Nintendo’s true gaming handheld
The Nintendo Switch is amazing. It can work as a gaming handheld by snapping its Joy-Con controllers onto its sides and holding it in your hands, or as a home console by putting it in its dock and connecting it to your TV, and it can switch between these modes in seconds. The Nintendo Switch Lite does half of that. It’s purely a handheld system, so arguably the «Switch» part of its name doesn’t really apply. It’s still an excellent system that offers the same portable gaming experience as the Switch, in a slightly smaller form factor, with a classic direction pad instead of direction buttons. And at $199.99, it’s $100 less than the Switch. If handheld gaming is all you’re looking for, the Switch Lite is an ideal system and our Editors’ Choice. Slim and Solid The Switch Lite looks like a Nintendo Switch in handheld mode with both Joy-Cons attached, but in a slightly smaller and slimmer design measuring 3.6 by 8.2 by 0.6 inches (HWD) and weighing 9.8 ounces. That’s nearly an ounce lighter than just the Switch tablet itself, and five ounces lighter than the Switch with two Joy-Cons attached. The system’s matte plastic shell feels very solid in the hand despite its lower weight, since it’s a single device with no seams between the screen and controls and no rails designed to let its different components come apart. The layout of the Switch Lite is nearly identical to that of the standard Switch in handheld mode, and reminiscent of the PlayStation Vita. The center is dominated by a 5.5-inch touch LCD, with physical controls on wide grips on either side. The left side holds an analog stick, a minus button, a capture button, a bumper, a trigger, and direction controls in the form of a conventional plus-shaped pad. The right side holds another analog stick, A/B/X/Y face buttons, a plus button, a home button, a bumper, and a trigger. The direction pad on the left side is a significant change from the Switch, since it replaces a cluster of four direction buttons on the left Joy-Con designed to provide the same controls while physically matching the face buttons on the right side. The Joy-Con buttons are functional, but many fans of classic games bemoan their feel and responsiveness for precise control in 2D games. The Switch Lite offers a welcome tweak, since the mirrored face/direction buttons were designed to let two people play with one Switch tablet and two Joy-Cons, a setup that isn’t particularly comfortable on its own and slightly downgrades the single-player experience. The top edge of the Switch Lite features a game card slot, a headphone jack, a power button, and a volume rocker, along with a small ventilation grille. The grille has thicker teeth than the one on the regular Switch, which is a good sign; after a year or two of banging around in my bag, my Switch’s grille teeth broke off to expose the metal underneath. The plastic here feels less likely to snap. The bottom edge of the Switch Lite has a microSD card slot behind a plastic door and a USB-C port for charging. The port is for charging only, and you can’t dock the system to output to a TV. There is no kickstand like there is on the Switch, and I don’t miss it. The kickstand on the Switch is flimsy, prone to popping off, leaves the microSD card slot uncovered when open, and doesn’t even hold the Switch up on a table very well.
