor, storage, and CPU board on the console. According to the Nintendo website, the revision will launch at the base Switch’s launch price, 29,980 yen (or about $360 CAN). It remains to be seen if a trade-in program will be implemented for existing models.
